Chinese firm’s 10-day jaunt swells UAE’s coffers by $80m

A CHINESE company is reported to have boosted the United Arab Emirates (UAE) economy by about $80-million (R845-million) with a 10-day jolly for nearly 15 000 staff.

Nu Skin China, a subsidiary of US marketing and sales group Nu Skin Enterprises, flew about 14 500 workers to the UAE for a 10day trip, reports website 7DAYSinDubai.

While it is not clear how much the company spent on the trip, or how much was spent while in the UAE, Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing said the trip “generated an economic impact estimated at $80-million”.

The company was reported to have required 77 flights and 39 hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as two hired Emirates charter flights.

Dubai won the bid to host the Nu Skin trip in January last year, beating off competition from Macau, the South Korean capital of Seoul and also Singapore.

“Our successful hosting of the 14 500-delegate incentive group from China has shown the world what we in the emirate have long known,” Steen Jakobsen, director of the Dubai Convention and Events Bureau, which is a division of the department, told the website.

“That Dubai has the expertise, infrastructure, dynamic leisure attractions and key partnerships to host events and groups of any size and scale, from anywhere in the world.”

Dubai has set out plans to overtake London and become the world’s most visited city, attracting 20 million tourists by 2020.

This is planned to coincide with the Expo 2020, an international architecture and technology trade fair that is expected to bring $23billion into the UAE. — © The Daily Telegraph, London