Safaris stand up to the summer heat

The Life: When your business is providing outdoor fun for residents and visitors to the country during the sweltering summer months, trying to encourage people to actually go outdoors can be a challenge. But tour operators have to rise to the occasion.

In the winter months, Arabian Adventures typically takes about 600 customers into the desert each day for dune bashing, dining, stargazing or animal tracking. Jaime Puebla / The National Newspaper

When your business is providing outdoor fun for residents and visitors to the country during the sweltering summer months, trying to encourage people to go dune bashing or fly in a hot air balloon can be a challenge.

But tour operators have to rise to the occasion.

Arabian Adventures describes itself as a "destination management company", which means it can manage all aspects of a holiday, from visas to hotel stays to scuba diving.

Peter Payet, a senior vice president for Arabian Adventures, which is part of Emirates Group, says that although the daytime temperature regularly peaks above 40°Cin the summer, the company's desert safari and dining trips are still very popular.

"At this time of year, the biggest chunk of business comes in from the Gulf region," he said. "Dubai attracts a lot of family business in the summer."

Arabian Adventures entices tourists to venture out into the heat by offering discounts and throwing in extras such as free entry to water parks for children.

It also capitalises on visually striking man-made attractions, operating catamaran cruises and boat trips around the Palm Jumeirah and the Marina in Dubai.

The company is marketing intensively in China and Russia, particularly for corporate tours.

In the winter months, Arabian Adventures typically takes about 600 customers into the desert each day for dune bashing, dining, stargazing or animal tracking.

In the summer, the number of guests drops by more than 50 per cent, but the company is still taking more than 250 people each day.

"It's amazing how many people are still doing it," says Mr Payet, who predicts a strong summer for Dubai tourism. "We still have a significant amount of business coming in during the summer."

There is certainly no shortage of visitors for tour operators to fight over. Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing predicts that tourism numbers will exceed 10 million for the first time this year.

Many hotels expect to have occupancy over 60 per cent during the summer, and landmark hotels such as Atlantis The Palm expect to be more than 80 per cent occupied this month and next.

Ricardo Gonzales, the marketing manager for the tour operator Dadabhai Travel, also tries to include discounted tickets to a water park so the company's clients can cool down after a trip to the desert.

"It's not really slow during the summer because we still get a substantial amount of people coming to our camps," he says.

Dadabhai says it takes about 500 guests to its desert camps on weekends during the cooler months in Dubai, with visitor numbers falling to about 300 daily in the summer.

Dadabhai also offers packages from the UAE to cities such as Istanbul to make up for lower revenue from Dubai during the hot season.

"During the summer months our marketing does not go down, but it is focused on outbound travel," says Mr Gonzales.

All the providers of desert safaris take guests out later at night and do not recommend staying in tents overnight.

Tour operators offer discounts and tweak their packages, but even in the searing heat, they still can make a cool profit.

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