A new tourism promotion strategy is being formulated by Sharjah’s Tourism Advisory Committee, in a bid to market the Emirate as a business and leisure tourist destination onto itself. The committee, recently established by the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) and made up of Sharjah Airport Authority officials, hotel and tour operators, plans to promote the Emirate through a series of initiatives including travel exhibitions, roadshows in key international cities and media advertising campaigns.
Sharjah hosted 743,500 tourists in 2000, 70.4 percent more than in the previous year, with hotel guests spending over 532,700 hotel nights in the Emirate, up 30 percent over the previous year, an SCTDA report showed. Average room occupancy was recorded at 51 percent. The Emirate offered 2,712 rooms and 4,802 beds in 23 hotels in 2000-end.
As part of these efforts, senior officials from Aeroflot Airlines recently met Sharjah aviation authorities to discuss new opportunities to expand business in the UAE Emirate. Aeroflot operated 186 flights, passenger and cargo, through the Sharjah International Airport the year 2001, on the Moscow-Sharjah-Kathmandu and Moscow-Sharjah-Delhi routes.
Over the past few years it was the Emirate of Dubai that has emerged as a major magnet for travelers from Russia and the former Soviet republics (CIS, the Commonwealth of
Independent States). Russian tour operators have been actively promoting Dubai packages, targeting visitors from the high-yield segment of the market. Dubai’s hotel establishments received almost 200,000 guests from Russia in 2000. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
