Abu Dhabi concludes three-city roadshow to China
A tourism delegation led by the Department of Culture and Tourism– Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has successfully concluded three-day, three city roadshow in China. The DCT Abu Dhabi conducted the roadshow to help raise awareness about the emirate as a holiday destination for Chinese travellers.
The delegation, which included Etihad Airways, hotels, tour operators and attractions, visited Beijing on 19th March, followed by Nanjing on the 21st and Guangzhou on the 23rd.
The latest tourism statistics reveal a 40.9 per cent increase, year-to-date, from visitors from China compared to 2017. In the first two months of 2018, 86,400 Chinese visited the emirate, with February alone accounting for an impressive 83.6 per cent increase. The Department is targeting 600,000 Chinese hotel guests a year by 2021.
Several tourist attractions and hotels across the emirate have already received the China Tourism Academy’s Welcome Chinese Certification, awarded to destinations offering high quality services to Chinese visitors, including Mandarin-speaking staff, while recent legislation now means Chinese visitors do not need a visa to visit Abu Dhabi, making the process of staying in the emirate even easier.
Many leading destinations and hotels across Abu Dhabi also now accept China Union Pay bank cards making it easier for Chinese tourists to stay and travel.
“We have actively increased our efforts to capture the awareness of and convert Chinese travellers to visit Abu Dhabi. The efforts focused on lowering access barriers to Chinese travellers by preparing digital platforms, including our website and mobile application to fully support Mandarin-speaking users. We have formed partnerships with the popular technology companies Weibo, Wechat and Baidu to help DCT Abu Dhabi reach millions of new potential Chinese travellers,” said Mubarak Al Nuaimi, Director Promotions and Overseas Offices, DCT Abu Dhabi.
