Dubai shuts down tourism office in Russia
MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) shut down its Russian office on January 1, Russian Union of Travel Industry press secretary Irina Tyurina said.
"For now, the Russian designation will be directly supervised by the headquarters in the emirate. Some say that the promotion of Dubai in Russia will soon be outsourced to a network marketing agency," Tyurina said.
Russia and the CIS remain a priority market for Dubai, which saw stabilization and a certain rise in tourist arrivals from those countries in 2016, former office director Sergei Kanayev said. He said that the DTCM office had been working in Russia since 1996.
Dubai is the top travel destination for Russians in the UAE. The emirate was visited by 356,200 Russian tourists in 2015 and 236,400 in the first nine months of 2016.
Russian tour operators selling Dubai tours lauded the activity of the office and its director, Tyurina said, adding that the office did a lot to increase tourist arrivals in the Emirates.
According to the Russian Union of Travel Industry, the office was closed as a way to optimize expenses after the fall of oil prices reduced Dubai's revenue. The emirate shut down offices of its tourism department not only in Russia but also in some other countries.