Established source markets for the regional meetings industry are being challenged by emerging markets – led by India and China – which, in turn, is reshaping the dynamics of the Middle East market. In the UAE, general tourism figures for the first
six months of 2012 show significant growth from both China and India, continuing the consistent year-on-year improvements that have been seen since before the global financial crisis. Chinese visitor growth in Abu Dhabi for the first half of the year reached 84 percent, while India was 31 percent, making it the emirate’s second largest source market. In Dubai, stats for Q1 2012 show a 22 percent year-on-year increase in visitors from China and an 11 percent rise in guests from India. These results come as little surprise, already
having been predicted by the Middle East’s meeting industry in the annual barometer to the health of the sector – The Gulf Meetings Industry Research – revealed at GIBTM in March. The research polls a wide cross-section of buyers and suppliers operating in the region. According to the research findings, the
Middle East’s meetings industry now attracts more delegates from Asia than it does from longstanding source markets such as the UK, Germany and France. The regional research also indicated this
was not a unique prediction from the Gulf: it was a trend refl ected worldwide. Global buyers named China their second most important country for business, ranked only behind the US. Over the next 12 months, buyers predict that India will be their greatest source of business. This is a very different picture to the same
survey a year earlier where India featured as the ninth most important source market for Middle East buyers with China not even factoring into responses. Much changed during 2011 and Asian markets started to represent an increasingly large proportion of overall business, especially in the dominant tourism markets of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
PARADIGM SHIFT Gulf countries seeking tourism growth are all looking eastwards, whether for business or leisure guests. As economic woes slow the tide of business from western markets, Asia’s emerging economies are stepping in to fill the gap. The engine of this growth is China and India’s newly rich middle classes, whose spending clout is driving Asia’s biggest outbound visitor boom to date. “China and India are set to be in the top two
markets in terms of absolute growth in outbound visitor numbers to 2016,” says Nadejda Popova, Travel and Tourism Analyst at Euromonitor International. “As source markets, there’s no question they have tremendous potential.”
million Indian travellers
year by more than 50
the spending power per
US$28 billion
The statistics speak for themselves. China, home to the world’s
fastest-growing source of outbound travellers (65 million in 2011), will have more than 100 million outbound travellers by 2020, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). India will spawn more than 50 million travellers, with spending power of US$28 billion per year. Together, they have the potential to transform the dynamics
of the global travel industry, says Chiheb Ben Mahoud, Executive Vice President of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Middle East and Africa. “The growth of these markets is much bigger than other more established markets, such as the US or Western Europe. This is due to their demographics and spending power.” The GCC made early efforts to court Asia’s wealthy visitors
by loosening visa regulations and directly marketing to travel agents: a method that has paid off. Dubai, the region’s tourism hub, played host to more than 700,000 Indian visitors in 2011 and more than 210,000 Chinese visitors. Neighbouring Abu Dhabi saw an 84 percent rise in Chinese travellers in the fi rst six months of 2012 as guest numbers from the US, UK and France declined. In Qatar, the state-backed tourism authority reported a 58 percent rise in visitors from Asia in the fi rst six months of 2012. It is a trend that has carried over into the UAE’s
corporate travel market. DMCs and hotels in the Gulf’s second wealthiest economy are reporting a surge in meetings and incentive travel, as Dubai in particular becomes a destination of choice for Asia’s meeting and event planners. “China and India rank in our top
five feeder markets for meetings and events,” says Carl Palmlund, Vice President of Group Sales for Atlantis The Palm, Dubai. “We’ve had very steady growth out of India for meetings and exhibitions, but also for incentive travel and China is going from strength to strength. I’d say 35 to 40 percent of travellers from these markets come as part of a corporate group.”
Carl Palmlund
Facing page & right: China and India have both hosted Formula 1 and have a fl ourishing middle class with incr eased spending power
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