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Abu Dhabi: The number of hotel guests in the emirate of Abu Dhabi rose more than 11.5 per cent on year in 2007, a senior official of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) said.
"We welcomed some 1.45 million hotel guests last year, as compared with around 1.3 million guests in 2006," ADTA director general Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi said on the sidelines of an aviation conference.
In his speech at the conference, Al Muhairi said the next decade will witness the transformation of Abu Dhabi's landscape.
"In our endeavours to deliver enriching experiences for each and every one of the three million visitors we are targeting to achieve by 2015, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority will adopt sustainability, preservation and conservation as our key development codes," he said.
Al Muhairi added: "We are deeply committed in our aspirations to develop Abu Dhabi into an outstanding destination for both cultural tourism and ecotourism."
He said Abu Dhabi's international stature as a tourism hub is growing.
"Come November next year, the offshore Yas Island will play host to the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. With the Ferrari theme park, Warner Brothers attractions, as well as signature resorts and golf courses also to come, I am optimistic that these major developments on Yas Island will strengthen Abu Dhabi's tourism pedigree considerably," he added.
Abu Dhabi has 11,000 hotel rooms now. It is targeting 25,000 hotel rooms by 2015. It is estimated that by 2013, hotels in the emirate together could well be handling between 2.6 million to 2.7 million guests a year.
Last month, the UK's largest online travel agent, expedia.co.uk, selected Abu Dhabi as one of the world's top 10 destinations to visit in 2008.
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