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On January 24th BANKO Information Service reported that the Association of Dubai In-country Companies intends to insist on price reduction by hotels of the emirate (news/ 24.01). On January 25th a BANKO correspondent found out the details of the action. According to experts, the initiative belongs to the Head of Arabian Travel Company Alfa Tour, Gasan Al-Aridi, who is responsible for Russian sector in the company. ‘We intend to attract more tourists from Russia. But if prices increase nobody will travel to Dubai. Therefore we plan to fight with local hoteliers who tend to overprice accommodation’, said Al-Aridi in an exclusive interview to a BANKO correspondent. Although he did not specify the methods of fight, Al-Aridi added that Association’s plan refers only to the next winter season.
Meanwhile, Moscow travel companies are not very enthusiastic regarding their Dubai colleagues’ initiative. Some travel market players prefer to wait for the outcome. Tatiana Chuvilkina, General Director Deputy of Natalie Tours, pointed out that they had not received an official letter from their Dubai partners. ‘It is difficult to forecast the result at the moment. They have just started to deal with the hotels, thus the reaction of hoteliers is not known yet’, added Chuvilkina.
Furthermore, other Russian tour operators do not consider the Association’s initiative to be reasonable. For example, Dmitryi Artyunov, the Head of Art-Tour travel company, believes that tourist traffic to Dubai increases every year and high prices do not affect the demand. ‘In Dubai pricing has always followed the market laws being very vulnerable to changes in demand. Besides, many Russian companies are not interested in Dubai companies intentions as they prefer to work directly with hotels’, stated the expert. Sergey Ovchinnikov, Sales Director of Space Travel holds the same opinion, doubting the possibility of price decrease in Dubai. Nevertheless, all divide opinion that the outcome is to be seen after Arabian partners make an official proposal.
