Middle East

Dubai Tourism ties up with Tencent

As a plan to promote Dubai as a favoured destination for Chinese travellers, the Dubai tourism authority has signed an agreement with Chinese internet giant Tencent on Tuesday. As per the statement issued by Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), the association will lead the Tencent network to spread out Dubai’s marketing reach and access within China. China is considered as one the quickest budding markets for the Emirate.

There were reports on Sunday that a senior government delegation from Dubai headed to China for signing agreements with Tencent and a number of other leading companies, with the aim of wooing more Chinese tourists. The Dubai Tourism believes that the association with Tencent will be a boon to the Chinese tourists visiting the Emirate. Tencent’s products like WeChat and WeChat Pay can be used a handy and secure mobile payment for the tourists at local shops. The Tencent products like WeChat and Weixin has over 980 million monthly active users. Dubai Tourism hopes to use these platforms to create brand awareness of Dubai and its specialities.

Dubai Tourism also plans to encourage the local merchants to make use of Tencent Cloud and media solutions to improve the total experience for the Chinese tourists and lure them to spend more in the Emirate. The delegation is also expected to sign an agreement with Fliggy, the travel division of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. Tencent and Alibaba are the fifth and sixth largest internet companies in the world.