Travel Bulletin spoke to Mary Murphy and Chris Lee from Ajman Tourism at YouTravels roadshow this month, hearing all about the destinations offerings and unique positioning.
How is Ajman positioning itself as a distinct destination in the Emirates?
It's the smallest Emirate in the UAE, but we class it as a little gem. It's undiscovered, but it packs a punch! It's really good value for money, so you can get a five-star luxury hotel, but the pricing is pretty good. With the hotels, we've got natural sandy beaches, you've got wetlands, you've got the great outdoors, and there really is just something to do for everyone.
There's a lot to do with biological and eco tourism. There's around 60 different species of birds, and we're on course to plant over 50,000 trees this year.
How are you pitching the destination to agents?
I think it's just offering that something, something a bit more unique. So it's about the real cultural experience at the destination. So you really get to feel that it's a real Emirati experience: the history, the culture, the food.
There's everything that you would find in other Emirates, like shopping, but it can differentiate itself because of its uniqueness and its history. I think the nice thing is that you do actually get to sort of meet with locals, you can go to the National Heritage Center, where they focus on craft shops, local restaurants - a lot of locals will actually frequent there, and that's something we don't always see in some of the areas.
How important is the UK market at the moment, and how important could it be moving forward?
I think it's very important. The UK market of avid travelers, often at least, are always looking for something different, especially with the UAE developing itself over time. When we do things like the recent roadshow, the interest that we've got from agents is really quite encouraging. And we believe in it. We know it's something quite special.
The UK is the third largest international market. And we are on target to match 2019.
How are you looking to engage with the trade?
Lots of marketing! We're doing fam trips and we're actually running a competition at the moment for places on the on a fam. We're bringing people out there, we're doing press, we've got social media campaigns. So really we're hitting every target.
How should agents pitch the destinations to clients that aren't familiar with it? What response have you had from this week's roadshow?
We've got everything from the mountains, to the beach, to the city, the wetlands, nowhere else offers such a huge amount of variety. So natural diversity, and then underpinned by the sense of authentic Emirati experiences.
Agents might have known about it, but they didn't know how to sell it. And so we've given them lots of hints and tips. Quite a few of them have just shown so much interest, because they want to be able to offer something different.
Recap this month's YouTravel roadshow in the latest issue of Travel Bulletin.
