DRMumbai: Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority conducted multi-city educational and training sessions recently in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Nagpur and Lucknow.
Key agents from the cities were invited to the event. The aim of the seminar was to increase visibility of the emirate of Sharjah and to promote its three themes– ‘Culture & Heritage’, ‘Gastronomy’ and ‘Adventure’ amongst Indian travelers and to educate the travel agents about Sharjah and the products it has to offer for both the Leisure and Family segment, and update their knowledge about the USP’s of the destination, the INR-Dirham exchange rate, upcoming events and how it caters to the different segments of Indian travelers.
Sharjah has a fine balance between tradition and modernity which is a key differentiating factor that sets Sharjah apart from other global tourism destinations. The emirate is the cultural capital of the region, due to its continuing focus on preserving and celebrating its rich cultural heritage. The emirate has a long-standing reputation of being a family friendly destination as well. These achievements are further underscored by a series of recognition the emirate has garnered, including UNESCO’s ‘Culture Capital of the Arab World’ in 1998 as well as the ‘Capital of Islamic Culture’ title in 2014, ‘Capital of Arab Tourism 2015’ and most recently, ‘World Book Capital 2019’ titles which makes it a perfect weekend destination.
Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Chairman, SCTDA, said “India is a very lucrative market and we are aware of the potential it holds in terms of inbound visitor traffic into Sharjah. We are tapping into the worldwide travel trend where travelers are looking for experiential, deeply immersive cultural travel. This trend of experience-driven travel is set to continue, and we are confident that Sharjah will lead the pack with its unique immersive itineraries. Our Indian visitors value this aspect of Sharjah as well as the emirate’s reputation as a family destination and its cultural and destination-driven perspective.” During the seminar SCTDA also spoke about some of the Emirate’s new and upcoming exciting projects and along with an SCTDA presentation, Air Arabia, the emirate’s official airline partner also made a presentation updating the travel agents about the direct flights currently operating from India.
The agents displayed great interest in Sharjah as a cost effective weekend destination and in order to further strengthen its key messages, a Q&A session was held wherein SCTDA asked three general questions about the Emirate to the agents and two winners giving all the three correct answers from each city won an all-expenses paid FAM trip to Sharjah. The events were wrapped up with a networking dinner.
