Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority team up with Manchester City as part

Following a successful destination campaign in the US in July, the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, TCA Abu Dhabi, is continuing its 'Your Extraordinary Story' initiative, which promotes Abu Dhabi as a location with a wealth of stories to share, and one where visitors are certain to create lifelong memories and unique experiences.

TCA Abu Dhabi’s ongoing partnership with Manchester City FC is enhancing the campaign, further boosting the destination’s profile by tapping into the global appeal of football and the intrinsic passion that fans have for sharing stories and experiences. The springboard was the team’s recent pre-season tour to the United States.

Manchester City’s pre-season schedule saw the team play against local rivals Manchester United, UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid, and Premier League runners-up, Tottenham Hotspur, in Houston, Los Angeles and Nashville.

And, as tour sponsors, TCA Abu Dhabi used the three high-profile matches, for which the team wore especially-branded Visit Abu Dhabi shirts, to launch the season-long 'Extraordinary City Story' campaign, which asks fans to share their own favourite memories and stories about being Manchester City fans, with the chance of winning an ‘extraordinary’, all-expenses paid trip to the UAE capital as a grand prize.

To kick-start the competition, TCA Abu Dhabi made sure US fans had some new ‘extraordinary stories’ to take away with them with some exclusive fan-focused events before the games in each city.

In Houston, TCA Abu Dhabi organised an exclusive ‘Morning with Paul Dickov’ event for fans, where the former Man. City striker shared his own experiences in an intimate Q&A session before delighting the crowd with a surprise appearance by first XI stars Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and John Stones, as well as up-and-coming talent such as Brahim Diaz and Daniel Grimshaw.

Fans and players alike then took the opportunity to share their own ‘Extraordinary City stories’ online, with supporters like Houston resident Martin Prendergast, an expat DJ originally from Manchester, Australian Patrick Holley from Sydney, and Ericha Fabay from San Jose, California, all now in with a chance of winning the grand prize of a trip to Abu Dhabi.

In Los Angeles, super City fan Luke Kitaj won the chance to watch City play Real Madrid after sharing his own extraordinary City story as part of the competition, getting to meet City star Fernandinho as part of his TCA-Abu Dhabi-organised prize.

And in Nashville, TCA Abu Dhabi dropped in on the winners of a previous Manchester City competition, Alisha and Eric Coleman, who won a trip to Abu Dhabi in 2015, to delight them even further with another ‘extraordinary’ experience, tickets to the Spurs game and signed City shirts.

The Extraordinary City Story campaign is set to continue all season, with fans needing only to share their most ‘extraordinary’ memory of being a City fan using the hashtag #ExtraordinaryCityStory to be in with a chance of winning.