By Renn Offor
Dubai Tourism, through its just concluded maiden product and roadshow held on Lagos has further demonstrated the consummate resolve of the United Arabs Emirates to establish its hospitality brands in the heart of Nigerians as it seeks to take the stage as the most prefered destination for Nigerians travelling out of the country either for leisure or business.
Stella Obinwa, the Director for Africa Region International Operations for Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Markerting, speaking after the event expressed satisfaction with the level of attendance and interractions between the participating stakeholders from Dubai and and their Nigerian counterparts. The event held inside the Federal Palace Hotels and Casinos, Victoria Island, Lagos.
She went on to reveal during in the course of the event, that Dubai tourism would be picking several numbers of people from among the attendees to make up a total of the 500 people who would be given a free, all expense paid trip to Dubai, courtesy of the Dubai tourism corporation as part of its efforts to expose Nigerians to the beauty and hospitality of the United Arabs Emirates.
Stella also revealed that, ‘We exceeded our attendance expectations for this event, we were hoping for about 80 people; we ended up having 130 people attend. All of our participants except for one that had issues coming from Dubai were able to make it here. The rain was a little bit of disturbance so we did start a bit late, but everyone had engaging presentations.
‘And as you can see, several of the guests have stayed back to speak with the participants and build a relationship that is encouraging. We will have the event in Port Hacourt on May 30, and Abuja on May 16’.
‘Our intention for this roadshow is just to build awareness of Dubai to Nigerians, so that Dubai would be their first choice whenever they want to travel out of the country.
‘250,000 Nigerians travel to Dubai every year. We like to see that double by 15% to 20%. So, all these efforts are geared towards achieving that expectation’.
The event featured about 12 participants from Dubai, who all made appealing presentations to the audience. All the participating brands gave out gifts of free holidays and all expense paid trips to Dubai.
Top among the gifts was an all expense paid return ticket for a family by Emirates airline which was won by Ifedayo Andrew-Ogunbayo of Fidol Trip Services.
An attendee expressed her views about the event. Josephine Otoijagbha, the Sales Manager of Fleet Travels and Tours, said that, ‘I seldom attend such events and outing. But I’m quite impressed by the level of organization and quality of the program. I have no regrets attending this one’.
All the participants who attended from Dubai, who www.atqnews.com spoke with, expessed high hopes and expectations from the roadshow and as much as with the potentials inherent in the Nigerian Market.
Pretthi Ajay, the Business Head at Connect World Tours, shared the motivation and reason for participating in the Dubai roadshow on Lagos, saying that, ‘For us coming here shows that there’s a lot of potentials in the Nigerian market, there‘s a lot of them that travel to Dubai and we are trying to explore the tourism part of it. There are a lot of luxury hotels in Dubai and Connect World has been known for handling luxury products. So we just thought being a part of this road show’.
Faisal Derar, the Company Consultant for Arabian Falcon Holidays, started by explaining first that the ‘Arabian Falcon Holidays has been on since 1999, and we sell Holiday Ownership. We are interested in participating in this road show because Africa is becoming a very important market for every kind of industry. We are in the hospitality industry and majority of our Clients are the West Africa, and particularly from Nigeria.
‘West Africa is still a virgin market. We have a lot of Clients and we see a lot of markets here. So, we are here to tell them about our markets and get them to enjoy our packages and, according to their budgets. We are joining round about 80 Countries in the world and, we are selling luxurious 5 star holiday and resorts within and outside Dubai and several holidays according to our Clients budgets’.
Mr. Derar concluded that their company ‘intend to generate business leads here in Africa. So, we are looking forward to see some kind of agencies and other people working in the same industry for this kind of partnership. This is our goal’.
On his part, Al Mohannad Sharafuddin, who is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Arabian Falcon Holidays spoke of his expections for his company’s participation and shed lights on the types of holiday they have to offer to the Nigerian market.
‘Actually we participated in this event the Dubai Tourism Dept. along with all the major hotels, airlines, and tour operators to promote Dubai, we expect more Nigerian Tourists. Dubai is a favourite destination for a lot of Africans , and we will like to see more of them in Dubai’.
Mr. Sharafuddin went on to explain further that, ‘Dubai is a safe haven, a place where family, businessmen, married and singles enjoy a variety of activities and beautiful to look at. It’s a shopping haven. Dubai has the biggest mall in the world, has the classy, tallest building in the world’.
Concluding, he said of his expectation on the Nigerian market that, ‘What we expect next in the coming years is more Nigerian Tourists and businessmen; more promotion for Dubai, and more businesses for our beloved country’.
For DAMAC Hotels and Resorts, Santosh George, the Business Development Manager, explained that, ‘For us at DAMAC Hotels and Resorts, this is a new market for us. We want to see how the Nigerian market can really work for us. Though, we are located in a prime locations, we want to enter into the Nigerian market, to attract more travelers from Nigeria to our Hotels and Resorts’.
At the end, the Africa Region Director, Stella the driving force for Dubai tourism in Nigeria, sayint that her organization looks to stimulate demands in Nigeria for Dubai as the most preferred destination for Nigerians. ‘In the nearest nearest years, I see Dubai becoming the number one travel destination for Nigerians’.
