Tag Archives: Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) announced a new partnership with Tencent Games to develop ‘The Map’, featuring Dubai within the successful online game application. LEGO Cube is a sandbox game developed and operated by Tencent Games under the license of the LEGO Group, featuring LEGO bricks, mini-figures, and other iconic LEGO properties. The free-to-download-and-play game offers players an inventive platform to creatively explore and develop Dubai’s famous landmarks in a virtual world on command. This unique offering showcases Dubai Tourism’s continued efforts to provide customised, engaging, and interactive campaigns aimed at keeping the city top of mind for Chinese travellers. The Map, developed and published by Tencent Games, projects the emirate on a virtual platform, allowing players to experience Dubai’s many local and cultural landmarks. As a city renowned for its forward-thinking and futuristic programming aimed at offering visitors exceptional experiences, it is an ideal destination to be incorporated into the innovative platform. The interactive ‘Map’ features some of Dubai’s most celebrated attractions such as Atlantis The Palm, Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab, Dubai Frame, Dubai Opera, LEGOLAND Dubai, Palm Jumeirah, Green Planet, La Perle, Ski Dubai, and Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood. Players are encouraged to delve into the game to learn more about Dubai’s diverse destination offering, with the added opportunity to build recognisable landmarks with LEGO Cube. Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), commented, “China continues to consolidate its status as one of the city’s top-performing source markets, and we remain committed to engaging Chinese outbound tourists through innovative and highly targeted marketing activities for their future travel plans. This exciting new partnership with Tencent Games leverages the global trend …

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing hosted a series of strategic meetings with tourism and media companies across the GCC, highlighting the positive performance of the emirate’s tourism industry during the first eight months of 2019. The series of stakeholder meetings discussed the region’s standing as Dubai’s strongest volume generator (representing 20 per cent of all tourists welcomed into the city) in the first eight months of the year, with its lead contributor, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), bringing in more than one million tourists as the second largest source market. Chaired by Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), the meetings were held as part of the Department’s ongoing commitment to further enhancing collaboration with partners in traditional strongholds and emerging markets in line with Dubai’s Tourism Vision 2022-2025. The delegation toured Kuwait, followed by Riyadh, and Jeddah, and included senior representatives from Expo 2020 who provided an update on major developments of the hugely anticipated event and explored effective collaborations in the lead up to a momentous year for the emirate. These partnerships aim to drive stronger destination appeal for target audiences across the GCC, particularly across the family segment and those visiting friends and families, as well as targeting emerging segments. Dubai Tourism’s efforts to create targeted and customised experiences for GCC tourists is reflected in the Department’s always-on calendar of strategic activations, marketing campaigns and ongoing trade and business partnerships.

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has reported a stellar incline in tourism volumes from Nigeria, Africa’s largest source market for inbound traffic to Dubai, welcoming 113,000 overnight visitors in the first seven months of 2019. With impressive double-digit growth, inbound traffic from Nigeria to Dubai grew by 28 per cent year-on-year, cementing its position as the emirate’s 17th largest source market. Dubai’s diverse portfolio of attractions has experienced sustained interest amongst Nigerian travellers through ongoing strategic trade partnerships, bespoke integrated marketing campaigns, and always-on social media activations. Building on ongoing efforts to provide a platform to broadcast Dubai’s multifaceted comprehensive offerings to African tourists, Dubai Tourism, led by the CEO, Issam Kazim, showcased its support at the Akwaaba African Travel Market for the fourth consecutive year with a strong delegation of 21 Dubai-based partners, which included a team from Expo 2020 Dubai. Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), said, “The immense hospitality and genuine welcome we received during our time in Nigeria paved the way for a hugely successful Akwaaba Travel Market 2019. Our continued presence at industry events such as these is testament to our globally diversified market strategy to engage with key strategic partners, cementing our positive relationship with the African travel trade ecosystem.”

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has announced a partnership with Turner Asia Pacific, a WarnerMedia company, to launch a new digital campaign starring the popular Chinese emoticon ‘Tuzki’, as part of efforts to further increase tourist traffic to the emirate from China. Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), said, “Through Tuzki, we aim to capture the imagination of Chinese netizens to participate in the campaign via social and digital touchpoints, further highlighting our ongoing efforts to work with relevant industry partners to deliver initiatives that will highlight Dubai as a ‘must-visit’ destination.”  In a clear indication of China’s rising prominence as one of Dubai’s fastest growing source markets, the first seven months of 2019 saw over 575,000 visitors arriving from China – a 12 per cent growth compared to the same period in 2018. Notable successes this year include the launch of the Dubai Mini Assistant, an enhancement of the city-experience Mini Program, one of the applications of the WeChat ecosystem, featuring 10 new mobile-based digital audio tours to highlight in-city accessibility, local historic sites and cultural landmarks for Chinese netizens. The Dubai College of Tourism also launched the Chinese Traveller Standards for tourist-facing staff across city touchpoints to enable them to deliver personalised, exceptional Dubai experiences to every Chinese guest. Chinese netizens will also be inspired to book a Dubai holiday during the National Day Golden Week from October 1-7, 2019.  “This digital rabbit is the perfect ambassador for Chinese tourists to Dubai and will show them that this remarkable place has a unique personality and welcomes them with a sense of fun,” said Clement Schwebig, Managing Director of China …

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) hosted a series of strategic meetings with tourism and media companies in Moscow and St. Petersburg recently. The meetings drew attention to Russia’s emergence as the sixth largest source market for Dubai. The number of Russian tourists has grown exponentially over the past few years, from 240,000 in 2016 to 678,000 in 2018 and in the first seven months of this year,  Dubai has welcomed 392,000 visitors from Russia. Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), who led the delegation, observed that Russian tourist traffic continued to play an important role in helping Dubai maintain steady tourism volumes. He also noted that following an exceptional resurgence in Russian visitors to Dubai in 2018, largely due to the visa-on-arrival enablement, growth from Russia levelled off to more sustainable volumes in H1 2019. Tour operators and destination management companies, who attended the meetings, included TUI – Russia & CIS, Karlson Tourism, Space Travel TO and Art Tour while Dubai Tourism also held wide-ranging discussions with key media companies including Kommersant Style, Spbdnevnik.ru, Proturizm.club, as well as TV and radio broadcasting company Travel.Vesti.  Dubai Tourism also hosted networking events in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which were attended by over 200 travel trade representatives.  

Dubai welcomed 8.36 million international overnight visitors in the first six months, January-June of 2019, posting a positive 3 per cent in tourism volume growth compared to the same period last year, according to the latest data released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. India once again led the pack, drawing the highest half year volumes with 997,000 visitors – particularly noteworthy given the severe air traffic and seat capacity challenges due to geopolitical volatilities. Dubai continued to drive booking interest from Indians on a mass scale largely due to high-impact delivery of segment and season-specific campaigns across the most accessible Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. From focused ‘family’ or ‘couple’ oriented promotions to the Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan-led global #BeMyGuest campaign, the Department’s investments yielded strong returns, with the latter alone surpassing all records, logging 160 million views in a few weeks. Additionally, at an audience penetration level, travel share of Indian families with children rose by a substantial 10 percentage points from 24 to 34 per cent, directly reflecting higher GDP impact due to party size and spend potential. With more than 30 in-market trade partnerships initiated in the first half of 2019 alone, Dubai Tourism’s confidence in, and commitment to, India is further emphasised by strategic annual collaborations launched with the biggest names in the travel ecosystem – such as Thomas Cook, Cox & Kings and SOTC, as well as OTAs like MakeMyTrip and Goibibo. His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism, commented, “Tourism is one of the cornerstones of Dubai’s diversified economic growth, and we measure success based on our ability to aggressively advance towards our goal to be the number one …

The deadline for technology start-ups to enter this year’s international AED 100,000 Futurism Programme, a zero-equity accelerator initiative of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, closes on July 31, 2019. The annual Futurism Programme aims to boost technology innovation within the tourism industry ecosystem and further position Dubai as a leading international technology hub for start-ups. Since it was launched earlier this month, the 3rd edition of the Futurism Programme, run in collaboration with leading professional services company, Accenture, has generated strong interest among start-ups around the world, resulting in high quality submissions to date. The 2019 Futurism Programme has the support of key industry partners and investors representing a broad spectrum of sectors, from travel to hospitality, and aviation to artificial intelligence, finance to technology and transportation. They include strategic partner, Seera Group, and industry partners Atlantis The Palm, Emaar Hospitality Group, the Emirates Group and Accor Hotels. Commenting on the latest edition of the Futurism Programme, His Excellency, Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai Tourism, said, “Our Futurism Programme is inspired by the Dubai 10X initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to develop disruptive strategies and solutions that will propel Dubai 10 years in front of other world cities.” Abdullah Bin Nasser Aldawood, Chief Executive Officer, Seera Group, said, “We are honoured to partner with the international Futurism Programme by Dubai Tourism, which underlines the concerted efforts to drive technology innovation in the travel and tourism sector. Our region’s young, tech-savvy youth will be at the heart of this transformational initiative that will encourage start-ups to present innovative ideas to …

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing held a series of strategic meetings with UK-based tourism companies in London last week, sharing new destination insights including the diverse festivals sector and highlighting the emirate’s enduring commitment to its third largest source market, as part of efforts to further boost British tourist arrivals. The meetings in London are part of a series of similar discussions that Dubai Tourism plans to hold with stakeholders in other key international markets. Led by His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director-General of Dubai Tourism, the discussions enabled the Department to strengthen relationships with prominent trade partners to provide even greater visibility for the diversity of Dubai’s offerings across the travel and trade ecosystem in the UK. HE Almarri also provided insights into future growth plans and marketing initiatives to drive awareness and consideration around the city’s evolving product offerings for British travellers, as well as discussing ways in which Dubai Tourism could work even more closely with British stakeholders to promote the emirate to target audiences in the UK. The strategic meetings offered a clear indication of the UK’s continued prominence as one of the emirate’s top source markets and fit within the framework of regular industry engagements initiated by the Department to further enhance collaboration with stakeholders and partners in line with Dubai’s Tourism Vision 2022-2025. Commenting on the meetings, HE Helal Saeed Al Marri, said, “We remain committed to ensuring that our valued partners – both, locally and globally – are well aligned with the emirate’s tourism strategy and are empowered to collectively leverage diverse campaigns and concerted efforts to ensure Dubai remains a perennial favourite for British travellers.”

Following the success of the first ever City-Experience Mini Programme launched by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in collaboration with WeChat, the programme has been further enhanced with the launch of 10 new digital audio tours which are now available for visitors to use while exploring the city. Inviting the users of China’s most popular social networking site to easily access Dubai’s tourist attractions during their stay, the newly re-branded ‘Dubai Mini Assistant’ elevates the existing programme to a more advanced digital maturity, now offering sophisticated chatbot capabilities, powered by Tencent’s AI technology, to provide seamless experiences and services to Chinese travellers. With robust growth in overnight visitors from China in the first quarter of 2019, the new audio tours further add to the ease of accessibility for these tourists when visiting Dubai, allowing them to discover the city’s many historic sites and cultural landmarks through their mobile phones. Reconfirming its continued commitment to one of the emirate’s top source markets, Dubai Mini Assistant forms part of the Department’s city-wide ‘China Readiness’ strategy, focused on designing an enriching and memorable experience for Chinese travellers. Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), said, “China is quickly emerging as one of the fastest growing source markets for Dubai’s tourism industry, with the city welcoming more than 290,000 visitors in the first three months of the year, representing a stellar 13 per cent increase when compared to the same period in 2018.”  

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing has concluded the regional #ThisisDubai social media campaign, hosted in collaboration with the world’s leading short-form mobile video application, TikTok. As part of the partnership, TikTok, which is available across 150 markets, created bespoke AR stickers with exclusive Dubai themed music inviting participants to capture striking aspects of the city. Calling on the platform’s expansive base of storytellers from across the GCC, the campaign received an overwhelming response of over 30 million video views on the campaign page and 9.8 thousand videos created, with posts showing users enjoying ‘only in Dubai’ experiences across the city, or destination videos with the campaign’s themed music, helping them to tell the story of Dubai. With the competition wrapped up, the two winning entries will be awarded an exclusive holiday package, with first prize winning a two-night stay at Kempinski Mall of the Emirates, and both first and second prize winning shopping vouchers from Mall of the Emirates and tickets to experience the incredible La Perle by Dragone show. Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), said, “In an age where shareable bite-sized content is the new social currency, Dubai Tourism makes it a priority to ensure we diversify our channels beyond traditional mediums to reach our target segment, using programming that is most appealing to them. Our partnership with TikTok is testament to the success of this approach, and through #ThisisDubai, we encouraged tourists from the region to share what makes the city unique to them by highlighting their favourite Dubai experiences.”