More Chinese Visitors to Abu Dhabi in 2017

During the first three months of 2017, almost 100,000 Chinese visitors flew to Abu Dhabi and thus became the largest source of tourists to the emirate, surpassing visitors from India. Abu Dhabi’s Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA) have accordingly pointed to 2016’s introduction of a visa-on-arrival policy for Chinese nationals as leading to a year-on-year 48% increase in Chinese hotel guests, bringing the quarter’s total to 138,747.

TCA Director General Saif Saeed Ghobash said: “We are particularly pleased to see the immediate benefits of the relaxed visa requirements across the Chinese and Russian tourism markets, with nationals from both countries now being granted visas upon arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport.”

Abu Dhabi is planning to attract 600,000 tourists each year from China by 2021, which would represent a 265 per cent increase compared with 2016. Simon Press, Senior Exhibition Director, ATM, said: “It’s crucial that tourist hubs throughout the Middle East maximise their reach into mega-markets such as China. Demand cycles, budget trends, tech-savvy hotels, food and beverage, sightseeing, culture and heritage centres, can easily be met in many key destinations across the region.”

Nonetheless, according to statistics published by Abu Dhabi Airports, the year-on-year growth in total passenger numbers from all countries has slowed from 9.5 per cent in Q1 2016 and 21.1 per cent in Q1 2015. These negative trends have been partly attributed to the oil price-driven economic slowdown in the region, while the US laptop ban is also expected to negatively impact passenger numbers.

COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute provides expert insights into the worldwide developments of China’s outbound tourism market. As Chinese outbound tourists are travelling to a large range of destinations, our publications cover a number of regions, providing detailed insights and analysing visitor behaviour.

With COTRI’s insights you can forge a successful business strategy built upon in-depth market expertise, comprehensive qualitative analysis and future projections. The upcoming Spring 2017 Edition of the COTRI Market report features in-depth exploration of the developing trends in the field, supported by a wealth of qualitative and quantitative statistical research.

Source: The National ; World Travel Market

Picture: Flickr