Dubai: Dubai residents, do you want to do your part in letting the world know why this city is the best place to make a trip? Or the place to live in?
Then, you have a chance to do that with #DubaiDestinations, an all-encompassing promotional campaign from Dubai Tourism that wants residents and the wider community to be the “city’s ambassadors, the voice that convinces their family and friends to visit”, said Issam Kazim, Chief Executive of Dubai Tourism.
The latest campaign launches today (December 13) and will be given shape over the coming days just as Dubai re-affirms its credentials as one of the happening cities to see off this year and enter the New Year brimming with confidence. Hotel occupancy levels are soaring in the city, fine dining restaurants are reporting brisk bookings for the final days of 2021, and so are holiday homes.
We are launching an initiative to enhance the profile of Dubai’s unique destination offerings by engaging with both the local community and regional and global audiences. This campaign leverages the strength of diverse media platforms to highlight the vibrant culture, sights, activities, shows, events and festivities that make Dubai one of the world’s most distinctive destinations
Residents take the baton
As far as Kazim is concerned, “Each time a resident here manages to convince another to come down to Dubai, the campaign will have done its part,” he said. “There are so many things that Dubai residents take for granted about the kind of experiences this city offers. But each time someone new comes in and tells them, ‘How lucky they are to call Dubai home’, we get the message through to more.”
Late last year, the UAE launched a country-wide initiative under the ‘World’s Coolest Winter’ campaign to give a boost to the hospitality and travel sectors, which were still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19. The campaign proved quite successful, and it is the same prototype that Dubai Tourism will have for #DubaiDestinations.
“There are still places to be discovered in the city, experiences to be gone through – each resident would have only absorbed some of these,” said Kazim. “This is a chance for them to widen that horizon.”
Apart from the end-of-year boost for hotels and other mainline Dubai destinations, this week will also see the latest Dubai Shopping Festival opening. According to Kazim, #DubaiDestinations will slot in nicely along with all the existing Dubai promotions.
“The idea is to hand over the latest campaign to the wider public in Dubai and they get to play their part,” the CEO added.
Expo lights up
Since October, Dubai’s hospitality sector has been pushing its way back into solid occupancy rates, capped by hotels touching the 65.8 per cent level in the week from November 30 to December 6. The bookings for the final two weeks of the year show that occupancy levels would cross 90 per cent. (Some of the hotels in the city are already recording those levels.)
“The UAE is traditionally one of the strongest performance markets in the world,” said Philip Wooller, STR’s Area Director for the Middle East/Africa. “Therefore, we expect the region to continue showing occupancy increases during the typically strong winter season, especially after the recent announcement of a UK-UAE travel corridor.”
