DUBAI: The Orange County Visitors Association (OCVA) has launched The ‘OC & Sotheby’s Own a Piece of Paradise’ holiday package to promote Orange County California as a premier luxury shopping, holiday and residential destination for Middle Eastern visitors.

The package has been created exclusively for the Middle East market and is the first of its kind to offer complimentary VIP shopping experiences combined with a complimentary and private three-day tour of Orange County luxury homes and properties that are currently on the market for private purchase. The tailored inspection tours are conducted by a Sotheby’s Real Estate specialist, and the holiday packages are available through local GCC travel agents with immediate effect.

Ed Fuller, President & CEO, of OCVA said, “We not only want guests from the Middle East to visit us, we want them to stay and call the OC home.”

Fuller said: “This is the first time for Orange County to offer such a package in any market around the world, and we are extremely excited to launch here in the Middle East. The OC is blessed with one of the world’s most comfortable all-year climates. Combined with our internationally acclaimed cuisine, shopping experiences, family entertainment, theme parks and stunning coastline and mountain landscapes, the OC offers an aspirational lifestyle that we not only want to share with visiting international tourists, but visitors that we could then hopefully call neighbors.”

The Orange County continues to remain at the forefront of proactively reaching out to welcome guests from the Middle East. It is the first, and to date only, US tourism association to have a permanent promotional office within the GCC, and in 2015 launched an online educational video in conjunction with the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding in Dubai, to train Orange County’s retail, hospitality, tourism.