The Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi has announced that it has launched a new strategy to increase the number of Chinese visitors to the emirate to more than 600,000 visitors by 2021 by accepting the payment of Chinese purchases of credit cards and Chinese applications for payment via smartphones, as well as providing tour guides Chinese-speaking people have Chinese-speaking people in hotels, shopping malls and shops that are popular with Chinese.
Ali Hassan Al Shaibah, Acting Executive Director of Tourism and Marketing at the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, said on the sidelines of the China 2019 Forum organized by the Department in cooperation with NBI Media on the occasion of a Chinese delegation's visit to the emirate. The department is already working with a number of local banks, businesses, retail stores and tourist destinations in order to accept payments via Chinese cards and Chinese phone applications asap.
Al Shaiba added that the Department of Tourism is working to equip Abu Dhabi with all its qualifications to receive Chinese tourists.
He stressed that there are already Chinese speakers are beginning to receive Chinese in some hotels, retail stores and major shopping malls in the emirate and the Chinese language has been introduced in the application «Visit Abu Dhabi», enabling the Chinese tourist to get the necessary information easily and quickly to plan his trip.
A number of Chinese tour guides speak Chinese, and a plan will be launched soon to license and register Chinese speakers as tour guides, she said. Certain nationalities.
The first half of this year saw an increase in Chinese tourists to Abu Dhabi by about 22%, and the emirate received 400 thousand Chinese last year, while the last four months of 2019 is expected to see a significant increase in Chinese visitors in light of the start of the season Winter tourism in Abu Dhabi and the intensification of tourism activities in the emirate as well as near the Chinese New Year.
Al-Shaiba pointed out that there is a plan to attract more tourists, who come through travel and tourism agencies or to attract tourists who come individually or personally, in cooperation with many Chinese companies and electronic booking sites to promote Abu Dhabi.
He pointed out that there is a challenge related to the rate of visiting Chinese tourists, reaching up to 1.6% only a night, so the Authority is working to increase the rate to be more than two nights, pointing out that Abu Dhabi is working to increase the number of tourism products in the emirate to increase the rates of residence of the Chinese tourist also works in cooperation with Government and private sectors to develop modern tourism products both on the coast of Abu Dhabi and within the city.
For his part, the Director of «NBI Media», Rob Nicholas, said the Chinese delegation includes more than 100 of the most important buyers from China and Taiwan, including travel agents and tour operators, pointing out that this delegation is the largest since 2011
He added that Abu Dhabi is an ideal destination for Chinese tourists at present and China is the number one market for tourism in Abu Dhabi, while the number is expected to increase during the coming period as there is a continuous growth in the number of Chinese tourists to the UAE, especially in light of the increase in the number of flights between the two sides.