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Dubai encouraging tourism competition

"We love competition and we encourage it. We have been working with other GCC countries in an effort to not only sell one specific country but the region as a whole," said Khalid bin Sulayem, Director General of DTCM.

He clarified that the competition he is referring to is not the kind of rivalry that other people may be thinking of. Bin Sulayem believes that the GCC members are working together as allies in order to make a better impression of the tourism industry here to the overseas market.

"Dubai has done well so far in terms of tourism and we want our neighbours to also be competitive in this industry so we will be a more preferred destination by the international community," the DTCM official said.

In an interview with Khaleej Times, Bin Sulayem also said that guests in hotels and hotel apartments during the first quarter of this year has posted a slight increase of 0.2 per cent with 1.556 million as compared to 1.553 million last year. "The increase could have been bigger but we were limited by the number of rooms that are available," Bin Sulayem disclosed.

This resulted even though there was a total of 7.4 per cent growth in the number of hotels and hotel apartments in Dubai. Statistics culled from the DTCM showed that in 2005, the emirate had 379 hotels and hotel apartments, which increased to 407 a year later.

Overall revenue from January to March 2006 has obviously stepped up by 1.1 per cent to Dh 2.390 million from Dh 2.364 million during the same period last year.

However, the figures showed a decrease likewise in room and flat occupancy rates by 4.8 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively. This was attributed to the fact that the Dubai Shopping Festival this year was cancelled due to the demise of Shaikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, former ruler of Dubai.

Bin Sulayem also disclosed that his department has met tour operators and hotel owners in the emirate during the early part of the year to discuss the average increase that they can only pose for their room rates. "We met both groups and we had an agreement that they should not inflate their rates. We had to interfere because we believe that they will benefit from all the promotions and activities going on right now and they will still get bookings," he said.

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