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Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), which manages the tourism industry in the largest of the seven emirates which make up the United Arab Emirates, is to assume lead arranger role in an ambitious tourism initiative aimed at sustaining the destination’s expanding business tourism (MICE) segment.
The Advantage Abu Dhabi (AAD) initiative will catalyse and seed innovative and viable business events which are aligned to the Abu Dhabi Government’s 2030 Economic Vision. Structured as a venture capital-type apparatus, AAD is designed to support the lucrative MICE segment to realise the direct tourism benefits it engenders and to ensure that the business tourism sector serves as an important growth pillar for Abu Dhabi’s long-term economic, social, human resource and infrastructure development goals.
AAD will see ADTA lead-arrange financial and/or non-financial resources to enable meeting planners and exhibition and conference organisers to catalyse and actualise new business events in Abu Dhabi across 12 strategic sectors.
The relevant sectors are: energy, petrochemicals, metals, aviation/aerospace/defence, pharmaceuticals/biotech/life sciences, tourism, healthcare, education, transport/trade/logistics, media, financial services and telecommunications. Business event organisers with a viable proposal can apply to tap into the AAD Initiative, which lists financial grants, governmental endorsement, leadership patronage, cost rebates and marketing support among its main levers.
“The AAD initiative will run for the next three years and is aimed at delivering new and significant MICE business to Abu Dhabi,” said His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman, ADTA. “This initiative solidly supports Abu Dhabi’s overall developmental goals. It represents our commitment to make a difference on the global business tourism scene, and backs our ambitions with the necessary resources at our disposal. It is also tangible evidence that this emirate, which has invested heavily in MICE infrastructure, is determined to deliver on its aim of becoming a world-class business tourism and events destination on a global scale.”
ADTA says organisers can now begin to submit, for consideration, applications to support new business event proposals. “Criteria for assessing the type and degree of support will encompass social, economic and tourism impact, innovation and creativity, successful track record, in-depth industry understanding and expertise, as well as commitment to Abu Dhabi’s long-term goals,” explained His Excellency Mubarak Al Muhairi, Director General, ADTA.
“The AAD initiative mirrors the ‘one-destination’ approach which enabled us to successfully bid for ‘host city’ status of the 2012 World Ophthalmology Congress – the world’s longest-running medical convention – which will deliver more than 12,000 visitors to the emirate,” explained Al Muhairi. “This new initiative will be very much a partnership approach in which all concerned – organisers, venues and the destination – will together make a substantial difference to Abu Dhabi’s business tourism sector.”
Abu Dhabi is prioritising business tourism viewing it as the industry’s most lucrative segment, with wide-ranging impact on local economic and social growth. The wider business tourism sector currently accounts for around 80% of the emirate’s hotel guest profile – with 10% of this directly attributable to meetings, conferences and exhibitions.
The emirate has invested heavily in the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Expansion of the centre’s exhibition and conference facilities was completed recently, resulting in the Middle East’s largest exhibition and conference centre with 73,000 square metres of exhibition space. Meanwhile ADTA will support the AAD initiative with an industry-wide professional development and training strategy aimed at giving the destination a distinct competitive edge.
The three-pronged training strategy will engage all industry sectors, with business tourism being a main beneficiary. “Our professional development and training initiatives for the tourism sector are being taken to build long-term destination competitiveness which we believe depends, particularly within the MICE market, on consistent delivery of world-class service standards by a human resource pool of well-trained, committed and dedicated professionals,” said Al Muhairi.
“Yes, we have the necessary infrastructure in place, as have many of our competitors. Ultimately our differentiator will be the people power that will ensure uncompromising service levels totally aligned with our brand.”
The strategy firstly addresses Abu Dhabi’s existing tourism industry workforce by implementing year-round mandatory short-term training programmes, focussing on customer-facing employees. “We will address the challenges in terms of the rapid transformational pace of our industry and the multi-national nature of our workforce, to attain a unified and world-class standard in its quality delivery. It will streamline their service delivery standards to create greater consistency and alignment with the respect and hospitality values of our brand,” explained Al Muhairi.
The second strategy phase will be aimed at greater Emiratisation of Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector. Currently less than one per cent of this destination’s tourism workforce is Emirati and ADTA is targeting an increase to 5% by 2012. “We are therefore identifying educational and training opportunities that will enable nationals to gain a better insight into the diverse career opportunities within the wide tourism sector – and we believe business tourism is one area in which they could succeed. We are solid in our belief that visitor engagement with Emiratis will be critical to the sustainability of our destination brand,” explained Al Muhairi.
ADTA’s third industry training strategic strand is aimed at evolving the emirate into the Middle East’s regional centre for tourism and hospitality education and training. “To this end we are in exploratory talks with renowned tourism and hospitality institutions to introduce both short-term and permanent programmes for local students and those from around the region who wish to come and study here,” said Al Muhairi.
The two ADTA announcements were made at the start of the third Gulf Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM), the Middle East’s only dedicated trade show for the business tourism and meetings industry, which runs at ADNEC from until April 2.
At the show – the largest in the annual series – Abu Dhabi is pressing home its increasing business tourism and meetings advantage. The ADTA has a 500 square metre pavilion at GIBTM which features 25 of the emirate’s leading sector players.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
