31 LEADING TOUR OPERATORS FROM RUSSIA & UKRAINE TO FEATURE DUBAI

Following a comprehensive tourism presentation by the Government of Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) on Wednesday (September 26th) a group of 31 leading tour operators from Russia and Ukraine have agreed to include Dubai in their itineraries.

"We are persistently targeting the CIS market in a bid to strengthen our position in this market and more importantly to emphasize our on-going commitment to push for quality rather than numbers," said DTCM Director General, Khalid A. bin Sulayem.

He noted that the DTCM's marketing efforts have been very successful in recent years and there are currently 526 tour operators in Russia and the CIS offering Dubai packages, an increase of 24% over 1999/2000.

DTCM Manager Missions, Hamed bin Mejren gave a comprehensive presentation to the tour operators and convinced them of the department's year-round support.

"We are committed to promoting Dubai across Russia, CIS and the Baltic States and the most apparent indication of the significance we assign to this market can be determined from the fact that we are operating an office in Moscow to cover the region."

The group was given an extensive familiarization of Dubai by local tour operators Enma Tours who handled all their ground arrangements.