To attract larger Chinese tourist populations and promote the UAE’ largest city, Dubai Tourism authorities have decided to forge alliance with China’s online tech and marketing giant Alibaba.
The alliance has been established through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Dubai Tourism and Fliggy, the online travel service platform of Alibaba group, Trade Arabia reports.
The signing took place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou; the home of the Chinese tech giant.
Under the MoU, and among other aspects, Fliggy will provide space for Dubai Tourism to register as vendor. Stakeholders in Dubai Tourism through Fliggy can provide easy access to travel products of the Emirati megacity while also enhancing experience for Chinese visitors.
Fliggy is Alibaba’s online travel platform. It sells a wide range of travel products including flights, hotels, tour packages, and car rentals through online travel agencies and direct travel service providers.
The platform is visited by millions of Chinese tourists who reportedly now want to travel independently. Young generation of tourists whose numbers is ever growing is quite familiar with the platform, which, according to Dubai Tourism CEO, Issam Kazim, “is the natural partner”.
“It is essential that we keep abreast of these developments. Demand for independent travel is growing, with a large proportion of Chinese tourists preferring to make their own arrangements and travel without a tour guide,” Kazim added.
258,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai in the first quarter of the year alone, the online media notes.
The number soared by 12 per cent compared with figures of the same period last year.
