ADTA delegation plans road show in China

Abu Dhabi, June 10 (WAM) - The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) is packing all travel brochures, goody bags and souvenirs from the UAE capital for its delegation's trip to China later this month according to a report in Khaleej Times. The delegation, which also includes representatives of real estate, and travel and tourism sectors, charter airlines and exhibition centres, is planning a road show through the Southeast Asia prior to the opening of an ADTA office in China. During the road show, the team will participate in two major exhibitions - the International Travel Expo (ITE) in Hong Kong on June 12-15 and the Asia Luxury Travel Market (ALTM) in Shanghai on June 16-19 - where the ADTA already has 84 scheduled appointments lined up with top Southeast Asian travel buyers. "Both events were chosen for their ability to cover the fast-growing Southeast Asian market and their influential contacts with whom we can exchange ideas and outline our plans to engage in the region," said Mubarak Al Muhairi, Director-General of ADTA. According to World Tourism Organisation's statistics, last year China's outbound market accounted for 41 million overseas trips and the figure is predicted to raise to 100 million by 2020. "China's potential is enormous and with the country now identified by the WTO as likely to be the world's largest outbound producer in total travel spending by 2015, it is a market we cannot afford to ignore," added Al Muhairi. "Travel has become a lifestyle essential for the Chinese middle class that makes up 20 per cent of the population and who are now spending, according to the WTO, between 10 and 15 per cent of their annual income on travel. The WTO has ranked Chinese tourists as among the world's highest spenders per criteria on overseas travel with an average spend of over US$1,000," explained Ali Ahmed Al Hosani, ADTA director of Promotions. China is one of three destinations, which ADTA is targeting for the opening of representative offices this year - the others are Italy and Australia.They will join ADTA's overseas office network, which currently includes the UK, Germany and France. - end.