São Paulo – In a time when the high price of the US dollar fueled domestic travel package sales, tour operator CVC managed to increase the number of Brazilian tourists it took to the United Arab Emirates by 21%. The number concerns January to September of this year from the comparable period in 2014 and the information was released this Thursday (10) by CVC International Products director Adriano Gomes, at a training event on Dubai and the UAE for travel agents in São Paulo where he also spoke with the press.
CVC does not disclose actual tourist numbers, but Gomes claims the rate of growth was above average. According to the executive, tourists who travel to Dubai often stay less nights or choose a different hotel category in order to keep travelling despite the exchange rate. CVC is partners with Dubai’s carrier Emirates, with the local government and with the UAE Consulate General in São Paulo.
The training session for agents who sell CVC packages was the third one focusing on the UAE. Next year, the efforts will continue, coupled with marketing actions to advertise the destination and increase Brazilian tourist numbers in the Arab country even further.
The operator is working to “demystify” Dubai and show that it’s not an inaccessible place for Brazilians; that it can be visited by all demographics, from families with children to adventure-seeking tourists. And since Dubai is a layover hub, it can be combined into packages with destinations such as Japan, China, Egypt, India, Thailand, Australia, the Maldives and the Seychelles. According to Gomes, the starting price of a two-way ticket to Dubai is USD 800, and a package including travel, hotel, insurance and transfer goes for USD 1,200.
Stephane Perard, director general of Emirates in Brazil, who also attended the event, said that, in the short term, the airline is not planning to increase the frequency of flights to Brazil or to add bigger aircrafts to its operations. “As soon as operating conditions improve, Brazil has the potential to increase the capacity”, said Perard. The introduction by Emirates of direct flights between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and Dubai helped to increase the flow of travelers from Brazil to the region in the last few years.
The consul general of the United Arab Emirates in São Paulo, Saleh Ahmed Alsuwaidi, said to the operators that the UAE expects to attract this year 17 million tourists from all over the world. The supervisor of exotic products at CVC, Nathalia Moura, presented to the operators the UAE’s tourist attractions. She said that this is an actually “experience” trip, since in the country the Brazilian tourist will find everything different, from the culture to the language. However, the company offers guides and tour operators in Portuguese, and explains that, in addition to Arabic, the majority of the locals, of which many are foreigners, speak English. “It’s a luxury destination, but it’s also accessible and has many three-stars-and-up hotels”, she said.
Moura showed pictures and told about Dubai’s attractions, such as the ancient region of Deira, which hosts the majority of the traditional markets of the city, the airport itself with a lot of shops and the Emirates exclusive terminal, the Burj Al Arab hotel, to where CVC takes the tourists to snap pictures (there’s a possibility of purchasing a dinner or tea in the hotel), the Jumeirah Mosque, which is open to visits, the Dubai Museum, which tells the story of the Emirate, the gold and spices market, the Burj Khalifa, the world’s highest skyscraper and to which CVC takes its tourist to the observation deck.
The supervisor talked about the possibility of going in a boat ride on the Creek, a stretch of water that makes its way into the city, and of visits to the flower and plants park Miracle Garden, to the water park Aquaventure, to the ski park at the Mall of the Emirates, to the region visited by foreigners and with an active nightlife called Dubai Marina. She also talked about the safari in the desert with a stop in a camp for dinner, concerts, henna tattoos, camel rides and falcon shows; about the helicopter rides, high-sea fishing, golf, scuba diving, among other activities, or visit other emirates, such as Abu Dhabi.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani