Kahini Chakraborty – Mumbai
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HE Khalid Jasim Al Midfa
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The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) has turned its focus to the India market and is organising its first ever roadshow this month in Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. The authority is focusing on promoting its culture and heritage tourism offerings, targeting the families and leisure segment. The authority will be launching an interactive portal elaborating about the destination and its tourism offerings by the end of this year, and this will be followed by the launch of a mobile application providing one-stop-shop solution to travellers.
Speaking to Express TravelWorld, HE Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, director general, SCTDA said, “India is one of the most important and promising markets for Sharjah and the emirate every year attracts more number of tourists every year. Last year, Sharjah received more than 123,010 visitors from India, registering a 41 per cent increase over the previous year. These numbers are expected to grow further and we want to maintain those tourism number increase in the future as well.” This first ever roadshow is being organised in cooperation with Air Arabia, the flagship carrier of the emirate, as well as leading hotels from Sharjah such as Golden Tulip and Hotel Copthorne. This year the promotional campaign will witness Sharjah celebrating itself as the Islamic Culture Capital for the year 2014. While for the year 2015, the authority will be introducing new events, festivals, conferences, seminars etc, the information for which Midfa said would be announced at this year’s World Travel Market (WTM).
To cater to the growing demand of the MICE segment, the destination has the famous Expo Centre and India Trade and Exhibition Centre for hosting events. “A 200-keys four-star hotel will be developed which will be attached to the convention,” he informed. Furthermore, there is a huge demand for hospitality development for 3,000 keys over the next five years.
With regards to air connectivity, Midfa added that the region’s airline Air Arabia flies to 13 cities in India- Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvanathapuram and Nagpur.
