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Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing
(DTCM) officials recently held discussions with a senior Japanese economist and
former director general of Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) on ways to boost cooperation between both the UAE and Japan in different
fields, especially in tourism and trade.
The meeting was chaired by the DTCM Director General Mr. Khalid A bin
Sulayem and attended by Mr. Mitsuhito Ono, former director of JETRO and currently a senior economist with the Institute of International Trade &
Investment (ITI) of Japan. Mr.Ono is presently studying Dubai's policy of
promoting tourism as the driving force behind emirate's economic development.
Mr.bin Sulayem praised the strong and expanding relations between the
UAE and Japan in general and Dubai in particular and briefed the Japanese
guest about the efforts of DTCM in promoting Dubai all over the world.
He also briefed Mr. Ono on the new projects in Dubai, including Dubai land,
The Palm and the Dubai Festival City and provided him with the statistics
about the performance of the hotel sector in Dubai.
Highlighting the increase in the number of Japanese guests visiting Dubai,
Mr. bin Sulayem said: "The number of hotel guests from Japan has been registering year-on-year increase with more than 23 per cent increase in
2002 compared with the 2001 figures.”
Japanese visitors jumped to 30,319 in 2002 up from 24,602 in 2001. The
number of Japanese tour operators featuring Dubai in their programmes has also doubled, from 63 in 1998-1999 to 127 in 2002-2003.
Dubai's trade with Japan has also seen an impressive growth of 17 per
cent, from AED6.33 billion in 2001 to AED7.39 billion in 2002. Currently,
there are 43 Japanese companies based in Dubai and 72 in the Jebel Ali Free Zone. |
