Nu Skin holiday highlights Chinese tourism growth in Abu Dhabi

The success of the largest corporate holiday ever held in the UAE will spur Abu Dhabi to capture more of the fast growing Chinese market, according to the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority.

Some 14,500 of Nu Skin's top sellers from China packed the Emirates' hotels and restaurants, arriving a week ago for a 10-day trip. More than 6,000 have stayed at 16 hotels in the capital, including the Yas Viceroy and the Westin, accounting for 12,500 room nights booked, TCA said.

Nu Skin is a direct-sales organisation that sells beauty and nutrition products through a large network of recruited sales personnel.

“From specific welcome signs in Chinese, to welcome gifts and dedicated Chinese speaking staff on hand, the emirate demonstrated its ability to cater to this very important market. The Chinese [meetings and incentives] industry is currently worth an estimated US$150 billion and growing annually at 20 per cent – it’s a market we intend to have a share of,” said Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, the TCA chairman.

“We are using the Nu Skin experience as a case study in our efforts to attract similar Chinese business here and are backing up this promotion with major sales pushes this month at Shanghai’s important IT&CM trade fair and next month with a roadshow around the major Chinese cities.”

In April last year, 3,303 Chinese guests checked into Abu Dhabi’s hotels and stayed, on average, two nights, TCA Abu Dhabi said. This month, the Nu Skin delegation will account for 6,502 hotel guests who will stay, on average, five nights.

China is Abu Dhabi’s third-largest international source market for hotel guests.

Seventy-seven flights and 39 hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were needed to accommodate the visitors, who have also booked out Ferrari World for three days.

The Nu Skin visitors will depart on Wednesday.

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