Dubai tourism office launches crisis campaign in NY

The department hopes to lure more travellers at a time when wallets are tightly held.

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) office in New York has launched a crisis control campaign after the collapse of two of Wall Street's most powerful investment banks on Monday. The aim of the campaign is to increase Dubai's travel market share in the US at a time when the DTCM expects disposable income used for travel to decrease.

"The same campaign was launched just after the September 11 crisis and we managed to increase the number of travellers coming from the US by 31 per cent that year, at a time when tourism in the Middle East suffered," said Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman, the executive director of media relations and acting director of business development at DTCM. The DTCM will increase advertising in the US to showcase the emirate's attractions, as well as opening another tourism office on the West Coast by the end of the year. "To cover all these expenses of the extra ads we decided to increase the budget of the US office by 20 per cent this year," said Mr Abdul Rahman, who declined to disclose details of the budget.

He recalls in 2001 when Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, the chairman of Emirates airline, had announced plans to buy 60 new wide-body aircraft worth US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) on instructions from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. "At the time people thought we were crazy buying planes when everyone was afraid to travel to the Middle East," said Mr Abdul Rahman. "But now we are reaping the success of our gamble, so the secret to Dubai's tourism success is simple: we take risks."

Yet the outlook for tourism from the US continues to look bleak as income levels drop and unemployment lurks around every corner. "There is no doubt that when people's disposable income no longer exists, travelling to long-haul destinations for holidays will be very difficult," said Hassan Awan, an aviation analyst at The National Investor, an Abu Dhabi investment bank. "I'm expecting that there will be a drop in US tourists coming to the UAE this year but at this stage it's really difficult to say if the airlines would cut down on their number of trips to the States," he added.

Emirates currently flies twice daily to New York and daily to Houston and will also be launching services to Los Angeles on Oct 26 and San Francisco on Dec 15, said a spokesman for the company. "There are no plans to alter our flight schedule to the USA," added the spokesman. "We haven't seen any negative impact on travel demand - our flights to and from the USA continue to operate with healthy seat loads and forward bookings are also strong."

Despite surging fuel prices and the downturn in the global economy, the airline has avoided these shortfalls and has continued to grow. "Our extensive global route network cushions us to some extent, from slowdowns in any specific market. We have managed thus far by keeping a very close watch on our unit costs, actively seeking areas to increase revenues and reduce costs without compromising on the quality of our service and product," said the spokesman.

According to the DTCM, 385,720 tourists from the US travelled to Dubai last year, a 23 per cent increase from the previous year. "I don't expect the numbers will fall at all this year because we are looking at this situation as an opportunity to expand and not a threat," said Mr Abdul Rahman. [e-mail]