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UAE’s airlines, hotels and shopping malls expect a surge in business thanks to Dubai Summer Surprises 2002

14 June 2002

As the first Gulf city to open itself up to international tourism, UAE has actively welcomed visitors to experience the cultural delights, the beauty of its landscape and shores and sample some of the best dining and shopping in the world. The results have placed UAE, in general and specifically Dubai firmly on the tourist map mainly due to the aggressive promotional strategies by Dubai Shopping Festival, Dubai Summer Surprises, Emirates Airline and the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Their integrated approach to marketing the emirate has linked prominent tourism sectors with events and promotions, allowing local travel and hospitality businesses to be advertised internationally at no personal cost, yet able to reap the financial benefits of increased visitor numbers to the UAE.

Tourist visitor numbers have previously been cyclical with the summer months of July and August being the typical lean periods for the tourist industry. Soaring temperatures and school holidays have traditionally seen many families travel to cooler climates, but events such as the Dubai Summer Surprises have given a boost to the flagging summer months, with many families in the region now arranging their summer to include DSS as part of their vacation.

“Emirates has been a key sponsor of Dubai Summer Surprises since the start, and has allowed us to promote Dubai as a year-round destination,” says Mike Simon, Director of Corporate Communications, Emirates Airlines. “We offer special holiday packages that can be bought along with the purchase of any ticket, and we promote DSS network-wide on our website and offices abroad, with point of sale promotional material, aggressive selling of DSS packages in all destinations.

“Interestingly, all our aircrafts will carry the decal of the DSS logo during the three months of DSS. Additionally, this year, Emirates is promoting DSS on its website with a special micro-site and on-line booking facility for its holiday packages.”

Heavy promotion of Dubai Shopping Festival internationally, and the subsequent awareness of Dubai Summer Surprises, has successfully opened up new markets, with the Far East now showing greater interest in the emirate and a resulting increase in inbound traffic from key Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. This more balanced passenger flow is an important factor in many airlines’ financial planning and subsequent profitability projections.

“Our flights from the region to Far East destinations are normally full during the summer, particularly with transit traffic,” explains Navin Chelaram, Country Manager Cathay Pacific. “Heavy promotion of the Dubai Shopping Festival has now made many in Hong Kong aware of Dubai and what it has to offer. This awareness has overlapped on to DSS, and what is particularly of interest to the Far East segment is the exceptional hotel room rates. It is possible to stay in a renowned, five-star establishment at a rate far below that of any five-star equivalent there. From this, our inbound traffic during summer to Dubai has seen a marked improvement.”

The hotel sector has also received a boost thanks to the ‘Dubai Fun for Free’ package, allowing visiting families for DSS to select a star level of hotel suitable to their budget constraints from a list of over 60 participating hotels. Special room discounts and family package rates often allow visitors the luxury of staying in a higher-class hotel that would normally be out of their reach, while the hotel industry takes advantage of the self-promotion that the ‘Dubai Fun for Free’ package within the DSS event affords. 

Such co-operation between the hotel sector and the DTCM for DSS has enabled many hotels in Dubai to enjoy room occupancy rates of up to 85 percent during the summer months – a figure unattainable in most other cities in the region for July/August – and to minimize occupancy fluctuations throughout the year, thereby improving the balance sheet.

“As the latest five-star property in Dubai, the Fairmont Hotel is very pleased to be participating in DSS 2002 for the first time, following on from the success of DSF,” says Claire Malcolm, Director of Public Relations, Fairmont Hotel. “The event has meant excellent exposure internationally for our property and we are looking forward to a successful summer with the support of the DTCM and Dubai Summer Surprises.”

Since so many of the DSS events take place within the air-conditioned cool of Dubai’s famous malls, it is of little surprise that the shopping sector benefits immensely from the event. While the children are entertained, adults are free to take advantage of tempting discounts on famous designer brands. Many well-known stores and chains have created special promotions over the DSS period to coincide with the children’s entertainment schedule. 

Hamarain Centre, the mall located next to JW Mariott receives a huge proportion of the guests staying with Mariott during DSS. A participating mall with the Dubai Shopping Malls Group promotion, Hamarain creates several independent promotions for its shoppers. 

“Our tenant mix has been carefully chosen to cater to the needs of the GCC nationals who constitute 80% of our target audience. Due to the high occupancy rates that Mariott enjoys during the summer, we become the biggest beneficiaries of the DSS activities and events. 

“Even our yearly budgeting exercise reflects a tilt towards summers; we dedicate 35% of our yearly marketing budget to the summer period to derive 25% of our yearly sales from that period.” says Mourhaf Kishi, Mall Manager, Hamarain Centre, “This year we are making sure that each shopper is a winner at Hamarain Centre.”

Inbound tour operators can vouch for the effectiveness of Dubai Summer Surprises in improving their business. Four years back, unlike the outbound tour operators, who kept themselves busy by catering to the rush of expatriates traveling abroad, travel agencies trying to sell holiday packages in Dubai dreaded the summer months. 

Iyad Rasbey, Sales and Marketing Manager, Alpha Tours says, “When we started operations seven years back, the business we did during Dubai Shopping Festival compensated the lack of revenues during the summer months. However, since the launch of Dubai Summer Surprises, we have enjoyed enormous incremental sales during the July and August also, making these months high peaks of activity in our sales charts.” 

Altogether, the ten government departments and DSS has successfully made Dubai, UAE the favored summer destination for Arab families in the region.

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