COMPREHENSIVE PROMOTION TO COVER DUBAI’S MAJOR TRAVEL ORIGIN MARKETS

20 July 2002

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) has stepped up its international advertising in the print media for the second half of the year with an extensive campaign covering Dubai’s major travel origin markets.

“Following extensive consumer research and cross liaison with our international network of 15 overseas offices, we have devised a campaign that is directed at the travel trade and consumers to create clear-cut impressions of Dubai as a top class tourist destination,” said DTCM Director Operations and Marketing, Mohammed Khamis bin Hareb.

He noted that Dubai benefits from high levels of consumer awareness that the DTCM has created over targeted year round promotions and marketing since 1989. “We have an integrated marketing campaign in place to maximize awareness of the destination that avails of traditional and non-traditional media across all channels including direct mail, personal marketing visits, promotions such as breakfast seminars and workshops, public relations, roadshows and exhibitions, tele-marketing, news bulletins, newsletters, the web and e-mail as well as hosting of familiarization visits,” Mr. bin Hareb remarked.

The campaign covers more than 120 leading trade and consumer publications across Dubai’s leading travel origin markets including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, East Africa, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, the USA, Japan and the Far East.

“We have identified influential publications with the appropriate marketing outreach to target the outbound travel trade to Dubai from key markets as well as mass circulated consumer travel publications,” Mr. bin Hareb elaborated.

Running in tandem with the tourism campaign, a target-specific international print advertising campaign will also raise awareness of Dubai’s attractions for the meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition market.

“The importance of the MICE sector to Dubai’s tourism industry cannot be underestimated moreover, the MICE market is in expansion and has a secure long term future,” he said.

Mr. bin Hareb noted that the staging of the Annual General Meeting of the World Bank/IMF in September 2003 in Dubai would provide much-needed momentum to the expansion of the MICE market in the emirate.

“Dubai is one of the most exciting new destinations to emerge on the MICE market in recent years and has already achieved considerable success because it fits distinctively into the MICE organizer’s ideal profile of somewhere new and different that combines exotic experiences and excitement with professional destination management services and top quality hotels,” stated Mr. bin Hareb.

The MICE advertising campaign will cover more than 30 international trade publications and will run through till December 2002.