Emirates, DTCM Launch $20m Campaign To Attract Visitors To Dubai

Emirates and Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) have launched a global campaign worth $20 million to attract tourists to Dubai.

The ‘See you in Dubai’ campaign, one of the largest tourism promotional campaigns conducted by Emirates, will focus on markets in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

The campaign, which will play out across print, broadcast and outdoor media will highlight familiar and less familiar experiences in Dubai, a joint statement said.

Aside from landmarks such as Burj Al Arab and Dubai Mall, it will promote desert activities, beaches and the growing cultural scene in the emirate.

The tourism campaign will also highlight how traditional attractions merge with modern features in the emirate, the statement added.

“Last year, Dubai welcomed more than 11 million visitors and our aim is to continue to grow these numbers by constantly enhancing every aspect of Dubai’s destination offering, making our city the top choice for all types of travellers from across the globe,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline & Group.

“Emirates and DTCM both continually showcase Dubai through very possible touch point – whether at international and industry events, sponsorships or through marketing campaigns. We believe our new campaign will contribute to enhancing Dubai’s appeal to even more visitors across the globe.”

Dubai has been working steadily to meet its ambitious target of attracting 20 million visitors per year by 2020. The six month long world Expo, which will begin from October 20, 2020, is estimated to attract 25 million visitors.

According to figures revealed by the DTCM, the emirate received about 5.8 million tourists in the first half of this year, up marginally by one per cent from the corresponding period in 2013.

The emirate’s top 10 tourism source markets were Saudi Arabia, India, UK, USA, Russia, China, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Germany.

In order to keep up with the growing tourist numbers, Dubai is also building new hotels to increase the number of rooms in the market. According to DTCM, about 140,000 to 160,000 hotel rooms will be required by 2020 to accommodate the estimated tourist numbers.

As of August 2014, Dubai had 88,680 hotel rooms across 634 establishments, including 7,000 rooms that were added in the previous 12 months, as per DTCM.