Saturday, Mar 16, 2013

Abu Dhabi: Emirati youth have proven their love for their country by establishing successful models of innovative and creative projects which can help in developing the tourism sector and enhancing the UAE’s economic status.

The Ibtikari initiative — which means “My Innovation” — was launched by the Khalifa Fund (KF) earlier this year to allow Emiratis to generate, conceptualise, and improve their ideas designed around tourism services.

The initiative evolved as a need to develop Emirati entrepreneurs from Abu Dhabi and turn their ideas into investable ideas for KF, acknowledging that the tourism sector has the highest growth potential industry for the UAE.

The first day of the programme included idea generation, the pitching of ideas, and then forming working groups to start working on feasibility studies and to transform the ideas into investment projects.

There was major participation from the Abu Dhabi governmental sector, which showed strong support for entrepreneurship.

Out of 126 unique ideas, only 14 technical ideas qualified as part of the Ibtikari initiative for mobile phone applications.

Salama Al Muhairi, a 21-year-old graduate from Zayed University, generated a new application which can help both tourists and residents within the UAE generally and Abu Dhabi specifically.

The application is intended to simplify the research of food destinations or restaurants based on various criteria: price range, time range, mood and location. It will also have features such as a calorie counter, loyalty programme, menus and diet tracker.

“I heard about Ibtikari through social media channels and I was extremely interested in participating because this event would give me a hands-on learning experience. I was also excited because Ibtikari revolved around creating applications, which are something I have become very fascinated with lately,” Salama, who studies integrated strategic communication, told Gulf News

“Bite Food application will help in improving the tourism sector within the UAE. It will also raise awareness about all the available restaurants and food destinations in the country. Food is a core necessity to tourists as well as residents; therefore creating a solution that will help them find what fits their mood and cravings is a must. The results will be specifically tailored to their preference,” she explained. “The only challenge that I might face in this project, is getting users to trust the application; however, I am willing to invest my time and energy in this project and start my own company in the near future.”

Salama has also praised the leading role of KF and told Gulf News: “KF has been very supportive and helpful, as they always encouraged Emiratis to innovate and create.”

“During the five days of training and workshops, I have learned a lot and I understood how to create an idea that have high demand. Those earlier workshops helped me to develop my ideas in many ways. Getting feedback from our mentors and fellow applicants, who were from diverse backgrounds, gave me the opportunity to understand the need of potential users,” she added.

Traditional hospitality

Another creative idea was designed by Tasneem Abdul Hafiz, a government employee in the capital.

The idea is based on letting tourists and people from different countries around the world to experience the UAE culture, religion and traditional hospitality by creating an e-booking system, which has a tour and travel guide.

Bytona — which means “home” in English was generated as an idea following Tasneem’s travel to the UK.

“When I was a student, I went to the UK and I searched for many places to stay at, yet, they were very expensive. Therefore, I thought of residing with a family to reduce expenses and feel safer,” she explained.

“Prior to my research I did a survey and I found that the majority of Emirati families are comfortable with other families residing at their homes as an opportunity to introduce their culture and traditions and enhance tourism within the UAE,” she said. The user can access the e-booking system and choose the city, street and residence, which they wish to stay in during their visit at very affordable prices.

Additionally, Sarah Al Mazroui, who works as a government employee, has a different start with KF.

“I have entered several training courses to learn how to build business models and to experience the reality of entrepreneurship. Courses were very effective and encouraging. Afterwards, I generated my own idea, which I have submitted online through the KF online portal and I was chosen as one of the top ten ideas,” Sarah, who graduated from Zayed University, explained.

“I was very interested in graphic design and I wanted to implement it accordingly to make a new innovative project, which would change the tourism sector in the UAE. Therefore, I created e-Vend [vending machines] to fulfil tourists’, residents’ and customers’ expectations,” she added.

By Sara Sabry Staff Reporter

Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.