The Hamburg Tourist Board (HHT) further expands its networks abroad: next to London, New York, Stockholm, Saint Petersburg, Tokyo, the HHT officially opens its seventh foreign representative office in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) today. “This foreign representation will consolidate Hamburg’s position on the Arabic market”, says Dietrich von Albedyll, managing director of the Hamburg Tourist Board.
As a significant source market, the Arabic Gulf States are gaining more and more importance for the Hanseatic city. Since the opening of Emirate’s new air route Dubai-Hamburg in the end 2006, 33 000 overnight stays from Arabic countries have been counted in 2007, reflecting a growth-rate of 37, 4 % in comparison to the previous year. Between 2002 and 2007, this growth rate even accounted 128%. These positive numbers should not mislead over the fact that the Arabic source market is barely developed until today”, states Dietrich von Albedyll. For this reason, in March 2008 the “Hamburg Tourism Pool for Arabia”, being a public- private partnership has been created. The project consists of the Hamburg Tourism GmbH (HHT), representatives of the high-class hotel sector, the municipal Authority of Economic Affairs and Employment, the promotion pool of the hotel sector in Hamburg, the Hamburg Airport and the Tourism Marketing Association Niedersachsen GmbH. The “Hamburg Tourism Pool for Arabia” aims to lead the attention of the Arabic market and travel industry in particular to the North of Germany and Hamburg away from the South of the Republic. For this purpose a well selected public relation and sales strategy has been designed. Via precise product and route developments, as well as sales activities on the Arabic market, an increase in the numbers of overnight stays up to 100.000 until 2015 is intended. Furthermore, a crucial role of this foreign representation is to create a network on the location in order to consolidate the position of Northern Germany and Hamburg on the Arabic market. For this reason, under the administration of the German Chamber of Industry & Commerce and as partner of the Hanse Office of Hamburg, this new foreign representative office, with Mrs. Heike Kamolz as a highly committed managing director has been established. Since 2007, Mrs. Heike Kamolz has been living in Hamburg herself. Through her experiences as a director of the foreign representation of the German Tourist Board in Dubai she is the ideal person to enthuse more and more people to visit Hamburg.
For more information about marketing activities of the HHT and tourism in Hamburg, please consult our website at www.hamburg-tourismus.de.
