Tag Archives: Abu Dhabi

As Abu Dhabi starts welcoming fully vaccinated travellers from India, rediscover M!CE in Abu Dhabi during an exclusive webinar on Tuesday, 7th September 2021, at 3pm IST. The webinar will highlight the Abu Dhabi Advantage programme that supports M!CE groups with nearly US$100 in benefits per person. For more information contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.  

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has appointed Buzz Travel Marketing as its new Indian representative. HE Ali Hassan Al Shaiba, Executive Director of Tourism and Marketing at DCT Abu Dhabi, said, “ As we repurpose our strategy on the road to recovery post-COVID-19, we look forward to working with Buzz to increase the number of visitors and drive growth for Abu Dhabi’s Indian operations across different target segments of Leisure and MICE.” The three-year partnership will support stakeholders and further enhance Abu Dhabi’s long-standing involvement with the Indian market and reinvigorate Abu Dhabi’s trade and marketing strategies with a brand-new outlook as part of the emirate’s upcoming plans for the tourism sector. Nikhil Jeet, Director, Buzz Travel Marketing said, “We are delighted to represent DCT Abu Dhabi in India and I am confident that together we will successfully strengthen the destination’s reach in the Indian market. With a widespread network and a team of dynamic professionals, Buzz Travel Marketing will ensure that Abu Dhabi’s wide range of tourism offerings reaches every travelling Indian. We eagerly look forward to working with DCT Abu Dhabi to implement their renewed strategy in the Indian market.”

Abu Dhabi, which currently requires travellers to quarantine for 10 days unless they are from a green-list country, will end quarantine for all international arrivals starting from July 1, according to Gulf News. The emirate is also looking at extending the green list to cover a majority of the markets that it is tapping into and hopefully, by the 1st of July, everybody will be allowed to travel to Abu Dhabi, Gulf News adds.

Etihad Airways has introduced its ‘Verified to Fly’ travel document initiative for travellers flying from Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. The move enables travellers to validate their COVID-19 travel documents before arriving at the airport. Future developments are in progress to introduce the service for other destinations.

Etihad Airways and TravTalk are all geared up to host an ‘Agent Connect’ webinar, a live journey of flying through COVID, on Thursday, 9th July, 11 am onwards. Agents will get the chance to learn about Etihad Airways and UAE’s capital city – Abu Dhabi. To register, please email to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

GoAir further expands its international footprint with the launch of direct flights on Kannur–Abu Dhabi–Kannur route effective March 1, 2019. The airline will operate four direct flight services per week between the destinations with bookings now open at an all-inclusive one way fare starting from Rs 6099. This sector will further strengthen the airline’s growing international network to the Gulf and travellers will now have the opportunity to experience affordable travel experience that GoAir is acknowledged with. Speaking on the occasion, Jeh Wadia, Managing Director, GoAir said, “Commercial and cultural links between India and UAE are flourishing and GoAir is committed to contribute in facilitating and enhancing the growth of trade and the strong demand for tourism. Kannur, an incredibly beautiful part of India, is now accessible from Abu Dhabi with direct flights and an affordable and convenient travel option.” Recently GoAir announced international operations out of Kannur to Muscat. GoAir will operate three direct flight services per week between Kannur–Muscat–Kannur effective February 28, 2019. On the domestic front, GoAir currently connects Kannur to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Abu Dhabi expects India to continue to be the largest source market for overseas arrivals in 2019 with a growth of around 10 per cent year-on year, a senior official has said. Anthony Rippingale, Acting Director, Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, Travel Trade and Market Development Department, told PTI, “We expect India to continue to be the largest overseas market for arrivals in 2019. We are expecting around 10 per cent growth in the number of Indian arrivals in 2019.” In 2018, the capital city of United Arab Emirates had around 3.35 lakh arrivals from India up to October. As of October 2018, India is the largest source market for overseas arrivals to Abu Dhabi, he added. “The growth we are expecting is despite this being an election year in India. This is on account of long historical ties between the two countries with strong person-to-person contact,” Rippingale said. When asked about the focus areas that the department is targeting here, he said, “We are focusing on all the segments such as MiCE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) segment, leisure segment, specially the families and on weddings and honeymoon segment.” The average stay per person in Abu Dhabi is 3 to 4 nights, he added. On the initiatives being taken to promote Abu Dhabi as a preferred destination, Rippingale said, “We are expanding sales team in India. We are also creating regional sales teams to cater to the specific needs of various regions in India.” Efforts are also being made to promote culture tourism. Focus is also to promote cruise tourism. The efforts are being made to support the trade partners, he added. Source : PTI

India has steadily increased the number of overseas city pairs served by a non-stop service from the country over time, according to a recent study by International Air Transport Association (IATA). There are 304 such international pairs in 2018, up from around 230 ten years ago. In relative terms, the India market appears to have considerably less international city pairs served than either China or Russia. However, Indian travellers have ready access (via the geographic proximity) to the Middle East superconnector hubs – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha – that China and Russia do not. This increases the size of the network significantly for Indian travellers, as well as making India more accessible for international visitors. As such, it may go some way to explaining the relatively lower number of international city pairs for India relative to China and Russia.

EbixCash World Money airport forex counters has been inaugurated at the arrival and departure terminals at Kannur International Airport in the presence of Minister of Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu; Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan; Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, EP Jayarajan; Minister of Ports, Kadakampally Surendran; Minister of Transport, AK Saseendran; Minister of Water Resources, K Krishnankutty; and KIAL MD, V Thulasidas among other senior central and state government officials, and industry leaders. EbixCash World Money will offer passengers flying in and out of the city, foreign exchange at competitive rates along with a host of other products such as travellers’ cheques, multi-currency prepaid cards and travel insurance. Commenting on the launch, T C Guruprasad, Managing Director, EbixCash WorldMoney said, “Kannur is a fast-growing business and tourism destination with Wayanad and Coorg being in close proximity. Besides being the district headquarters, it offers a mix of beaches, forts and museums. A large number of international flights also offer direct connectivity from Middle East destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Muscat, Riyadh, Doha and Kuwait, making it a strategic location for us to offer our forex and travel services. We currently have six branches and nine airport forex counters in Kerala.” Spread about 2,000 acres, the Kannur Airport is the newest addition to India’s international airport portfolio. The airport is expected to serve more than one million passengers annually with passenger traffic estimated to increase five-fold by 2025.    

IndiGo has announced a daily non-stop flight between Hong Kong and Bengaluru effective December 11, 2018. As part of its international expansion, the airline also operates daily non-stop flights between India and Colombo, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, Male and Phuket. The new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers from these cities, who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options. Customers who would like to plan their travel can book tickets through www.goindigo.in. William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, said, “We are delighted to announce Hong Kong as the 15th destination in our international portfolio. One of the world’s biggest financial hubs, Hong Kong constitutes a strategic market for us. Hong Kong also caters to all kinds of travellers, be it family or a group of friends, and we see huge tourism potential in future from India.”