Abu Dhabi targets Indian tourists with roadshows

Abu Dhabi is looking to penetrate India's growing tourism market by embarking on a three-city roadshow next week in the South Asian country.On the back of India's rise up on the emirate's hotel guest rankings, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) is visiting Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai. ADTA's first roadshow in India follows on from a seven city European roadshow in July and begins in Mumbai on September 12, heads to New Delhi two days later and ends in Chennai on the September 16.The move comes as India rose to become Abu Dhabi's second largest international source market for hotel guests in the first seven months of this year. Indian visitors to the UAE capital amounted to some 58,724 guests - a 25 percent rise on the same period in 2010 - and second only to visitors from the UK.In terms of guest nights in the first seven months, India was the third largest international source market after the UK and USA accounting for 235,695 - a 52 percent rise on the same period last year. Dayne Lim, product development director, ADTA, said in a statement: "The excellent air access, allied with market proximity and close business and social ties between Abu Dhabi and India, provides us with a strong competitive advantage to capitalise on the undoubted growth potential of India's outbound tourism market."Our aim for this inaugural road show in India is three-fold; to showcase Abu Dhabi's expanding range of hospitality, events and attractions products, strengthen the distribution and packaging channels of these products, as well as deepen our market insights for valuable input to our future product development." India's increased significance for Abu Dhabi's tourism sector is backed by wide industry recognition of the republic as one of the world's fastest growing markets, with the number of Indians travelling aboard annually exceeding 16 million by the end of 2010."We have been monitoring the Indian outbound market for some time and now, in line with our infrastructural and product expansions as well as support from our valued stakeholders, is the opportune time for us to capitalise," added Lim.Rotana, the award-winning, Abu Dhabi-headquartered hotel group, is one of several emirate-based stakeholders pursuing the Indian segment. It has opened an outbound sales office in India describing it as a "key feeder market" for the 10 properties it operates throughout Abu Dhabi emirate. From / Arabian Business News