DUBAI: Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing has reported record growth in overnight visitors from Japan, crossing the 100,000 mark for the first time at the end of 2018.

Reflecting a 15.3 percent year-on-year increase, the emirate welcomed 104,843 overnight visitors, with the robust growth underscoring efforts to further showcase the breadth of the city’s ever-expanding tourism proposition, cementing Dubai’s ongoing commitment to the Japanese market.

Dubai Tourism says it adopted a custom market specific approach and tried to expand its reach across Japan targeting segmented demographics through strategic activations, always-on marketing campaigns and ongoing trade and business partnerships with key industry players.

“In order to drive awareness and consideration around Dubai as a holiday destination among Japan’s target market, the department identified women and senior citizens as key drivers in the travel and tourism space. Furthermore, building on the city’s commitment to ensure ease of accessibility, Japanese visitors benefit from daily flights from Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda and Kansai International Airport in Osaka,” said a statement issued by Dubai Tourism.

Dubai Tourism led a campaign to showcase the city as a safe and exciting destination specifically targeting young female travellers. The campaign leveraged user videos and image posts, as well as inviting users to participate in ongoing competitions throughout the year to showcase Dubai’s attractions to a broader audience. This campaign achieved 91.6 million impressions across a three month period, driving deeper engagement and encouraging wider conversations around Dubai.

Working to deliver an enhanced travel experience for Japanese visitors to the emirate, Dubai Tourism has partnered with a market leading travel agency in Japan to provide easy access to Dubai’s travel products and information though sales and retail promotions across major Japanese cities.



