International Tourism in Abu Dhabi

This report discusses the tourism opportunities in Abu Dhabi, highlighting its rapid progression and sustainable growth. It explores the attractions, positive and negative impacts, key issues, and policy implications for tourism in Abu Dhabi.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL TOURISM
International tourism
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Description of Tourist Visit.......................................................................................................3
Explanation of the Attraction.....................................................................................................4
Negative and Positive impact from Tourism activity................................................................5
Two Key Issues occurring in the location..................................................................................7
Two Policy implications for Tourism in Abu Dhabi.................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References and Bibliography...................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The following report is based on the tourism opportunities that Abu Dhabi, the
beautiful city of UAE presents to the tourists. The different articles used in the assessment 2
has shown the rapid progression that the West Asian nation has made in tourism as well as
the different kinds of the environmental changes that the authorities have been able to address
in the country to promote a green and sustainable tourism landscape. The start in the export
of crude oil from UAE from the beginning of the 1960’s changed the economic landscape of
the country and made it one of the topmost in terms of GDP and economic development (Al
Dhaheri and Ahmad 2019). The large-scale development in the tourism activities have
changed the business to a whole. The diversification theory of the Government and the
overall sustainable growth of the country has been the major targets for the particular part of
the globe.
Description of Tourist Visit
The Middle Eastern country of UAE have developed a name for itself in the
development of tourism and tourism activities which has been a significant contributor to the
success of the country and the tourism initiatives of the country. In the year 2018 only a
number of more than 5,500,000 guests visited the country especially that of Abu Dhabi and
resided in different kinds of hotels of the Abu Dhabi province (Anthonisz and Mason 2019).
There has been a sharp increase in the number of the visitors visiting the country as the
people are trying to explore the country especially the Abu Dhabi city in view of the
magnificent amenities and places that the city offers for visit. Tourism is identified as one of
the major source of alternative for earning foreign currency in order to reduce and mitigate
the dependence of the country on the petrol and the oil industry. The petrol and oil industry is
still now the backbone of the country and therefore the country has been trying to shed off its

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tag of an oil dependent country. There are a number of different reasons for the tourists to pay
a visit to Abu Dhabi. People tend to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque which has the
capability to hold at least 40,000 people at once while praying. Apart from this the presence
of 82 domes and 1000 columns adorns the structure. Inside the main prayer hall hangs the
world’s largest hand-knotted carpet and one of the world’s largest chandeliers, weighing in a
twelve tons. As the sun sets, a unique lighting system reflecting the phases of the moon
transforms the mosque’s white and gold accents. Apart from this the other attractions in this
part of the world includes the likes of the Louvre Abu Dhabi (Frank 2019). Apart from this
there are a lot many different attractions like the race car circuit, visit to the historic oasis city
and wildlife safari among the lot many. All of these attractions has been the key to the visit of
the huge number of different tourists in the country and especially Abu Dhabi.
Explanation of the Attraction
As per Post (2019), tourism development is considered to be the most important
economic resource for Abu Dhabi and therefore it is important for the country to plan the
diversification for the post of the oil dependence economy that led the country to experience
a number of unprecedented growth and development in the tourism sector over the past few
years. The major change bought by the government of the country included the likes of the
tourism sector that is one of the most significant part for the development of the country’s
economy. Some of the major steps that has been taken by the Government in order to support
such activity includes the likes of the;
a. Slash of the tourism fees from 6% to 3.5%
b. Slash of the municipality hotel fees from 15 to 10 dirhams
c. Slash of the municipal fees from 4% to 2%

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Since the unification of the UAE’s seven emirates around 48 years ago, the country has
been able to make its unique mark on Tourism across the globe. According to, Frank (2019)
the country has been able to open one of the largest airlines of the globe like Emirates,
Etihad, new airports, metros, stations, malls, buildings, job opportunities and artificially
created new places of tourist attraction along with the commercialization of the natural tourist
areas to attract a major number of tourists. The tourism industry has strengthened greatly with
the strengthening of the infrastructure. The backing of an oil rich financially stable economy
has also worked in the favour of the country and has helped in the success of the business in a
proper and effective manner.
Negative and Positive impact from Tourism activity
The tourism industry of UAE have underwent a major haul in the recent years and as
mentioned in the earlier part of the report, the change in the approach of the UAE
government and the building of a new and improved tourism structure of the company. The
overall economic growth of the country depends on two major things which is the foreign
income and the internal rise of the income (Frank 2019). Both of these incomes have a major
role in the increase in the Gross Domestic product of the country. Among the major two the
foreign exchange itself contributes to around 60% of the increase in the revenue of the
country. Tourism plays a major source of foreign revenue (Hammad Ahmad and
Papastathopoulos 2017). The UAE especially Abu Dhabi has been the major attractor of
tourists for quite a few years. The major strategy of Abu Dhabi along with UAE has been to
attract tourists by means of providing them with a large number of different leisure and sports
activities. The providence of the leisure and sports activities has helped UAE to curve out a
separate name of itself in the tourism market. The development of the tourism in the country
thus plays a major role in the development of the country.

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There are both positive as well as negative effects of tourism. Like each and every of the
market issue, there is a good and bad point to each of them. The positive point of Abu Dhabi
tourism are as follows;
a. The economy of the country has shown a huge improvement due to the income
obtained from the foreign tourist visiting Abu Dhabi
b. The international trade volumes of Abu Dhabi has increased by at least 20% since the
last few year
c. The country has been able to shed off its dependency on oil exports and therefore the
company has been able to ensure the best success in the market
d. There has been a positive increase in the job opportunities for the people of Abu
Dhabi
e. The increase in tourism opportunities has presented the people to open up new
entrepreneurial ventures which can act as a secondary support to the Abu Dhabi
tourism
f. The creation of different kinds of perks and nature reserves in the city has been a
special attraction for the tourists in Abu Dhabi
g. The creation and promotion of sports events along with sports and leisure events as
well as festivals have been of a great help to the development of the tourism
opportunities in Abu Dhabi
h. Abu Dhabi tourism has been further helped by the creation of new and largest Airline
companies like Emirates and Etihad
i. Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi tourism models has become a role model for not only
UAE but also for the other cities in the Middle East
The positive effects of the business has helped the Abu Dhabi industry to ensure success
of the tourism industry of the country especially Abu Dhabi.

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The major negative effects of the tourism in Abu Dhabi are as follows;
a. Increase in the acoustic, visual, luminic and thermal pollution
b. There has been a large percentage of increase in the population and the urban
development. This sudden increase in the population has been negatively reviewed by
the agencies as they predict a burst in population in the future considering the current
rate of population increase
c. The creation of artificial islands has been the major cause for the decay of the marine
life. The decay in the marine life is certainly to lead to a negative impact on the
ecological balance of UAE and the coastal areas
d. The rise in tourism has led to a shortage of water as there has been an increase in the
consumption of water since the last few years of tourism development
e. The liberal attitude of the tourists often causes problems for the regional values in
Abu Dhabi
f. There has been cases of problems with the treatment of the construction workers in
Abu Dhabi and the rest of UAE which is a major secondary negative cause behind the
rise of the tourism industry in Abu Dhabi
Two Key Issues occurring in the location
Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry is expected to continue face different kinds of stiff
challenges in the coming years that can easily act as the major reasons behind the spill of the
tourism development of the country. The two major issues are the falling prices of oil and the
valuation of the currency (Hammad Ahmad and Papastathopoulos 2019). The falling price of
the oil will prevent the Government to spend major on tourism development because of the
weakening of the financial back up. On the other hand, the fall in the valuations of the
currency will lead to the pressure on the spending of the tourist and will in turn make the
success of the organization a problem. The major challenge of the country will be to cope up

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with the loss that occurs with the decrease in the valuation of the oil prices. The oil has
helped UAE to garner the necessary revenue needed to develop itself as a hot destination for
the tourists. The creation of ultra-modern hotels, creation of different kinds of the artificial
islands and the creation of different events and sports facilities have all been funded by the oil
exports. The diminishing values of oil have seriously affected the growth of the tourism
development in the country. On the other hand, the decrease in the value of the currency has
led to the loss of the tourism sector as the currency have fallen to a new low compared to the
dollar which has affected the tourism in a negative manner (Frank 2019). The Abu Dhabi
Tourism development corporation has to thus take positive and compact actions to ensure
business success.
Two Policy implications for Tourism in Abu Dhabi
Policy forms an important part of the tourism as the presence of a proper and effective
business policy is highly necessary for the success of the business organization. Tourism
plays a key role in the development of the economic activity of UAE. It helps in job creation,
addition of values and creation of new opportunities and most importantly it helps in the
garner of foreign revenue that is highly essential for the success of the country and stability of
the economy (Hammad Ahmad and Papastathopoulos 2019). Despite of the different kinds of
opportunities that are presented by the expected growth trajectory, tourism faces a number of
major challenges that affects the stability of the company in a negative manner. Some of the
major challenges faced by the tourism industry in Abu Dhabi are as follows;
1. The complexity of the tourism policy development due to the cross-cutting
2. Multi-level fragmented nature of the different types of the tourism policy
development
3. The impact of external on tourism, including the macro-economic conditions,
exchange rates

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4. Safety and security of the tourists
The management of the tourism development corporation of Abu Dhabi has had a proper
has taken note of the total problems faced at the time of the tourism promotion and has
therefore started to move towards a more coherent and comprehensive policy of tourism. This
will generally help in the countries to reframe the tourism growth and in order to spread the
benefits of the tourism in a much better and organized manner. According to, Harris and
Wise (2017) the management of the particular organization in Abu Dhabi concerned with the
development of tourism has focused on the promotion of the long term business strategies
that are related to quality employment and job creation, skill development, innovation,
effective investment and many more as such. Some of the policy areas that are to be
considered by the tourism development corporation of Abu Dhabi are as follows;
a. Development of a better understanding of the contribution of tourism to the wellbeing
and inclusive growth and also provide the governments with different kinds of
coherent policy advice on how to deliver the fair distribution of the benefits of the
tourism services to the Abu Dhabi society and guarantee success.
b. Start of dialogue with the private sector in order to incorporate the essential private
perspectives of the industry in the development and the implementation of the tourism
policy.
c. The contribution to the development of the innovative tourism policies that helps to
contribute to the 2030 agenda for the sustainable development and the result in
enhanced economic social and environmental outcomes
d. Work with the Government of UAE to provide an environment to encourage the
creation and growth of small-scale tourism businesses, stimulate innovative product
development, generate quality employment, support local communities, and integrate
SMEs into global value chains.

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Conclusion
The following report has been a great example for the discussion of the tourism and
its development process in UAE, citing the example of Abu Dhabi. The report has provided a
clear and transparent picture of the ways and means of carrying out the discussion on the
tourism sector of the country. The report has also discussed about the reasons behind the
attraction of the people towards Abu Dhabi and the different details regarding such attraction.
The presentation of the different positives and negative outcomes of the tourism development
in UAE have provided the report a compact structure. A thorough analysis of the report can
be said to provide a clear and visualized information on tourism development and its
implications and importance to the economic growth of the country.

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