Lama Tours and Holidays expands UAE presence
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LAMA Group is setting up a dedicated subsid
iary, LAMA Tours & Holidays, in Abu Dhabi to leverage the emirate’s growing stature as a ‘stand-alone’ destination. The subsidiary will open with seven, full-time staff and will operate from an office in Abu Dhabi’s Tourist Club area and targeting its inbound operations on four specific sectors – MICE, Weddings, Free Independent Traveler (FIT) and Digital Media.
The move comes as LAMA identifies significant potential for Abu Dhabi which the Group’s Managing Director, Kulwant Singh, says is becoming recognized as “a new, welcoming destination with high end accommodation.”
LAMA currently accounts for over 150,000 Indian visitors annually to the UAE and is also marketing F1 packages to Indian visitors.
“This will provide a major boost for hotel guest tally from India which has been growing monthly over the past 18 months,” said His Excellency Mubarak Al Muhairi, Director General of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).
“We have been given significant support from TCA Abu Dhabi for this move, which will help us sell the emirate to the MICE segment, particularly out of India, for the growing Indian wedding market which is keen on the UAE, for the FIT sector,” said Singh.
LAMA, which is headquartered in Dubai and currently handles between 60% and 70% of the Indian inbound traffic into the UAE, says potential is also high to market Dubai and Abu Dhabi as a two centre UAE stay. “Currently our average stay in Dubai is 2.5 nights which, if we add on Abu Dhabi, we could expand into a UAE stay of 4.5 nights particularly given the fact that one visa will serve both destinations making it easier and more cost-effective for the Indian traveler,” added Singh.
