(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)Emirates airline expects a six per cent growth in traffic from the Gulf countries this summer as the airline continues to benefit from the positive impact of Dubai Summer Surprises or DSS in attracting visitors from across the region and further afield.
The carrier is one of the longest serving strategic partners of the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment or DFRE and remains a long standing supporter of DSS as well as other major festivals and events such as the Dubai Shopping Festival. Once again the airline has been an integral part of helping to promote Dubai as a fantastic summer destination for visitors from around the region and the world working closely with festival organisers hotels and travel agents to provide special summer packages and offers for visitors. To cater to the summer demand the airline has been offering more flights from popular GCC destinations such as Saudi Arabia Qatar Kuwait and Oman to ensure there is more capacity to help boost visitor numbers for Dubai Summer Surprises. The increase in regional flights comes as Emirates Airline continues to introduce new destinations to their global network and increase the frequency of flights to many markets and increasingly replace existing aircraft with the A380. Shaikh Majid Al Mualla senior vice-president of Commercial Operations Emirates airline during an interview talked about how the DSS period has gone for the airline this year and discussed with him new visitor trends and patterns for the summer of 2015. How are bookings to Dubai going for Dubai Summer Surprises compared to previous years? We have found that Dubai Summer Surprises continues to provide us with a healthy increase in passenger numbers during the summer and we have enjoyed six per cent growth this year driven by increasing traffic from the GCC region in particular. GCC countries have always been a mainstay of DSS visitors - is that trend continuing? Demand from the GCC to Dubai is continuing to grow and the Emirate is becoming increasingly popular as a summer destination for the region - and for some other markets as well. Even now in the summer we are finding that visitors from markets like India and indeed even Europe are using Dubai as a stopover destination on long haul. Meanwhile at the more local level we have been increasing capacity and putting on additional flights to our core GCC destinations - for Saudi Arabia Oman Kuwait Bahrain and Qatar. Providing more capacity to meet demand is also helping to bring more people than ever through Emirates flights to Dubai in the summer. How important do you believe is DSS in helping Dubai to become a genuine all year round visitor destination? It is clear that DSS is getting stronger every year and has now become one of the major events in the region and is helping to boost visitor numbers and play a positive role in the continuing growth of Dubai's tourism economy. Today Dubai has something to offer visitors every month of the year and Emirates Airline is proud to be part of that ongoing push to encourage more people to visit the city as part of the 60-million plus passengers we fly around the world every year. What has Emirates been actively doing to help encourage more summer visitors? Through our specialist holidays business - Emirates Holidays - we have been offering a range of fantastic summer breaks in Dubai that has certainly helped to boost passenger numbers and help with the growth of visitors to Dubai. We have been working closely with a number of hotels - especially Atlantis and the Marriott Marquis - to offer great summer package deals to Dubai. In addition Emirates has been providing special summer fares from a number of GCC destinations in particular and working closely in partnership with DTCM to continue to promote what Dubai has to offer as a summer destination. Have you witnessed any new or surprising trends for Emirates airline during this DSS? One brand new trend we have seen for the first time this year is that of more repeat visits from residents in the GCC. In the past families from many GCC countries would make one visit to Dubai and then stay here for some time. This year we have witnessed a new phenomenon with more families coming for a shorter period - and then coming back for a second visit which means the frequency of visits from the GCC is increasing for us. In addition we have noticed that we are now getting longer stopovers because of DSS. In particular we are finding that visitors from India who route through Dubai on their way to other destinations such as Europe and the US are now attracted by DSS to stay in Dubai for a few days and travel on and they are looking for a great shopping experience and to buy gifts to take to with them. How important is the role of DFRE to the ongoing economic prosperity of Dubai in terms of creating innovative festival concepts? It is clear that the work of DFRE and of DTCM is continuing to play a vital role in creating a year round environment and series of festivals and events that make Dubai a place to visit any time of the year. With so many festivals now in place there is something happening all the time and this has been a hugely successful strategy from DFRE to create festivals and fill in the gaps during the year. -
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