Abu Dhabi tourism department partners with Tiktok

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) officially announced its partnership with social media giant TikTok on Tuesday, April 27.

In a statement, the tourism department said that by using its newly launched Tiktok channel – Visit Abu Dhabi – it aims to “engage content creators to showcase the best of the emirate with creativity and authenticity, reaching wider audiences worldwide and inspiring viewers to consider Abu Dhabi as part of their future travel plans.”

With 14 posts at the time of writing this, the page had already amassed 34,000 followers and over 166,000 likes.

“This partnership is unique in the sense that it provides viewers with an opportunity to get to know Abu Dhabi through unique reels created by locals and residents of the emirate, highlighting various elements such as iconic destinations within the capital, our people and culture, as well as our exclusivity, offerings and more. We look forward to growing our channel on the platform through TikTok’s guidance and creative input and have no doubt that this opportunity will have a great outcome,” said Ali Hassan Al Shaiba, executive director of tourism and marketing at DCT Abu Dhabi.

Shant Oknayan, general manager of global business solutions Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan added: “As an immersive short-from video platform, TikTok will provide DCT Abu Dhabi with the unique ability to become creators and storytellers by listening to the community and adopting an always-on approach to their content. But that’s not all, they will be able to leverage the creativity of the platform community as well as tap into the incredible power our TikTok creators have, who will elevate their content to new heights.”

In December, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, also officially joined TikTok.

Read: Sheikh Mohammed joins TikTok

Regionally, TikTok’s top influencers have seen their followers double over the last year, with the cumulative total of the top 10 GCC TikTok personalities growing from 24.6 million at the beginning of 2020 to approximately 54.6 million by mid February this year.

Read: Revealed: Top TikTok influencers in the GCC