Indian tourists log second-largest presence in Abu Dhabi

The UAE capital of Abu Dhabi has recorded its most successful year ever in terms of hotel guest arrivals with India becoming its second largest international source market.

The number of Indians arriving into Abu Dhabi rose by 30 percent to 108,170 guests and is now the emirate's second largest, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), said.

Abu Dhabi has registered 2,111,611 arrivals beating its 2011 stretch target of 2 million by 6.5 per cent or over 100,000 guests.

"Asia's growth was particularly influenced by increased in arrivals from India, which rose by 30 per cent to 108,170 guests and is now the Emirate's second largest international source market, and China, which was up 15 per cent to 16,795.

"We will continue to focus heavily on these emerging markets with a four-city travel trade road show in India next month culminating in our biggest pavilion yet at the SATTE travel trade fair in New Delhi and will equally benefit from Etihad's planned launch of a non-stop, daily service from Shanghai from March," the statement said.

Annual growth was recorded across a number of key metrics including: guest nights, which were up 22 per cent to 6.3 million; occupancy levels which rose 7 per cent to 69 per cent; revenue, which rose 3 per cent to USD 1.2 billion and length of stay which expanded 5 per cent to 2.97 nights.

Room revenue increased by 2 per cent to USD 631 million, though the average room rate slipped by 14 per cent to USD 133, while food and beverage revenue increased by 6 percent to USD 434.721 million, the authority said.

December delivered a bumper return for Abu Dhabi with some 207,723 guests checking into the Emirate's hotels, a 26 per cent rise on December 2010 and the highest achieving month of the year.

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