SHARJAH successfully wrapped up its 16th year of presentation at ITB Berlin, held from March 6-10, amid a huge turnout of visitors and participants at the Sharjah pavilion celebrating the culture and identity of the emirate and evolution and diversity of its tourism product.
Mohamed Ali Al Noman, chairman, Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) said that the Authority had achieved its objectives of participation in the high profile exhibition in the German capital.
The SCTDA strategy was aimed at putting up a collective front by all tourism sector stakeholders to reinvigorate the sector and develop tourism services in the region, he added.
Besides highlighting the latest developments in the tourism sector in the region and the large number of tourists it has been attracting, the exhibition also helped travel and tourism players in Sharjah’s delegation to promote tourism exchange programs and exchange ideas and experiences with the leading global travel and tourism players.
Al Noman said that marketing Sharjah’s tourism product was on the top of SCTDA’s priorities, alluding to the opening of the emirate for the German market. The emirate has already been attracting a large number of German and European tourists, who formed 36 per cent of the total tourists who visited the emirate in 2012, he pointed out. The emirate’s potential in tourism and its culture and natural landscape, not to mention its advanced infrastructure, luxury hotels and scientific, cultural and educational centres made it an ideal destination for European tourists.
The SCTDA chairman said that with the participation in the important international tourism forum, ITB Berlin, which is considered one the most important tourism fairs in the world, the Authority has wrapped up a long and rigorous marketing and promotional campaign by the Authority to project and enhance Sharjah’s leading role as a family tourism destination and increase the flow of international tourists to the emirate.