UAE. Dubai Airports has unveiled an array of celebrations, dedicated services and special amenities amid a week-long celebration of Chinese New Year.
The activities form part of a ‘China Ready’ strategy designed to boost traffic between Dubai and the 13 Chinese destinations served by Dubai International.
The airport has also installed dispensers offering drinkable hot-water, favoured by Chinese travellers. It is using Mandarin in certain communications, for example on digital menus in selected restaurants and digital channels such as the airport’s free wifi system Wow-Fi and the magazine Time Out DBX.
A growing number of retail and food concessionaires have begun to accept the mobile payment platform Alipay. The airport has also employed several Mandarin-speaking staff (Dubai Duty Free has long had a sizable Chinese contingent among its team). Four dedicated immigration counters at arrivals are hosted by Emiratis fluent in Mandarin.
Dubai Airports has partnered with the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing to include QR-code passport inserts for arriving Chinese passengers. This offers recommendations for events taking place across Dubai during Chinese New Year.
Last year, passenger traffic between Dubai International and China rose 6% to 3.5 million. Six airlines now operate 205 weekly flights to 13 destinations in China from the airport.
The festivities were launched this morning at Dubai International Airport. In attendance were Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths and Commercial EVP Eugene Barry; Lei Jin, the Chinese Economic & Commercial Counsellor of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Dubai; Consular Attaché Weiyun Deng; and Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing Chief Operating Officer Berthold Trenkel.
Also present were Ant Financial Alibaba Director EMEA Li Wang; China Eastern Airlines Local General Manager Randi Cui; China Southern Local General Manager Wang Yanming; Air China Station Manager Gao Zhan; Cathay Pacific Local General Manager Jonathan Ng; and Sichuan Airlines Station Manager Steven Liu.
