Abu Dhabi photographic expo set for London

The National Geographic Store on London’s Regent Street – one of the UK capital’s busiest shopping streets – will later this month host a photography exhibition dedicated to Abu Dhabi. Forty photographs belonging to the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) and shot by a number of leading international and regional photographers will be on show in the National Geographic Store Gallery for a week from Monday, August 29th. The 40 images depict a variety of scenes from Abu Dhabi reflecting its culture, heritage, landmarks and leisure pursuits. “This exhibition will give Abu Dhabi an extremely high profile in London during one of the busiest times of the year,” said Nabeel Al Zarouni, ADTA’s Country Manager, UK & Ireland. “In addition, the house chefs at National Geographic’s in-store café will create two special Abu Dhabi dishes that will go on sale the same week.” The UK remains Abu Dhabi’s main international source market for hotel guests with numbers from the country rising by 20% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, accounting for some 72,998 guests. “National Geographic has been inspiring people to care about the planet for over a century – we hope that joining forces with them for this Abu Dhabi promotion will also inspire travelers to seek out a welcome in our emirate,” added Al Zarouni. The ADTA has wide ranging responsibilities for managing and assisting the development of the emirate's tourism industry and the marketing and promotion of the emirate as a world-class destination of distinction. Its responsibilities include; destination marketing; infrastructure and product development and regulation and classification. A key role is to create synergy in the international promotion of Abu Dhabi through close co-ordination with the emirate's hotels, destination management companies, airlines and other public and private sector travel-related organisations.