UAE: Alpha Destination Opens India Offices

UAE-based Alpha Destination Management has joined hands with Bird Group to open seven offices across India this month and bring more tourists to Dubai.

Headquartered in New Delhi, Bird Group is one of India’s fastest growing business conglomerates with interests in travel technology, aviation services, hospitality, luxury retail and education.

“Alpha Destination Management will run three main offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai. In addition, four representative offices in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad will be managed in cooperation with Bird Group,” Alpha Destination chief executive officer Ghasan Aridi said in a statement.

Aridi believes that the seven offices in India will significantly boost inbound tourists to Dubai. Established in 1996, Alpha Destination Management has managed to achieve significant targets and gain a major market share within the tourism sector of the UAE.

Last year, Dubai hosted around 1.6 million Indian tourists compared to 1.2 million tourists in 2014, showing a remarkable growth of 26 per cent. The first quarter of 2016 also witnessed a 17 per cent year-on-year growth in Indian tourists (467,000).

“Dubai is one of the most popular destinations for tourists from India and at the same time India is one of the most important markets for Dubai,” Aridi.

Dubai offers all the ingredients to attract tourists in the emirate starting from the world-class airport, airlines, range of hotels, exciting cuisines, and a lot more.

Upcoming theme parks in Dubai will take the city to another level in terms of tourists’ attractions. Specially, the world’s first Bollywood Park, which is scheduled to open in October this year, is expected to be a big hit among Indian tourists.

Last year, Dubai attracted more than 14.2 million overnight visitors, showing a 7.5 per cent increase over 2014, according to annual figures released by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. The figure means Dubai was the fourth most visited city in the world in 2015.

“By opening new offices in India, we want to help Dubai achieve a 20 million tourists target in the next five years,” Aridi said.

He hoped that Alpha’s new offices will see a significant impact on Dubai inbound tourists from India in the fourth quarter of 2016.