Sanya Launches Tourism Marketing Events in the Middle East

On the occasion of "5.19 China Tourism Day" thematic month, Sanya Tourism Board went to the Middle East to carry out a series of marketing and promotion events for Sanya's overseas tourism in 2024. During the period of May 13th to 26th, Sanya Tourism Board held the Sanya Food Festival in Dubai, the Sanya Food & Culture Exchange and Promotion Week, tourism promotion event, and business visits to tourism associations, enterprises, and chambers of commerce representatives and other activities to show Sanya's unique tourism resources, cultural charms in a comprehensive manner. This is the first time Sanya go to the Middle East to carry out cross-border tourism marketing and promotional events, and is also an important initiative for Sanya to respond to the call of "China-UAE Jointly Constructing the Belt and Road Initiative", and to expand its passenger sources in overseas markets by taking advantage of the international aviation hub in the Middle East.

The Sanya Food Festival in Dubai is the highlight of the series of overseas tourism marketing and promotional events. A Bite in Two Cities' Campaign thematic activity was jointly launched by Sanya Tourism Board, Dubai Tourism, Atlantis Sanya, and Atlantis Dubai. The campaign, with the theme of "Cuisine as a medium, Two Cities' Collaboration" and the characteristic of "Culture and Tourism Fusion", realizes the first cross-border cooperation between Sanya and the Middle East, and deepens the exchanges between the two places in various fields such as tourism, culture, commerce and trade.

In the A Bite in Two Cities' campaign, two chefs from Sanya and Dubai Atlantis exchanged destinations, bringing fresh culinary experiences to tourists in each other's cities. From April 28th to May 12th, the "Dubai Food Festival" was held in Sanya, where Ali El Bourji, the Executive Chef of Dubai Atlantis, introduced authentic Middle Eastern delicacies such as Tagine Chicken Stew and Lebanese Fattoush Salad to Chinese tourists. From May 13th to 26th, during the "Sanya Food Festival" in Dubai, Norman Yu, the Executive Chef of Atlantis Sanya, led a team to Dubai to prepare authentic Sanya dishes such as Wenchang Chicken, Hele Crab, and Qingbuliang , so as to let Dubai's tourists enjoy a feast.

During the "Sanya Food Festival" in Dubai, the Sanya Food & Culture Exchange and Promotion Week in the Middle East was held at the same time. The event is set up with display of Li Brocade, Li Pottery, rattan weaving and colorful clay carvings, traditional clothes trying on, partridge tea tasting, coconut snacks, coconut candy tasting and other interactions with Sanya's cultural characteristics, thus all-roundly displaying Sanya's tropical resort style and ethnic cultural charm. The atmosphere at the event was lively. Dubai citizens and visitors actively participated in the interactions and expressed their interests and desires for Sanya.

On May 21st, the 2024 Sanya Overseas Tourism Promotion Event in Middle East was held at Atlantis, Dubai with more than 60 travel-related companies and media outlets in the Middle East attending. During the promotion, Sanya Tourism Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Rayna Tours, a large local travel agency in the UAE, on strengthening the flight connections, mutual transportation of passengers, and the development of culture and tourism industry. At the same time, Sanya Tourism Board enthusiastically promoted Sanya's specialty cuisines, intangible cultural heritage, recreation, accommodation and other vacation products. Sanya Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine introduced Chinese medicine specialties such as acupuncture, cupping, gua sha and natural medicines. In response to the concern about payment in Hainan, representative of Sanya Tourism Board introduced to the Middle East travel industry "Hi Epay App", which can realize the POS function on the cell phone, simplify the procedure of credit card swiping, and provide overseas tourists with high-quality and high-efficiency consumption payment experience by opening up the complaint channel and guaranteeing the security of the data.

During the stay in the UAE, representatives from the Sanya Tourism Board visited several large travel agencies, including Hunter International Travel Agency, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the UAE, Rayna Tours, China-Arab TV, and Peninsula Compass Tourism LLC, to discuss the characteristics of the tourism markets of the two places, the marketing and promotion mode and experience of the overseas markets, and reached a preliminary cooperation intention on how to utilize the status of the international aviation hub in the UAE area to connect the routes of other countries, so as to better connect the tourism products of "one trip with multiple stops" and promote the mutual transportation of the sources of passengers of the two places.

The UAE, located on the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East, is at the intersection of the "Belt and Road," making it an important partner for China's promotion of “the Belt and Road Initiative”, as well as a key inbound tourist market for Sanya. On January 30th, 2024, the first international route connecting Abu Dhabi and Haikou was opened, opening doors for bilateral travel and cooperation in culture, tourism, education, and technology. Mr. Albert Yip, General Director of Sanya Tourism Board said that Sanya will continue to strengthen tourism linkage and exchange with destinations along the "Belt and Road", with the 2024 Sanya Overseas Tourism Marketing Promotion Events in the Middle East as the core, relying on the status of Dubai's international aviation hub to radiate the surrounding emerging source cities, such as Abu Dhabi, Doha, to provide a good foundation for Sanya to link up with broader international arena, upgrade its "one trip with multiple stops” tourism products, develop new source markets and realize long-term cooperation.

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