Abu Dhabi steps up presence at ITB Berlin

“It’s our strongest ITB delegation to date which keenly reflects the growth in the destination’s supplier base, experience line up and product portfolio,” explained Mubarak Al Nuaimi, Director Promotions & Overseas Offices, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), which is mounting the pavilion.

The pavilion this year is divided between three distinction ‘destinations within the destination.’ These include Abu Dhabi city – the United Arab Emirates’ capital and its immediate surrounds; Al Ain – the emirate’s Oasis City heritage heartland and Al Gharbia – the emirate’s Western Region characterised as where the desert meets the sea.

“The visitor offering of Abu Dhabi emirate is extremely diverse and we wish to show more of the options available,” explained Al Nuaimi. “We want to encourage visitors to get out into the wider emirate to experience our heritage, captivating landscape and myriad of activities.

“We have more opportunities than ever to grow our business from Europe, particularly Germany, with airberlin planning to introduce a second daily flight between Berlin and Abu Dhabi from October 26th increasing route capacity by 2,093 seats. Etihad Airways and airberlin have also expanded their codeshare agreement to India which means that Etihad passengers from Germany will be able to book flights to six Indian destinations, via Abu Dhabi. This opens up huge new stopover opportunities for us.”

Currently three airlines – airberlin, Etihad and Luftansa – fly from four German destinations, namely Dusseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, to Abu Dhabi with a combined total of 56 flights a week.

Among this year’s Abu Dhabi pavilion are new tour operators, hotel groups and attractions.