The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority is targeting a 15% growth in hotel guests for 2011, bringing the overall number of visitors to 1.9 million.
New hotel openings in the emirate over the last few years have seen the number of rooms increase by 5,000 to 22,000, helping the tourism sector to provide 11.1% of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil GDP.
In the first nine months of this year, the number of visitors to the emirate rose by 16%, with 1.3 million guests staying in hotels and hotel apartments for 3.6 million guest nights. Revenue rose by 12% year on year.
Commenting on the emirate’s growing popularity, ADTA’s director-general Mubarak Al Muhairi said: “Abu Dhabi’s tourism ambitions are now six years old and I am pleased to report the youngster is growing stronger by the day.
“We are on course to achieving our aspirations but cannot go forward without solid stakeholder support.”
He added much of the growth will be achieved as the destination moves away from being seen as a business travel destination to having a more healthy balance between leisure and corporate travel.
“We are confident we can achieve this because our leisure proposition has, and will, continue to grow,” he said.
“We have taken a major leap forward on the leisure scene with the recent opening of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi – the world’s biggest indoor theme park.
“More of a focus on the leisure segment is in line with our strategy of increasing overall length of stay,” he added.
Leisure travel will also be boosted by the arrival of MSC Cruises’ ship MSC Lirica which will be based in Abu Dhabi for the 2011/12 winter season.
The 2,000-capacity ship will offer 19 seven-night cruises around the Arabian Gulf.
- More from World Travel Market at travelweekly.co.uk/wtm2010