Dubai has been presented ‘The Most Beautiful Destination' award by the China Travel Channel after a jury comprising of 100 senior Chinese journalists endorsed the emirate over several other destinations including US, France, Germany, UK and Singapore for the award given to mark the 10th anniversary of the popular TV channel.

The award was received by Mr. Saleh Al Geziry, Director of Overseas Promotions and Inward Missions at the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) from famous Chinese TV star, Mr. Hong Jianhong, at a gala ceremony held in Beijing on January 8 and attended among others by actress Kong Lin, Annie Wu, Che Yongli and Wang Liyun.

Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, Director General of Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), expressed happiness at the latest recognition for Dubai in the tourism domain and hoped that it will facilitate in brining more Chinese tourists to the emirate in the coming months.

He said DTCM operates three representative offices in China and there has been a significant increase in the number of Chinese tourists to Dubai since the signing of the Approved Destination Status (ADS) between the UAE and China a few years ago.

In the year 2010, there was a 41 per cent increase in the number of Chinese guests in Dubai hotel establishments compared with the previous year. The number of tourism companies in China promoting tourism to Dubai went up by 33 per cent in 2010 compared with 78 companies in the year 2009.

The Travel Channel Vision Award was instituted by the Travel Channel in association with the China National Tourism Administration.

There were five categories for the award programme, including two for the most beautiful travel destination and the most beautiful foreign country.Foreign destination which have high awareness and good reputation in the China market were eligible to apply for the award.

All qualified nominations were reviewed by a team consisting of 100 China key media professionals over a month's period and the winners were decided by voting. The destinations competing for the awards were Singapore, New Zealand,England, USA,Thailand, Germany, France and Australia.

The award ceremony was broadcast live through the Travel Channel and many other popular online media in China.
China Travel Channel is the only satellite travel and lifestyle TV channel in China with over 350 million viewers in major cities in the People's Republic.

Especially in the National Tourism Administration named National Excellent Tourism Cities, they covered up to 60.3 per cent. The Travel Channel is the favorite Fashion leisure channel among the high end customers in China. The audience of younger, highly educated and high income population size has increased by 57.66 per cent compare to the same period last year. The Travel Channel has the highest proportion of international brands.