Special Report: Tourism & Real Estate - Visitor numbers slide
Dubai has some of the world’s most expensive hotel room rates, with charges for one night averaging $370 in October 2008. But with most of the world falling into recession, such prices could be hard to sustain this year.
With tourism accounting for nearly one fifth of the overall economy, the government must encourage the emirate’s hotels and tourist attractions to offer incentives if travellers are to continue to visit Dubai in 2009. Not lowering the cost of a trip could mean the emirate fails to hit its target of 15 million visitors a year by 2012, up from 8 million in 2008.
The Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing Department is discussing ways to reduce food and drink prices by 25 per cent, and is planning to launch a major marketing campaign in core markets, including the UK and other GCC states.
But Dubai is still too slow in taking concrete action compared with the Middle East’s most popular tourist destination, Egypt.
At the end of 2008, Cairo suspended a tourism tax on hotels and has cut landing charges and ground handling fees for airlines.
Cairo has had to respond to a fall in visitor numbers many times before, thanks to past recessions and terrorist attacks. The speed of its response to the latest downturn is a sign of the country’s knowledge of tourism, from which Dubai could learn.
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