Gulf states look at China

DUBAI — Airline executives and hospitality executives said on Monday that they expect Chinese inbound tourism to the Middle East to continue to boom following the lifting of visa restrictions by several Arab states. They made the remarks at the 24th edition of the Arabian Travel Market fair and exhibition.

Briefing the media at a press conference, Qatar Air ways CEO Akbar Al-Baker praised the visaon-arrival scheme for Chinese travelers the Gulf Arab states implemented since September last year.

“The removal of pre-visa requirements has triggered an increase in Chinese travelers to Qatar and this is only the beginning,” says Al-Baker.

Qatar Airways flies to six cities in China.

Elie Milky, vice-president for business development in the Middle East at the American-Belgian hotel brand Carlson Rezidor says he was also upbeat about Chinese travelers to the Gulf Arab region.

“We run in the United Arab Emirates nine hotels and we will open another 14 resorts by 2019. This is mainly because of the fast growing number of guests from Asia, China in particular. All of our hotels in the Middle East employ Mandarin-speaking staff.”

Earlier in the day, Dubai Tourism, the biggest government-controlled hospitality group in the UAE says the emirate saw 4.57 million travelers in the first three months of this year, an 11 percent increase compared to the same period in 2016.

“Among Dubai’s top 20 source markets for inbound tourism, China continued to top the growth trajectory charts with an unparalleled 64 percent increase over the first quarter in 2016, delivering 230,000 tourists,” Dubai Tourism says.

The UAE, to which Dubai belongs, implemented a visa-on-arrival scheme for Chinese nationals at the end of last year.

Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of Dubai Tourism, said at the event that “China’s strong growth in the number of tourists in response to our initiatives are a clear reflection of the importance of such measures as facilitators of tourism sector growth.”

Thierry Antinori, chief commercial officer of Dubai’s Emirates Airline says the carrier launched flights to the Chinese cities of Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Zhengzhou in Henan province in May last year.

He says the services are maturing and the UAE’s relaxed visa policy for Chinese travelers will lead to more growth.