In the cavernous main hall of London’s ExCel conference centre, the stands of Abu Dhabi and Dubai dominate the World Travel Market’s Middle East section.

It is a fitting reflection of travel in the region in 2014, with both emirates enjoying a surge in numbers as so many of their neighbours languish in the face of regional instability.

Upstairs at the two-storey stand of Abu Dhabi’s Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), the UK country manager Nabeel Al Zarouni is bullish about the emirates’ future tourism growth.

“We complement each other – at the end of the day we are one country,” says Mr Al Zarouni. “Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and we offer a different product – we offer the blend of old and new.”

It is an offering, he argues, that has proven popular over the past year, when eight hotels with more than 2,000 new rooms have come online in Abu Dhabi, and occupancy has grown by 7 per cent. That means the emirate, which once struggled with oversupply in the hotel sector, now boasts average occupancy rates of 73 per cent.

Much of that growth is coming from the United Kingdom, Mr Al Zarouni says, hence the major presence at this year’s World Travel Market (WTM). In the first eight months of the year 122,893 Britons checked into Abu Dhabi’s 156 hotels and hotel apartments – a 27 per cent year-on-year increase. UK visitors delivered 533,181 guest nights, up 16 per cent year on year.

“We promote Abu Dhabi in the UK both as a standalone destination – where people stay for a week or more – as well as an option for visitors having a stopover. If the latter, we are hoping to persuade them to expand it,” Mr Al Zarouni says.

With the Abu Dhabi Louvre due to open next year and Yas Mall imminently, as well as Abu Dhabi’s usual run of events and conferences, he adds that the emirate is confident for the future: “There is lots in the pipeline and we are looking forward to it,” he says.

Over on Dubai’s equally huge stand, Issam Kazim, the chief executive of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), is able to give perspective at the other end of the cycle. Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector, although buoyant, could be described as nascent, while Dubai’s is currently soaring.

The emirate recently announced it was aiming to raise visitor numbers to 20 million to coincide with the Dubai Expo, raising fears among some analysts that the sector risked overdevelopment – an issue Dubai struggled with in the property sector after the boom in the mid-2000s. Mr Kazim dismisses such criticism.

“A lot people are mixing up the Vision 2020 and the Expo 2020 numbers. Our focus is purely on Vision 2020. We’re expecting our hotels to be running at 100 per cent during the Expo – and we expect that in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah also – [but] we need to make sure that everything we are building will last beyond 2020,” he says.

He says lessons have been learnt since 2008, including not to overemphasise the five-star sector at the expense of the mid-range segment. As a result, the Dubai Government recently introduced incentives for developers building three and four-star hotels, including a waiving of municipality fees for five years – or six if the hotel is handed over within a year. DTCM has had about 50 applications since the rule was announced in March.

“What we did in the past worked but to get this next surge we to need to approach it by a completely different angle. In the past we supported the public sector, made sure they got what they needed, helping them – now it is taking a proactive approach,” Mr Kazim says.

Source: http://www.thenational.ae/business/travel-tourism/abu-dhabi-and-dubai-share-rosy-future-in-tourism