Abu Dhabi relies on weddings, sports to boost Indian tourism

In addition to this year’s F1 and NBA, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the UAE t20 cricket league in early 2023. Abu Dhabi Director-General Mubarak Al Shamisi said the Tourism Authority will hold a roadshow to attract Indians to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Currently, the main source markets for Abu Dhabi are India, the UK, Germany, France and Italy. In 2019, it received a total of 11.35 million tourists, and this number is expected to grow to 23 million by 2030. In 2019, 41% of tourists were between the ages of 26-39, and more than half of them were accompanied by them. 58% of spouses and 58% of people visit for leisure.

“India has been our main source market for some time, so it has been a priority for us. We are now also finalizing our strategy for destination weddings this season,” he said. Indians have been hosting destination weddings in Abu Dhabi “We’ve had a big share of it over the last few years, and we wanted to formalize it,” Shamisi added.

In 2019, India was its largest source market with 450,000 tourists, followed by China with 396,000 tourists, and other countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Egypt, according to the department. This year, the UAE capital also expects Indians to top its list of top tourists.

“We’ve seen commercial exhibitions, but we’ve also seen the launch of big museums like the Louvre. We’re also going to visit the Guggenheim Museum and the Shenzhen Museum, and we’re in talks with them to start operations in Abu Dhabi,” he said. He says.

Different sporting events such as the 2022 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the NBA Basketball Championship and the 2022 Abu Dhabi Games will also be held there. The Tourism Board also showcased India’s Abu Dhabi Cricket Ground in its roadshow.

“Events play a very important role in our tourism industry. We hosted the IIFA Awards in June, which proved how important the Indian market is to us,” he added. Last month, Abu Dhabi-based MakeMyTrip and leisure destination Yas Island teamed up with actor Ranveer Singh for an event.

India’s outbound tourism market is expected to grow in the coming days with more than 80 million passport holders in India, according to a report by Nangia Andersen LLP in association with FICCI titled “Outbound Travel and Tourism – An Unexplored Opportunity” . From January to May 2022, the top 10 destination countries for outbound Indian nationals were the UAE with 31.24% of all outbound travel, followed by Saudi Arabia with 21%.

Citing figures from the World Tourism Organization, the report said Indians spend about $1,200 per trip abroad, compared with $700 for Americans and $500 for Europeans. Indians will spend about $12.6 billion on outbound travel in 2021, compared to $22.9 billion in 2019, the report added.

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