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AME Info asked the German National Tourist Board's new manager for the GCC
States, Heike Murad, how she thought
Germany would develop
as a destinatation for GCC tourists, and what the appeal of
Dubai was to German
tourists.
The GNTB takes care of the development of tourists from GCC (Gulf
Cooperation Council) to Germany. So our main objective is to promote Germany
as a tourist destination, to enhance the image of Germany as a tourist
destination and last but not least to increase the number of travelers to
Germany.
We do it in different ways just to name some of them:
- Study tours to Germany with travel agents or press
- Participation in the Arabian Travel Mart
- Road shows
- Get-together's either with travel agents or private persons with
Germany presentations
- We 'build bridges' between the tourism partners from the Gulf region
and Germany, bring both parties together for easier handling and direct
possibilities of negotiation etc.
- A main part is PR work to create a constantly awareness
Tourism to Germany booms
The latest figures are very good so we have a tremendous increase on
overnight stays to Germany of 40.9% for July only and cumulative January to
July is up 26% compared to 2004.
Travel destination number one is still Bavaria and
Munich but more and
more also other destinations within Germany like
Hamburg,
Berlin,
Stuttgart
are facing a very good increase of travelers from the Golf region.
From the other direction Dubai is proving very popular with German
tourists, for the following reasons:
- Dubai is very well promoted within Germany, the German office of the
DTCM has done a great job for many years to promote the destination.
- Very convenient to reach and just a six hour flight and always the
guarantee of good weather (otherwise you have to fly much longer from
Germany to reach the 'all-year-summer-regions').
- Germans come regularly to the Gulf region and like to combine Dubai
with another Gulf country or having a stop over on the way to the Far East.
- Nowadays the travelers even use the hot summer months to come to Dubai.
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