Experts from various industries and market analysts are not tired of arguing about the "Dubai phenomenon". Having turned from a fishing village into a rapidly developing metropolis in just over thirty years, Dubai is also one of the most famous sea resorts of our day. It was about the development of the tourism and hotel industry in Dubai, about more professional and strategically verified cooperation that the representatives of tourism, law and insurance companies, as well as professional tourism print media spoke at the recent conference "Dubai - an all-weather destination."
The conference "Dubai - an all-season trend" was held from June 3 to 6, 2007 in Dubai under the patronage of the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing of the Government of Dubai. The three-day conference was organized by the Russian tour operator INTRAVEL-Stoleshniki together with the Emirate's partner, Royal Park Tourism Services Dubai.
To attract interest in the development of Dubai as a year-round tourist destination, the conference brought together representatives of leading Russian networks of travel agencies. This is a one-of-a-kind event aimed at developing the summer tourism potential of Dubai for Russians. Until now, many tour operators and travel agencies in Russia are trying not to offer summer tours to Dubai for tourists, citing the hot climate that is established in the summer months on the Arabian Peninsula, the high cost of beach hotels and other reasons. However, according to statistics that were voiced during the conference by representatives and heads of the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing of the Government of Dubai, today Russia and the CIS countries take third place after the UK and Saudi Arabia in terms of the volume of tourists coming to Dubai. It was no coincidence that the conference was held in early June, so that all its participants could independently feel the perfect conditions for a summer vacation in Dubai.
The leaders of DTKM offered the attention of the conference participants a presentation of the Dubai Emirate, and the top management of the Dubai Summer Surprises festival and the Dubai Trade Festival presented their annual events. In addition, a specialist from the Dubai law firm Emirates Advocates made a presentation on the purchase and sale of real estate in Dubai, as well as legal issues related to transactions.
The conference program consisted of two plenary sessions, which discussed the promotion of Dubai as a year-round destination in the markets of Russia and the CIS countries. The leaders of Russian tourism companies had the opportunity to chat directly with representatives of leading hotel chains who were invited to the meeting, such as Kempinski, Jebel Ali International, Jumeirah, Hyatt, Habtoor International and many others. Dubai hoteliers presented new hotels and resorts under construction in their chains, spoke about the expansion of existing facilities, answered questions from Russians. One of the most important issues was the confirmation of booking rooms in Dubai's coastal hotels during the high season, for which there is still an increased demand among Russian travelers.
During the discussion, all conference participants agreed that in two or three years, when the bulk of new hotel and resort complexes will be commissioned in Dubai, both on the artificial islands of The Palm Jumeirah and The Crescent, and in other parts of the city, travel companies will have a new headache - how to ensure occupancy of this new fashionable property. This task can become part of new marketing strategies that Russian tour operators will develop together with their Dubai counterparts with the support of the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing of the Government of Dubai.
The conference delegates also raised the problems of insufficient awareness of Russian tourism companies and travel agencies about what is happening in today's Dubai, which, in addition to a beach holiday, can attract Russians here. Much attention was paid to the more serious development of such a segment as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions), since Russian businessmen are not very familiar with the potential that Dubai offers from the point of view of business tourism. Among other things, issues of changes in the Russian law "On the basics of tourist activities in the Russian Federation" and the possible impact of these changes on the flow of tourists from Russia to Dubai were discussed. For the purpose of competent coverage of this problem, experts from the law firm Persona Grata and the insurance company Ural-Sib from Russia were invited to the conference.
With the assistance of the DTCM, the participants of the conference got acquainted with the main new buildings of the Emirate of Dubai, such as the man-made islands Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira, the artificial archipelago The World and the Dubai Waterfront project, the tallest building in the world Burj Dubai, the indoor ski resort Ski Dubai, Dubai Festival City
The meeting party - the Dubai tour operator Royal Park Tourism Services - prepared a surprise for the Russians, bringing them on a desert safari. I must say that few residents of Dubai decide to go to the desert in the summer because of the heat. But the reviews received from professionals in the Russian tourism industry were very optimistic. Almost all participants in an evening jeep ride through the dunes noted that it wasn’t hot at night in the desert camp, and an exciting trip through the sands was very exciting. Here is the answer to the question about the unbearable summer heat in the Emirates.
Summing up all of the above, I would like to hope that with the joint efforts of the government sector of Dubai, tour operators of Russia and the UAE, the media and tourists themselves, Dubai will truly become one of the most popular all-season destinations in the market of tourist services in Russia and the CIS countries. In any case, all necessary steps will be taken in the near future. This is what it looked like during the conference. We will wait for what the practice will show and wish all those involved in the process of popularizing the UAE success and a good holiday in Dubai. In any season.
After the fact
The conference has passed. What's next? How relevant was its implementation right now? What caused it - a decrease in demand for Dubai among Russian consumers in the summer season or other reasons? How often do Dubai and the Emirates as a whole get on the lists of "last-minute tours" and do they get at all? Will the results of the past conference affect the work of tourism companies to promote the "Dubai destination" in the Russian market? Experts comment. Khalifa Al Buamaim, Director of the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing of the Government of Dubai for work with foreign markets (Dubai)
DTKM supported the holding of this conference because, firstly, the Russian market remains a priority for Dubai. This is shown by statistics, and our on-site advertising campaigns, and seminars that the Department has repeatedly conducted and is conducting in major cities of Russia. And secondly, the DTCM conducts targeted promotion of Dubai as an all-weather destination in all target markets, and it was important for us to listen to the opinions of leading Russian tour operators and travel agents in order to understand what kind of strategy for promoting Dubai we need to build in modern conditions.
For this purpose, the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing organized study tours in the areas of the "new Dubai" - in the Dubai Festival City, Palm Jumeirah, Burj Dubai, during which the conference participants could see for themselves that Dubai as a tourist destination could be completely interested different categories of tourists - from families with children to representatives of the Russian business community and large investors. The conference showed that we need to communicate with each other more often and that we have a lot of joint work ahead in developing new strategies for selling tourist packages to Dubai in Russia.
Sergey Kanaev, Director of the Office of the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing of the Government of Dubai in Russia, the CIS and the Baltic States (Moscow)
The question of what Dubai should be promoted on the Russian market as an all-weather direction does not arise for the first time. Already in the late 90s, we began working with the largest Russian tour operators through a variety of seminars, participation in specialized exhibitions, forums and so on, promoting Dubai not only as an all-weather vacation spot, but also for business. Personally, in 1996, as the newly appointed director of the representative office of the Commission on Trade and Tourism Development in Moscow (then there was no DTCM of the Government of Dubai, it was formed a year later), I held a seminar on Dubai in the summer. I must say, this was just the second seminar on Dubai in the Russian market. At that time, both the hotel and tourist business in Dubai were only developing, and in the summer everything froze here.
Today, the situation has radically changed. Dubai has become a recognized world center of business and tourism, which began to develop precisely as a direction of business tourism. All Dubai city hotels were built to meet the needs of businessmen. The material base for recreation, which was created in the nineties, including beach hotels in Jumeirah, has already been adapted to the year-round reception of tourists. A professional tourism industry began to take shape. And of course, as in any other country, tourism in Dubai should be year-round, only then it will bring real income.
The past conference personally once again showed me that I need to change the stereotypical perception of Dubai as an excellent destination in the winter and completely inappropriate in the summer. And if it’s even simpler, you need to change the mentality of our tour operator and travel agent companies, which are not very willing to sell such tourist products as Dubai in the summer, as there are cheaper and more well-developed destinations - Turkey and Egypt.
This, in my opinion, is completely wrong. We, in turn, are ready to consider proposals aimed at a more aggressive and professional promotion of Dubai as an all-weather direction in the Russian market. I think that the annual festival “Dubai Summer Surprises”, excellent conditions for sports and recreation, profitable shopping cannot but attract our tourist to the Emirates in the summer. By the way, the flow of tourists from Europe to Dubai in the summer season does not decrease, and the occupancy rate of Dubai hotels is kept at 85-90%. So, our goal is to break stereotypes and create a new tourism product called "Dubai - an all-weather destination."
M. Chaco Mani, President, Royal Park Tourism Services (Dubai)
Organizing this conference together with our Moscow partners - the Intravel - Stoleshniki company, we set ourselves the goal of showing the new Dubai to travel agencies from Russia that even the travel companies themselves are not familiar with. We want tourists from Russia and the CIS countries to come to us all year round, without fear of talking about the hot Arabian climate and other inconveniences associated with traveling to the southern latitudes, but relying on reliable information received from professional travel agents.
Dubai has changed a lot over the last ten years, and we are constantly forced to return to the issues of propaganda of this all-weather trend in our target markets. The conference helped to understand that we, the tour operators of Russia and Dubai, need to formulate new approaches to the tourist, to offer him a differentiated tourist product, whether it be leisure, incentive trips, corporate tours or business travel. We need to monitor changes in tourism legislation so that tourists feel protected when traveling abroad. We definitely need to work closely with the DTCM of the Government of Dubai and other government departments, as well as professional tourist media, to tell our potential guests about the Emirates through a variety of sources of information. The conference "Dubai - an all-weather direction" allowed us to rethink a lot and gave impetus to the formation of new relationships in the chain "tour operator - travel agent - tourist - meeting side".Anton Tarasyuk, Development Director, Intravel - Stoleshniki (Moscow)
I believe that Dubai as a summer destination is undeservedly forgotten by many Russian tour operators. But, if you compare it with Turkey or the same Egypt, which are very briskly sold to Russian tourists in the summer season, I can note the obvious advantages of Dubai, which are not found in many other popular summer resorts. The first is security, both personal (in the city, on the street, in a restaurant, taxi), and health security (there are practically no cases of food poisoning, problems associated with drinking water, and so on). For travelers with children - this is important.
It’s just that we, as tour operators, need to reconsider our worldview and start selling Dubai, relying on its strengths - hospitality, cleanliness, impeccable service, excellent hotels and shopping centers, a huge amount of entertainment for the whole family, excellent restaurants, modern conference facilities seminars and exhibitions and so on. For each segment of the market, we can offer the tour package that he needs. The past conference helped us to verify this again. And, judging by the feedback of its participants, all the work on its results is ahead of us.Sergey Agafonov, General Manager, Last Minute Vacation Stores Network, Moscow
Holding this conference, in my opinion, is very important! Firstly, the conference participants were able to "live" to make sure that the weather in summer Dubai is quite suitable for a comfortable stay. And secondly, and this is the most basic, Russian agencies themselves are now interested in whether Dubai needs to be promoted as an all-weather direction. Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are generally very popular among Russian tourists. Demand for this area is huge and is increasing all the time, but it is not always possible to satisfy due to the lack of hotel rooms in the Emirates themselves. At the same time, Russian tourists, as well as workers of travel companies, have a stereotype that Dubai is not a summer destination, but only a winter one. And the main task of the conference was to find effective ways to break this stereotype. First of all, in the minds of agents. In my opinion, the organizers completely succeeded in this first step. Now you need to actively move in the selected direction.
Dubai, like the UAE, do not often fall into the list of "hot tours", since the demand for the Emirates exceeds the supply. We look forward to opening new hotels, especially in Jumeirah and the Palm Islands. The conference was useful and interesting from the point of view of the intersection of opinions and views of different representatives of the tourism industry (it was attended by agencies, operator, host, hoteliers, an insurance company representative, professional press) on the problem of active sale of Dubai in the summer. Indeed, Dubai needs to be promoted in the summer, and customers need to understand that there you can have a good rest, not only in winter. Such a shift in the minds of consumers, and, therefore, in demand, is quite real. I am sure that with strong advertising support and proper work with agents, the Dubai direction will certainly become year-round.I was also pleased to note that all invited conference participants have an interest in doing this. The "Burning Ticket Shop Network" traditionally sells Dubai in the summer and puts up offers in this direction on its website. After the conference, we made a decision to create and provoke demand for Dubai in the summer more actively - we are now implementing it together with the tour operator Intravel-Stoleshniki, one of the organizers of the conference.
