Bride Dubai rewarding for Seychelles tourism

Bride Dubai 2016, a consumer event, offered a fun, interactive, dynamic, and exciting 4 days that inspired not just the bride but also different women who want to be fabulously beautiful. The affair, the region’s leading wedding and lifestyle event, was well-attended, as men and women alike, and people in different status quos, went and enjoyed the fair.

The Seychelles Tourism Board Office in Dubai had a fruitful participation at Bride Dubai held last February 10-13, 2016 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The yearly wedding and lifestyle event attracted more than 30,000 visitors with a good number of companies from different industries joining and exhibiting at the event. The Seychelles Tourism Board Office in Dubai is very pleased with the outcome, as a majority of those who visited the stand were planning to spend their honeymoon or wedding in the Seychelles, and in addition to that, there were also families who visited the stand and plan to spend their family holidays in the destination.

UAE is considered as one of the consistent top feeder markets to Seychelles, and in the 2015 year ending visitor statistics, it recorded a 52.96 % increase in visitor arrivals. As the office intends to be more visible at the consumer level this year, Bride Dubai is a fitting event where the Seychelles Tourism Board Office in Dubai had the chance to interact with different people either telling their wonderful experience in Seychelles or looking for a perfect place for their wedding or honeymoon. The event also was a great platform to know what the consumer needs and what Seychelles can do to address it.

“With the increasing number of visitors Seychelles is receiving from the UAE, this shows that the destination is being recognized as one of the dream destinations. We are elated to know that travelers are aware of the destination, and its popularity goes not just to couples for their weddings and honeymoons, but also for family holidays,” said Ahmed Fathallah, Regional Manager, Seychelles Tourism Board Office in Dubai.

A majority of the inquiries the office received from different stand visitors were for honeymoons from February-September 2016 and the latter part of the year, as well as weddings and honeymoons for the early part of 2017. Family holiday inquiries were also received for the month of August 2016.

“The affirmative response we have received from the consumers at Bride Dubai 2016, inspires us to participate in other consumer-focused fairs. Having a continuous presence serves as a reminder about the product and its offering,” added Fathallah.

Bride Dubai 2016 is still considered as one of the targeted niche consumer events for the Seychelles Tourism Board Office in Dubai which will explore more opportunities to further increase the awareness and attract more visitor arrivals to the Seychelles islands.

Seychelles is a founding member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .