UAE capital Abu Dhabi will focus on highlighting the city as a destination for tourists with a range of interests at the World Travel Market (WTM), a leading global event for the travel industry, in London, UK, next month.

The 500-sq-m Abu Dhabi pavilion has a totally new design to highlight the emirate’s great landscape, cultural and attractions diversity.

 “We’ll be spelling out to visitors that this is a destination for families, independent and group travellers across a vast range of interests and price points,” said Mubarak Al Nuaimi, director promotions and overseas officers, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi). “We have three highly differentiated regional offerings within our emirate – the largest of the seven that make up the United Arab Emirates – and we’ll be highlighting their distinctive appeal.”

The pavilion will be segmented into Abu Dhabi city, and its surrounds and islands; the Oasis City of Al Ain, which is the emirate’s heritage heartland and host to a myriad of Unesco World Heritage sites; and Al Gharbia, the emirate’s western region.

Eighty-two firms will share the pavilion with a compelling mix of hotels and resorts, tour operators, attractions, destination management companies and sporting and major event venues.

Included in Abu Dhabi’s WTM line-up is the home-grown new Andalus Hotels & Resorts brand which will open its first property – the Al Seef Resort by Andalus - in September next year and Al Ain Club Investment Company, which is behind the 25,000 seat Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium – a major sports and events venue. The pavilion will also host the official international launch of Al Ain’s new Al Bada Desert Resort and feature the pre-opening promotion of the Sheikh Zayed Desert Learning Centre which is nearing completion at Al Ain Zoo

Visitors to the pavilion will be able to take a cycle tour of the emirate via the www.visitabudhabi.ae online destination resource. They can also check out the emirate’s increasingly vibrant events programme on www.abudhabievents.ae.

Abu Dhabi believes next year’s Edinburgh-Abu Dhabi Etihad flights will again lift UK arrivals to the destination where Britain is already the second largest overseas market for hotels guests after India.

In the first eight months of this year 122,893 Britons checked into Abu Dhabi’s 156 hotels and hotel apartments – which was a 27 per cent year-on-year uplift. The UK guests delivered 533,181 guest nights, which was up 16 per cent year-on-year.

Moreover, Abu Dhabi has lined up a host of major events including the reintroduction of the popular Abu Dhabi Classics international concert season, which will run until May 2015.

“Next year looks extremely promising for our destination and stakeholders and we look forward to a key highlight – the planned year-end opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi universal museum on our Saadiyat Island’s Cultural District. We anticipate huge interest in this development emanating from the European market with some 300 artworks from French museums joining the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s permanent collection for the December 2015 opening including works of Monet, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Warhol and Matisse,” said Al Nuaimi. – TradeArabia News Service