The Level Ofawareness Of Indian Travellers Aboutthe Destination Is Increasing

H E Sultan Al Mutawa Dhaheri, executive director tourism, DCT - Abu Dhabi spoke about the emirate's tourism journey and what the India market means for Abu Dhabi tourism.

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How has tourism evolved in Abu Dhabi?

Abu Dhabi is an emerging destination. The department was set up in 2005-2006 so officially as an industry and as a sector we are almost 15 years old. In these 15 years, we have achieved a lot. We started with around 7,000 hotel rooms and around one million hotel guests. Today we have around 32,000 hotel rooms in Abu Dhabi and last year we welcomed around five million hotel guests. We are expecting another 10,000 rooms in the pipeline and we expect to grow the visitor numbers to more than seven million hotel guests. So a big achievement in a short timeframe. And that is due to the clear strategy of our leadership how to develop tourism as a driving sector of an oil economy.

Many investments happened that contributed to the growth - airport expansion, Etihad Airways as the official carrier for UAE and the main airline for Abu Dhabi, Yas Island, theme parks, Louvre Museum development of historical and archaeological sites and having an overseas presence as DCT to promote our destination. So all this sums up what Abu Dhabi is today.