Having adopted a selective approach in its tourism promotion in order to follow the principles of sustainability, Sharjah Tourism is focusing to draw a certain audience including family and MICE segments from India. “We have mainly business travellers from India with a short stay. We are getting a lot of VFRs which is another big chunk of Indian travellers. However, we are missing the Indian family travellers who can really add value to Sharjah and we are looking at this segment as we know that Indian travellers are looking for the experiences and learning from their trips. Our focus is on the family segment as Sharjah, being the cultural and educational hub of UAE, is a perfect fit for Indian travellers. Our products are more educational,” Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Chairman, Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, Government of Sharjah, said at the sidelines of a roadshow in New Delhi. Sharjah offers 22 museums, eight protected sites, an archaeological discovery centre.
The Authority started its tourism promotion in India in 2014 and currently India is the 4th largest source markets. “We do not want to climb to number one in tourism as sustainability is our key focus. We are looking at the long term benefits. We want Indian visitors but we are targeting a certain audience as our products cater to these segments. In our next trip, we will definitely bring our MICE venues. MICE market here is much bigger than before and they want experiential travel,” Midfa said. The roadshow witnessed participation of nine exhibitors from Sharjah apart from Sharjah’s national carrier, Air Arabia. Tourism contributes nine per cent of the GDP of Sharjah and Midfa is very happy with this. “We still want to grow but as long as we bring the right kind of tourists.”
Replying to a question over the slow pace of marketing and promotional efforts in India, Midfa said that Sharjah is coming to India 4-5 times in a year covering different cities but this is not enough. “We need to be present in India whole year. We are about to sign with a PR agency. We were struggling about signing up with PR agency in past years not only in India but in our five main source markets. We have now almost selected one of the top PR agencies in India. We will be making an announcement in November. This will really make a difference for us,” he said explaining that the selection process for PR agency took time because it’s a very detailed agreement. “You have to know your KPIs and where is your audience. One needs to be much more focused to achieve the desired result. You need to find right partner who is willing to take the part of the responsibility to promote the destination in a right way. We do not want a partner who is working with a destination competing with us,” he informed. He made it clear that Sharjah Tourism is not going to open its office in India. “We think that is a waste of money, time and resources because you cannot manage your staffs who are sitting here from Sharjah. It is always better to deal with the company who has knowledge of local market,” he added.
He said that Sharjah Tourism focuses on those cities in India that are connected directly by Air Arabia, the national carrier of Sharjah. Air Arabia currently operates 112 weekly flights to India, connecting 13 cities. “Almost 60 per cent of traffic from India is point to point traffic and 40 per cent goes beyond our hub in Sharjah. We have excellent performance throughout the years on India routes, notching above 90 per cent load factor. Of the total traffic, we have 30-40 per cent leisure, MICE and VFR. We also a good student traffic from India,” Sachin Nene, Regional General Manager – India, Air Arabia, said.
