Drawn to the desert

By Zainab Mansoor on January 17, 2011

Tourism in the UAE enjoys its best ever year

The United Arab has coveted for itself an image of unrivaled opulence, with few rivals on Planet Earth. put a massive exclamation mark on this sentiment at the beginning of 2010 with the spectacular opening ceremony of the , which boasts ’s highest observation deck, the highest number of stories, highest occupied floor and the tallest service elevator in the world. Not to be left in the shadows, Abu Dhabi has also been busy creating its own noise this year, with the capital city inaugurating Ferrari World, the Ferrari-themed amusement park at Yas Island, home to Formula Rossa, the world’s fastest roller coaster. To add to the excitement, the prestigious Formula One race, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, was held at the Yas Marina Circuit, crowning champion Sebastian Vettel.

The latest figures available from the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) reveal that the emirate’s direct tourism industry, which includes sectors directly in contact with visitors, generated AED6 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2008, or 1.1 percent of the economy. Tourism directly generated almost 40,000 jobs in the emirate that same year, accounting for 3.6 percent of the total employment. The total economic impact of tourism in Abu Dhabi, which includes direct, indirect and induced effects, amounted to $4.6 billion in 2008, or 3.2 percent of the economy. When excluding the oil sector, the relative importance of the total economic impact of tourism rose to 10.7 percent of the emirate’s non-oil GDP.

“Global attractions like the Formula One race, Ferrari World and our events portfolio attributed to growth considerably.” said Lawrence Franklin, Strategy and Policy Director of ADTA, adding: “Ferrari World is important for us not just because of its massive size or scale but predominantly due to the aspirational quality of the Ferrari brand. It sends out a strong signal about Abu Dhabi’s leisure tourism credentials.” Charting the growth

Franklin said that domestic tourism in Abu Dhabi showed an 8 percent increase in guest generation in the first 10 months of 2010. “We have seen strong domestic growth from the UAE and vibrant growth from the [United Kingdom].”

The UK market retained its top slot amongst international markets, with 18 percent growth rate realizing 94,776 guests. India, the United States and Germany were close behind, according to Franklin.

Some 1.48 million guests stayed in the emirate’s hotels and apartments in the first 10 months of the year with total guest nights climbing to some 4.1 million.

“We are well on our way to achieving our 2010 hotel guest target of 1.65 million,” said Franklin. “Given the 16 percent increase in hotel guests in the first 10 months, optimistically we hope to go beyond that figure. We are targeting 1.9 million hotel guests for 2011, which will be an approximately 15 percent increase from what we will achieve in 2010.” In parallel, Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destinations, claimed to have entertained 45 million visitors in 2010.

Dubai’s Candylicious, the world’s largest candy shop, saw visitor traffic of 1.5 million in 2010, of which approximately 40 percent were foreign and regional tourists. The shop entertains 2,500 to 3,000 walk-in customers on any given week-day, whereas on weekends the visitor numbers can go up to 10,000.

“Dubai is an entertainment destination. So many tourists come to this market from the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere. The number of franchise requests that we get [for Candylicious] on a daily basis is illustrative of the massive influx of foreign visitors,” said Sunaina Gill, Director of Operations and Merchandising of Retail is Detail L.L.C. On top of Candylicious, Gill’s company operates eight different concept stores in Dubai Mall. She added: “Dubai knows how to entertain people; it has become a place where people come from across the world to relax, shop and get entertained. From the way it is built, Dubai has a long way to go for many years to come.”

Amadeus Gulf, a services company that is a leading technology partner for the regional travel and tourism industry, is also confident of the region’s overall outlook.

“According to the latest United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) report the Middle East has shown positive results with 16 percent growth for arrivals in the region, the highest among all the world’s regions,” said Antoine Medawar, vice president of Amadeus Middle East & North Africa. “Compared to the same period of the pre-crisis peak year of 2008, international tourist arrivals increased over one million [more than 3 percent] in the Middle East. International arrivals in Dubai grew by 9 percent in the first half of the year, while its international airport set a new traffic record in July [4.3 million passengers].”

What is working well?

“Our strategic hub status, increased aviation capacity and future development prospects increase the scope and potential of the tourism markets open to Abu Dhabi,” said Franklin, noting that in addition to business tourism generating steady revenue for the country, leisure tourism has grown as well.

Dubai has also been touted as a global leisure tourism destination and impressive passenger figures revealed by Dubai Airports mirror the city’s growth in 2010.

“This unprecedented growth has been driven by Dubai’s ideal location — within eight hours of two-thirds of the world’s population — an open skies policy that welcomes airlines from across the globe, the provision of top-flight infrastructure at competitive rates and the emergence of Emirates Airline as one of the top airlines on the planet,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.

Niche tourism set to soar

Along with general tourism promotion, many also feel there is an inherent need for focus on the niche sectors within the tourism portfolio such as health, cruise and green tourism. These niche markets, in years to come, will act as major contributing factors to the overall tourism revenue.

Franklin remarked that Abu Dhabi has a “very reputed and well-established” cruise tourism sector, which has enjoyed strong growth in the past 10 years. Only ten vessels stopped by the city in 1999, but this grew to more than 50 per year in 2008 and 2009. Passenger figures have grown from 10,000 to nearly 100,000 in the same period. ADTA recently announced the signing of a deal with MSC cruises to homeport vessels in Abu Dhabi for the 2011-2012 cruise season. ADTA has estimated that the decision to homeport MSC Lirica — a 59,000-ton vessel with a capacity for 2,199 guests in 784 cabins — in Abu Dhabi will bring in more than $37 million per season in net economic impact to the emirate’s tourism sector.

Given the historic growth figures and a passenger influx, this sector looks highly promising for years to come. “Ultimately our capacity to build cruise tourism business will rely on a combination of good planning, good infrastructure, strong marketing and industry co-ordination,” said Franklin. “There is no reason why, given these circumstances, a target of 300 ships and over 600,000 passengers per year in 2030 would not be achievable.”

Medical tourism

With growing medical expenses and long hospital waiting times in Western countries, the UAE’s medical tourism sector has seen a surge of growth in recent years. Dr. Vinod Gauba, a British trained ophthalmologist and laser eye specialist at Imperial Healthcare Institute in , touted Dubai as the region’s medical tourism hub. “An influx of medical tourists is important in the bigger vision of Dubai and the UAE,” he said. “Establishing the Dubai Healthcare City, where Imperial Healthcare Institute is located, was a landmark achievement in reaching this goal. It has become a hub for regulated, safe and professional healthcare delivery.”

According to Gauba, approximately 15 percent of visitors to Imperial Healthcare Institute are medical tourists, and numbers nearly doubled in 2010.

“The motivation for these medical tourists largely seems to be quality of care and they are predominantly from the Middle East and North Africa,” he said. “However, we have received a good number of patients from Canada, Australia and even the United States, particularly for some treatments which are not available yet in these countries but we are able to offer in the UAE.”

This influx of medical tourists has drawn physicians, nurses and doctors to be part of a lucrative and booming medical infrastructure.

“As standards of care continue to evolve in the UAE and are subject to well established regulations and benchmarks, doctors are finding it more and more appealing to relocate for work to the UAE,” said Gauba, adding that the attractive lifestyle, weather and financial benefits help as well.

He added, however, that “the cost of healthcare in the UAE, particularly due to the regulations and standards imposed, is higher than medical tourism competitors such as India; this will pose a problem when the country tries to attract the predominantly penny- conscious medical tourist.” Sustainable tourism

Given the hovering threats of global warming, Frederique Maurell, executive director of the Hotel Show 2011, feels an increased consumer demand for sustainable and low- energy consumption hospitality providers.

“From laundry equipment, water recycling systems, wet facilities to energy solutions, many UAE companies and international principals are… developing solutions for hotel managers to comply with the [green] regulations, reduce energy bills and answer the growing concerns of guests for environmentally friendly amenities and supplies,” said

Maurell.

Abu Dhabi is also working to deploy strategies and policies for sustainable tourism and to foster its growth across the emirate.

“Sustainable tourism is part of the emirate’s long-term vision and ultimately the DNA of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority,” said Franklin. “We are putting that into effect by deploying an environmental, health, safety and management system among all hotels in the emirate. We are also putting a ‘Green Hotels’ scheme into effect which will rate hotels according to their environmental performance.”

In the offing

Industry players are very optimistic about touristic opportunities in UAE and expect both short term and sustainable longer-term growth.

“The future is bright. The continued expansion of the networks and fleets of Emirates and will drive continued growth in both passenger numbers and cargo volumes,” said Griffiths of Dubai Airports. “In 2011, passenger numbers will rise 13 percent to over 52 million and by the end of the decade those numbers will nearly double.”

The ADTA’s Franklin is optimistic about Abu Dhabi’s prospects: “Historically, Abu Dhabi has always been a strong business tourism destination; one focus that we have for the next few years is to continue to build the leisure side of our tourism portfolio. We want our leisure side to hold a 50 percent stake in the overall tourism portfolio.”