Tourism, similar to any other business, needs just the correct use of some diverse conceptions to be effective in the international market. Its growth has proven a qualified achievement in progressing macroeconomic development. The income tourism fetches in has made it so crucial to countrywide economies it lines up now with concerns of nationwide safety.
The irony is that luxurious hotel amenities were first established in the Emirates as a reaction to commercial needs. The numerous emirates were contending for business alongside each other and put up ostentatious hotels to endorse their reputation with hotel extravagance and architectural complexity and the highest level international administration crews. This led to a course of tourism growth in an opposite direction where tourist housings were constructed before there was any anxiety about constructing sightseer attractions, while now the Emirates have an intensive determination to promote itself as a visitor zone, but they strive for giving people what they want, whereas only enticing who they want.
To understand what is so peculiar about the tourism business in the United Arab Emirates, the author of the essay performed a comparative analysis of the three major emirates: Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi, based on the books and articles provided by other authors. This allowed to draw parallels between the emirates and induce appropriate conclusions on the premises, the current situation, and the aftermath of contemporary tourism business growth in the United Arab Emirates.
Literature Review
As it had been stated in The National in 2013, the UAE has been spending greatly in recent years to build up its tourism sector. As part of its commercial vision for 2030, the investment is dedicated to constructing a first-class tourism substructure as well as promoting cultural knowledge to draw more people to the country. Obviously, for the United Arab Emirates, the emphasis on vacation industry business is a part of a wide-ranging tactic to build a more varied economy as tourism linked segments show constant growth and subsidize as much as 14% to the UAE’s economy.
The UAE invites millions of people every year to spend their days off or discovers business prospects. Emirates are enhancing route systems, conveying not only people to these shorelines but careers in the air travel sector. The state is also a key tourism destination for people from bordering countries such as Saudi Arabia (Algethami, 2013).
A study by Algethami describes the climate in Dubai as nice and sunshiny. Evidently, that is perfect for holiday business, with warm temperatures for the best part of the year and low precipitation. Summer heat in July and August can reach high temperatures, making this the worst time of year to stay in terms of weather. Nonetheless, the author of this literature review believes Dubai is well prepared for high temperatures as public transportation, shopping centers, cafés and tourist attractions are all air conditioned. More important, another idea helped get the UAE on the tourist destinations map: English is generally spoken in Dubai, and as all cafe menus, street signs, and other facts are typically offered in both English and Arabic, guests who speak English will have no problem getting from one place to another.
The United Arab Emirates offer countless excursion operators and tourism specialists who will also be capable of proposing services to Russian, German and French speaking people and that, to the author, is the premise for Dubai of undertaking about 85% hotel room occupancy. That kind of statistic would certainly demonstrate the power of the tourism strategy in the UAE. The visitor numbers in hotels and hotel rooms already are getting almost 8 millions of people in the first half of the year, the money amounts they are bringing in are snowballing as well.
As it has been stated by Krane in his 2010 research, profits of the UAE rise at a fast pace as the income went up over the identical period by more than 17% to smash 4.2 billion dollars. Tourism in Dubai is accountable for approximately a quarter of Dubai’s budget (Krane, 2010). One of the possible logical explanations behind this might be the fact of prolonging the length of vacation as it also has been recognized as a worldwide fundamental catalyst for tourism progress. Taking the before said into consideration, the author believes that the middling interval of stay crosswise hotels and hotel rooms is also going to improve. Nevertheless, the ascendant route of room prices appears likely to carry on even with the addition of new guesthouses.
A statistical research by Jeffreys shows that of 31 thousand new hotel lodgings for the UAE, 16 are in Dubai. There are about 59 thousand hotel rooms, escalating up to about 80 if you comprise the hotel rooms, in slightly above 600 establishments. The topmost source marketplaces for Dubai are Saudi Arabia, the US, India, and Russia (Jeffreys, 2014b).
With regards to the Inhorn’s study, Dubai has also grown its notoriety for an extensive range of cultural events, stretching from art exhibitions and motion picture festivals to galleries that show off Emirati legacy. It would be logical to assume that its accomplishments in the tourism industry can be explicated by the attitude that Dubai embraces: as a home to a huge number of ethnic groups and nations, they make every effort to preserve the exceptional inheritance of each civic group (Inhorn, 2012).
Hamarneh, in his 2012 study, acknowledges the tourism sector of Abu Dhabi that gives 14% of the UAE’s GDP, as a vital economic divergence factor. Taking all of that into consideration one can conclude that while intensely growing and sponsoring its tourism offering to make bigger economic benefits, Abu Dhabi is taking a careful approach to making sure that the industry’s development also is responsible for civic profits. The author sees having tourism fund the protection of the Emirates’ folklore and legacy as a strategic objective, while their values also make up a fundamental element that the emirate enthusiastically displays to the world (Hamarneh, 2012).
Stephenson and Ali-Knight, in their 2010 research, figured out that Abu Dhabi tourism indicates a 13% rise over the preceding year in terms of hotel visitors residing in the emirate. In the perspective of modern trends in the tourism business, the author of this literature review believes that this tendency is likely to continue as new accommodations are about to apprehend the business market, in addition to renewed attractions that are going to upturn the emirate’s ambition as a vacation destination. The extension of Abu Dhabi International Airport is also hinting at the advance of the emirate’s ability to process more arriving tourists. Attractive advertising campaigns directed at both common and developing marketplaces will deliberately tempt guests to stay more and spend more (Stephenson & Ali-Knight, 2010).
Bearing in mind that people arriving by plane might not have made Abu Dhabi International Airport their destination of arrival in the Emirates, possibly landing in Dubai in its place, considering arrivals as a way of accurately counting up the visitor numbers is a challenge.
In yet another research by Jeffreys, the latter claims that over the past decade, the emirate has seen a 175% increase in the number of hotels and a 210% growth in rooms offered, although for a low price. Instead of a reason for panic, the author sees the decreasing prices as a required improvement, making prices accessible to more people (Jeffreys, 2014a). According to Jeffreys, in 2009, Abu Dhabi came succeeding after Moscow in a classification of the most lavish metropolises for business travelers. Taking this into account, it is clear that the luxury sector is expected to stay crowded.
Vij and Vij, in 2012, noticed that Abu Dhabi is trying to keep up with the demand for present capacity and compliment it with more two- and three-star establishments. Currently, all the designers of hotel plans in the emirate are obliged to apply for a warrant, and the authorities ultimately will have to let them know of the recent market diminuendos (Vij & Vij, 2012).
To the mind of the author, the swing in demand in the direction of mid-level hotels is also a mirror image of the moving structure of the emirate’s main marketplaces in tourist numbers coming from evolving countries such as India, China, and Russia, which are presenting greater volume upsurges than the sturdier progress from the traditional European and North American countries.
According to Picton, Sharjah now offers its own exclusive kind of tourism slanted towards families. Choosing to put emphasis on shorelines over bars, guests to the UAE’s third-largest emirate are blown away by a much more relaxed atmosphere paralleled to the restless life in the fellow Dubai or Abu Dhabi emirates. On the basis of the aforesaid, it can be concluded that Sharjah has become diverse with its ideas and concepts, as it accentuates the ethos, expositions, and galleries that are directed at people from various countries (Picton, 2010).
Jeffreys, in his 2008 study of the Sharjah emirate, claims that the number of visitors staying in Sharjah lodging houses and hotel rooms had an escalation of 48,4% over the last four years. In the equivalent period, the rooms got a 32,7% increase while the hotel room occupancy rates flew from 74% to 80% (Jeffreys, 2008).
The upsurge in occupancy rates looks even more exciting when taking into consideration the rise in accommodations that has happened recently and displays the emirate’s commercial progress.
It is also worth noting the research on the UAE tourism business quality control by Ahmad and Daghfous, which describes the new hotel taxonomy act that illustrates the hard work of the administration. Under the new rules, hotels will be categorized from one to five stars, the rooms from simple, regular and luxurious categories, and will be the focus of examinations by the specialists (Ahmad & Daghfous, 2010).
It is evident that increased demand for infrastructure and facilities presents a growing array of opportunities for private investment. Construction takes time, and the UAE is working intensively to speed up implementation and streamline policies to help meet demand.
One of the possible options that can be used to expand the holiday business offerings is establishing large resorts and a variety of projects. It is the anticipation of many in the area that major developments will make the seaside of the UAE even better and charm a whole new level of customers.
Conclusions
Based on such aspects as tourism strategies and economic keenness, the UAE is known to be called the top-ranked Arab republic. It is even to be found higher on the list than usual leaders including Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. It is predicted an annual growth of 5% in the UAE tourism industry. Even though the contemporary business growth of tourism in the United Arab Emirates is caused by different factors, all of them managed to play their cards right and earn the respect of tourists as one of the best vacation countries, despite the rather high price policy. The United Arab Emirates is a must-visit destination for all those who are interested in the Arabian culture, adore exotic places, and appreciate comfort above everything else. Tourism in the UAE is on its constant way up, and it seems like it is not going to stop any time soon. The efforts of the UAE government were not in vain and nowadays the United Arab Emirates have firmly taken its place among the best countries, intended for tourism. Income from the tourism sector is growing exponentially with every other year, and this is due to the huge investments in the tourism business and the potential of this relatively young country, which has now become one of the most popular destinations for tourists from all over the world by the reason of its cultural and ideological diversity.
References
Ahmad, N., & Daghfous, A. (2010). Knowledge sharing through inter‐organizational knowledge networks. European Business Review, 22(2), 153-174. Web.
Algethami, S. (2013). Why the UAE is a leading tourism destination in the region. Web.
Hamarneh, A. A. (2012). International tourism, security and intercultural dialogue in the Arab World. International Journal of Arab Culture, Management and Sustainable Development IJACMSD, 2(4), 354. Web.
Inhorn, M. C. (2012). Reproductive Exile in Global Dubai: South Asian Stories. Cultural Politics an International Journal, 8(2), 283-306. Web.
Jeffreys, A. (2008). The Report: Sharjah 2008. London: Oxford Business Group.
Jeffreys, A. (2014a). The Report: Abu Dhabi 2014. London: Oxford Business Group.
Jeffreys, A. (2014b). The Report: Dubai 2014. London: Oxford Business Group.
Krane, J. (2010). Dubai. The Story of the World’s Fastest City. London: Atlantic Books.
Picton, O. J. (2010). Usage of the concept of culture and heritage in the United Arab Emirates – an analysis of Sharjah heritage area. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 5(1), 69-84. Web.
Stephenson, M. L., & Ali-Knight, J. (2010). Dubai’s tourism industry and its societal impact: Social implications and sustainable challenges. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 8(4), 278-292. Web.
The National: Tourism helps fuel growth in the UAE. (2013). Web.
Vij, M., & Vij, A. (2012). Tourism and carbon foot prints in United Arab Emirates challenges and solutions. Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 3(1). Web.