IIFA Utsavam 2024 will take place on September 6 and 7
Abdulla Mohammad
What is the objective of this visit to India?
The main objective was to be part of the IIFA announcement that will be held for the third consecutive year in Abu Dhabi, promoting southern Indian cinema. For us this announcement is very important as we have seen that IIFA has positioned Abu Dhabi very well as a top of the mind destination for the Indian market.
Strategically, we have been investing a lot in different parts of India other than Mumbai and Delhi. So as part of the strategy to expand into Tier II and Tier III cities, we feel that hosting such an event is very much aligned with the objective that we have and being in India, we also met with the key partners.
And I would say one of the most key objectives for me is also related to the 2030 strategy, which we announced, and brief our partners on how we have been doing so far and where we stand vis-à-vis our objectives.
Can you elaborate on IIFA Utsavam 2024?
IIFA Utsavam 2024 will take place on September 6 and 7 (Photo: Triya Ghosh)
The event itself will take place on September 6 and 7 and definitely there would be some pre-event workshops and some networking events. There are also side events that would be organised before and after the awards. As there are four main languages, we will have films from these languages and our expectation is that about 40 films stars would attend the event which will draw between 1,500-2,000 people.
So we expect it to be a big event and it is not just the event, but the fact that it would be broadcast later which will keep the buzz alive.
Besides IIFA, how else are you developing Tier II and Tier III markets?
We have been very active through the travel trade office and have been organising training sessions for agents from Tier II and Tier III cities and for each of these, we get a minimum of 300 attendees, so that shows the interest of the destination. And even the stakeholders from Abu Dhabi have benefitted from participating in these workshops as they have helped them understand the requirements of the Indian market and how they have to be targetted differently and working with Abu Dhabi airlines and attracting other airlines has helped.
Today, we are looking at more than six airlines that operate between Abu Dhabi and India. Many of them operate from the southern region, from the Tier II and Tier III cities. So all of this is part of the strategy that we have.
What else are you doing to develop the southern Indian market?
In alignment with this strategy, our national carrier, Etihad Airways has also positioned itself in this market and associated with cricket, the most popular sport in India. They sponsor Chennai Super Kings, a very popular team and this shows that not only the tourism board, but other stakeholders like the flag carrier are also part of this strategy.
Are you also organising fam trips from south India to Abu Dhabi?
Yes, we do and I have been very clear with the team that, I don’t want just fam trips, I want to start seeing mega fam trips because for us to accelerate the plan that we have, there is a lot of agents that haven’t tapped into Abu Dhabi. They have not been to Abu Dhabi before. So to to basically speed up what we are doing, there is a need to bring in more and more.
And that is where the APAC Summit that we are organising in October is going to be a good platform where we are going to focus on the other regions in India that we have not tapped into before.
How many tour operators from India would participate in it?
We are targetting around 300 in total from Asia Pacific. We expect India to be about one third of that and that is the advantage of being in close proximity as it is easier to fly people to a destination that is about three hours away.
What was your footfall from India last year and in first six months of 2024?
Let me start with the first half of the year. We had 168,000 hotel guests in Abu Dhabi and that is a 37 pc growth year-on-year. I am aiming for more and more, but that figure is already above our target which in itself was aggressive. So, we are betting on India being a leading source market for Abu Dhabi.
The pace that we have seen since the beginning of the year will mean that by the end of this year, we expect to have between 300,000-400,000 hotel guests from India. If you compare the performance in the first six month to pre-pandemic figure in 2019, what we have achieved in these six months of 2024 was that we had achieved in full year 2019.
Which is the better period in terms of tourist arrivals?
Second half of the year has always been peak season for hosting events such as UFC, NBA, F1 & many exhibitions (Photo: Triya Ghosh)
Overall, in Abu Dhabi, the second half of the year has always been peak season because of the great events we have, such as UFC, NBA, F1 and many exhibitions that take place in November. Yet, we saw that the hotel occupancy in the first four months of 2024 was at the same level that we normally get during F1 races.
What is your target for 2030?
So that target, as it’s been announced, it’s in visitor numbers. So that’s 39 million visitors by the year 2030, which means international as well as domestic visitors. That should contribute to more than AED 90 billion to our economy and create over 150,000 jobs.
How many of them would be from India?
We are expecting India to be the leading market. As we stand today, the Indian contribution to our total international tourism is about 10 pc and what we are targetting for 2030 is to grow that to between 15-20 pc of the total overseas arrivals.
How important is business or MICE segment for Abu Dhabi?
MICE travellers in terms of the value that they bring to the destination compared to any other segment is higher and the same is true of Abu Dhabi also. We have hosted many events this year and one of the key events we hosted in February this year was the World Trade Organisation meeting which was attended by by many countries and their ministers.
So for sure that event by itself filled the whole city and there were many delegations coming from different parts of the world. So, as part of 2030 strategy, one of the things that we try to look at is work with stakeholders across the industry to develop this segment of tourism further.
How important is cruise tourism for Abu Dhabi?
We’ve seen a good number of cruise passengers coming to Abu Dhabi, in the range of about 700 cruise passengers everyday. The value proposition that we have that through the unified cruise visa, you don’t need to apply for a multiple visas if you are a cruise passenger coming to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain and Oman. So that has attracted a lot of cruise passengers to come to the region. While we are working on attracting more cruise tourists, what is more important is to get them to stay in the destination before and after the cruise. And these are the programmes that we are currently working with both the cruise liners as well as cruise agents to see what is required in order to convince a cruise passenger to come before and after the cruise.
"
