July- August 2008
Oil-rich Abu Dhabi, a late entrant into the tourism arena, is recognised as one of the world's most rapidly developing destinations. In line with the prioritisation of tourism as a key sector in its Government's diversification strategy, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) was set up in September 2004. Director General Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi is on a mission to put the emirate on the international tourism map.

Just four short years in existence and the accolades are coming in fast and furious. Last year, ADTA stood up to be counted at the annual World Travel Awards where it picked up the 'Best Promotion Board' and the 'Best New Tourist Destination' awards. Awards are good, but for the pragmatic Al Muhairi, ADTA's most significant accomplishment is building the tourism sector's trust and confidence in what they have set out to achieve.

Abu Dhabi is an oil-rich emirate but tourism is now a priority. There were doubts. "When ADTA was set up in 2004 - starting a new sector in an oil-rich emirate came with big question marks," says Al Muhari. "Was the Government taking this sector seriously? It's a small sector and even if it grows, it couldn't compete with the mainstream sector, which is oil and gas. But there were different reasons for this movement. I think over the last three years we have been able to build confidence in our Government's promises and initiatives. My concern in 2004 was how to convince the private sector that we are serious. This is not just a promise, or a plan, or a study; this is something that is happening and is going to happen. I think for me, this is the biggest achievement."

Director General Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi is a civil engineer who graduated from the UAE University and earned his Master's degree in Engineering Management from Portland State University. Al Muhairi has the knowledge, the experience, and the vision to do what it takes to accomplish the job. Still he insists that vision and success in their goals are not his alone to take on. "It's everybody's role. It's teamwork. The plan is that this organisation should not be sustaining itself relying on just one person or two or three. It has to be strong. It has to be sustainable. It has to continue regardless of who is here. I assure you that if I'm not here, they will continue and perhaps do even better," he quips.

He's a canny one is Director General Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi. Abu Dhabi may have been a late entrant into tourism but being late has its own benefits. One observes the mistakes made by others and you end up making less of your own. ADTA studied the operations of all those around Abu Dhabi and made a calculated master plan. "We're not after mass tourism. It's a more managed approach," he points out. "We want to focus on high-end markets of visitors. We want to create a high-end destination, knowing that Abu Dhabi is rich with its natural resources such as natural islands, waterfronts, mangroves, deserts, oases, archaeological sites and we believe that we can achieve this. By 2015, we will have those hospitality venues, hotels and resorts that are going to brand this destination."

Establishing the ADTA footprint
Al Muhairi works closely with ADTA Chairman His Excellency Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan. He emphasises the importance of Government support and partnership with their stakeholders (See Box 1).

"Tourism is a very elastic sector," he says. "It intersects almost every sub-sector in a destination. We have government partners and we also work with industry partners. I once read a report of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in which it identified the main reason for failure of tourism programmes as the lack of government or political support. But this is what we really have here - the support of the Government. There are no other excuses to fail if Government is really supporting us, as it is here in Abu Dhabi."

Another milestone for ADTA was the launch of the Abu Dhabi brand last year, aimed at reinforcing Abu Dhabi's tourism promise that will be supported by regional and international promotional campaigns.

Since its creation, ADTA has embarked on establishing its footprint on targeted markets. Three ADTA representative offices are already in London, Frankfurt, Paris and recently, in Sydney. By the end of this year, the ADTA is looking at opening offices in China and Italy too.

Five-year plan
In April this year, the tourism body revealed its five-year plan from 2008 to 2012, in which it raised its hotel occupancy projections as well as the number of hotel rooms from the original targets set in 2004.

According to the plan, ADTA forecasts that the annual number of hotel guests will be 2.7 million by the end of 2012 - 12.5 per cent more than initially envisaged. Last year, Abu Dhabi exceeded its hotel guests target by five per cent, with 1.45 million hotel guests.

The new target also calls for the emirate to have 26,000 hotel rooms by end of 2012, up from the current inventory of 13,000 rooms. (See Box 2)

The plan also identified six service delivery priorities, namely:
Sector standardisation;
Tourism experience enhancement;
Improved access through transportation and visa processing upgrades;
Increased international marketing;
Further product development; and
Capitalisation and preservation of the emirate's distinctive culture, values and traditions.

"Yes, one of the priorities is sector standardisation," says Al Muhairi. "I don't want to say 'regulate' the industry or the sector. We still regulate but it's meant to be a positive regulation licensing any tourism-related activities, whether it's licensing tour operators or travel agents or hotels. We've streamlined that. Now it's done over the net or online. That's what I mean regulation does not mean that we're adding more rules we're making things more efficient and quicker."

In support of sector standardisation, the ADTA launched a classification system for hotels earlier this year. The hotel classification system, says Al Muhairi, took two years to develop. "All the hotels were involved with this. They've attended all the workshops. They've revised, they've given their feedback and they have advised us. We've incorporated their feedback into our system."

ADTA monitors compliance with the system and Al Muhairi expects cooperation from hotel owners and operators. "We will be strict with the new developments and new licenses," he maintains. "If you are an existing operator or hotel, we develop a plan for their improvement in certain areas in order to be classified in that level. Because they've been involved from the beginning, I expect people to continue with the same cooperation."

ADTA is also adopting a collaborative approach to improve access into the emirate encompassing transport and immigration services. ADTA is working closely with Immigration to ease entry to Abu Dhabi. "We coordinate with Immigration for the efficient and fast processing of visitor or tourist visas."

To further drive inbound tourism, ADTA will pursue tools to increase awareness of Abu Dhabi as a destination. Next year, the Authority plans to participate in 17 overseas trade forums, increasing it to 25 by 2012, as well as expanding its promotional campaigns.

Committed to ensuring quality standards - ADTA believes in investing in training and is working with the education sector in developing hospitality and tourism-related degrees, programmes and specialised training. "We are launching a skills assessment study or research that will tell us exactly where the weaknesses are," says Al Muhairi, "and we will put efforts into filling or upgrading those areas, which need to be upgraded."

ADTA co-ordinates with educational institutions in designing programmes for Emiratis. It co-ordinates with most of the universities and with ADVETI (Abu Dhabi Vocational Education and Training Institute) to design specific certificates and diplomas in travel, hospitality and hotel management. The Desert Islands Education Centre (DIEC) is another initiative.

Learning from others' mistakes
Al Muhairi admits that Abu Dhabi as an international destination is not yet as well known as Dubai. He acknowledges that Dubai has done great things for the tourism sector in the region and in the UAE. But he believes there are advantages in being a late bloomer.

"What I would say here is that when you start after many, you have an advantage of learning and you do not repeat their mistakes. Because we came later or we came second after them, we studied everything. That led, I think, to better planning for us," says Al Muhairi.

Historically, efforts to promote tourism in Abu Dhabi had been unco-ordinated. However, through ADTA, a synergy among the major stakeholders of Abu Dhabi's tourism sector has been created, one that is vital for the success of the emirate as a world-class destination. Al Muhairi understands too well the importance of this synergy and sums it up with these words: "Future success is not solely in the Authority's hands, but in the proven partnership approach with our government and private sector stakeholders."

"My concern in 2004 was how to convince the private sector that we are serious. This is not just a promise, or a plan, or a study; this is something that is happening and is going to happen. I think for me, this is the biggest achievement"

"What I would say here is that when you start after many, you have an advantage of learning and you do not repeat their mistakes. Because we came later or we came second after them, we studied everything. That led, I think, to better planning for us,"

"Future success is not solely in the Authority's hands, but in the proven partnership approach with our government and private sector stakeholders"

ADTA's Top Stakeholders:
Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage
Department of Planning and Economy, Government of Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi Police HQ, including Residency Department
Department of Transport, Government of Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi Education Council
The municipalities of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region
Abu Dhabi Sports Council
Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council
Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Etihad Airways
Abu Dhabi Airports Company
Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company
The Office of the Brand, Abu Dhabi

Excerpts from H's one-on-one interview with ADTA Director General Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi:

What is the vision of ADTA? What is its mission?
We want to be a tourism organisation that will create a world-class tourism destination, doing that with partners with transparency and partnership with everyone. We want tourism to belong to the people here.

You have offices in the UK, Germany, Paris and Sydney and soon in China and Italy; what about in India or in Southeast Asia?
Yes, India is definitely there. But Abu Dhabi is not known in Australia, China or in some other markets as it is in India. The awareness, the relationship, is there with the Indian Sub-Continent and in general, with the GCC countries. It's in our plan but we first thought of focusing on places where we are not as well known. Southeast Asia is in the process but obviously we have to look at airline connectivity. For example, in Moscow, we don't have Etihad flights to Russia. It's a big source market. We want to open in many cities all over the world, but first we have to co-ordinate what we do at the right time.

Will not the increase in visa rates impact on tourist arrivals?
There are both pros and cons. There have unfortunately, been some violations. Some tour operators bring their tourists or their visitors but there are instances when those visas have become a route for people to enter and find a job. If you're coming for a visit, you come for a visit. If it's a tourist visa usually tourists would come and leave, but there have been some violations. At the same time there are excellent tour operators who've been in the business for 20 or more years who have excellent track records. We are co-ordinating this with the concerned department. We have good channels of communication with monthly meetings. I don't think this would really be a problem for tour operators to sell the destination. There are requirements for different visas security related. This part of business is taken care of by the Ministry of Interior. I have discussed this with the industry and do not find this a problem. Yes people don't want to pay extra but at the end of the day, when you compute the costs, it's really very minimal. Percentage wise, it's really nothing.

An ADTA priority is providing hospitality and tourism-related training; what initiatives have you introduced in this regard?
We began with training courses for tour guides. We license tour guides after specific courses and tests. We have also started training hotel staff - from concierge to managers to sales directors. We outsource the training and now we are launching a skills assessment study or research that will tell us exactly where the weaknesses are and we will upgrade those areas, which need to be upgraded.

We co-ordinate with educational or academic institutions designing programmes for Emiratis. We co-ordinate with most of the universities, with ADVETI (Abu Dhabi Vocational Education and Training Institute) here to design specific certificates and diplomas in travel, hospitality and hotel management. We co-ordinate with colleges and vocational training centres to design those programmes. In time, we will ask them to handle specific training.

How have you managed to introduce across-the-board bonuses in hospitality?
On the regulatory or 'structuring' side - all hotels in Abu Dhabi are obliged to spend 20 per cent of their service charges. They charge 10 per cent service charge. They have to spend 20 per cent of that for training and for low-grade jobs bonuses. We noticed that in some hotels, they don't give bonuses - except to the GMs or to senior management people because that's part of their contract. But the guys who are delivering the services - the room service guy, the waitress - usually get only a salary. Now they are getting bonuses. This is monitored by us. They have to show their papers and prove that they spent an amount from that 20 per cent on bonuses and on training for their employees.

Unlike Dubai, why have you been so low key in your tourism promotion?
Dubai did great things for this region and for the UAE because they've focused on tourism for more than 20 years now. We're a very young organisation, less than four years old. Abu Dhabi as a destination is new. Infrastructure is still under construction. New airports, more resorts, hotels there's no point in engaging in a very aggressive campaign, creating very expensive brochures. Now, we're suffering from high occupancy, so we'd rather go gradual and once the products are there that support what we want to create, we can do more campaigns. But we have already started.

In Abu Dhabi, we started after many, after Dubai, after Qatar, after other Middle Eastern countries like Egypt. ADTA came in 2004, but what I would point out is that when you start after many, you have an advantage of learning and you have also the choice of not repeating their mistakes. Because we came into tourism after them, we were in a position to study everything.

Which countries did you use as case studies to learn from?
We studied areas from Tunisia to the Indian Ocean. We looked at all experiences. We looked at the Red Sea experience - what went wrong, and what went right. We looked at Indian Ocean, the Mauritius experience, the Maldives and even we looked at Tunisia's desert experience and development, and looked at sand, sea, beach developments. We also looked at structures of those organisations. We visited most of them, even before the creation of ADTA.

What lessons have you learned?
That led, I think, to better planning for us and we found that to develop a sustained destination, we need to care for the environment from Day 1. We need to have the Culture and Heritage Authority with us from Day 1. Besides of course Government support. We know that to create a sustainable destination, we need to respect our environment. That's why the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency is involved in our developments and we ask them for environmental impact studies, which sometimes take a year to pass.

We understood the mistakes. And we identified our strengths too. We knew only that if we cannot compete with other emirates or other destinations around us, we are not adding anything. That's why we took the cultural direction. That's why we won't waste our gifts - the natural islands and resources. We are harnessing them for tourism. At the same time, we looked at the other experiences. We've seen a classification system launched in a neighbouring country fail because the sector was not involved. That gave us really a different approach or lesson. We learned a lot from what happened before.

Another lesson we learned is that we cannot move this big wheel unless we get involved in different tourism fields. For example, in this organisation, we do the structuring and the monitoring and all that regulatory function and we also do the marketing that's the traditional role of a tourism body.  We encourage events. We have very diversified events. After all of this, we created TDIC to encourage investments and to create opportunities for investors to come and invest in this sector.

What is your forecast of ME tourism for the next five-seven years?
My forecast is the same as that of UNWTOs - it's the fastest growing area. It's the fastest growing industry and the Middle East is the fastest growing market. The growth rate here is higher than anywhere else in the world. And it has great potential to grow because it is still small. We receive 30 million visitors in the Middle East - half of what France is receiving so the potential for growth is really huge. I think it's recognised by investors and you see investors coming into this sector because of this potential.

How would you describe your management style?
I'm a very simple, transparent person. This is how I work with people. I don't like to surround myself with people who have a lot of lofty ideas. At the same time, I try to create a culture of informality here. It took some time for people to adapt. For me, open communication channels make it easier for people to work together than having walls between departments and divisions.

How do you unwind?
Family definitely. I always miss the kids. I have a daughter who is five years old and a son who is three. Those two kids unwind me when times get stressful.  I swim. Swimming here is something I love. And I read a lot. I read everything not only business. I read novels, philosophy...

What would be your message to people in the industry?
It is important for them to understand that this is not a government role only. Tourism will never succeed if it only relies on government. Neither can it rely only on the private sector. Tourism definitely is something where everybody should work together, should own it or co-own it. This is what I want to stress on.

Future success is not solely in the Authority's hands, but in the proven partnership approach with our government and private sector stakeholders.

Abu Dhabi: a multi-experience tourism destination
Abu Dhabi is characterised by a hospitable and welcoming culture combined with traditional Arabian and historical attractions. The emirate offers year-round sunshine, extensive beaches, spectacular desert scenery, rugged mountains, green oases and more than 200 islands. The Abu Dhabi tourism policy seeks to leverage these natural assets in a targeted and sustainable way.

To support this policy, the Government is taking deliberate steps in ensuring that assets and attractions of the highest quality are in place. It is for this purpose that the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) was established.

A public joint stock company created under Law No: 12 of 2005 as decreed by the Abu Dhabi Ruler and UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, TDIC is an independent organisation empowered to manage the tourism investment zones of ADTA. TDIC, in which Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi is also Managing Director, is tasked to develop real estate assets that support ADTA's mission of assisting UAE economic diversification through tourism development.

TDIC acts as a master developer for large-scale tourism projects and closely works with private sector developers whose involvement is a key priority of the Government's tourism strategy.

Since its creation, Al Muhairi says, TDIC has undertaken 10 projects that will showcase Abu Dhabi as a world-class tourist destination with unique and distinct offerings.

TDIC is overseeing the development of Saadiyat Island and with it, its Cultural District, Desert Islands, and the Qasr Al Sarab - its three lead projects.

Saadiyat Island is a 27-square kilometre natural island lying to the Northeast of Abu Dhabi city and facing the Arabian Gulf. The island is master planned to have seven distinct districts delivering a multitude of experiences with complementary environments and all connected by a palm-lined arterial freeway. The districts are: the Cultural District - which will be home to some of the world's most prestigious museums and a performing arts centre including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum and the Louvre Abu Dhabi - Saadiyat Marina, Saadiyat Beach, South Beach, Island Lagoons, The Wetlands and Eco-Point.  Each is planned to take into account the island's natural beach, wildlife, flora and fauna habitats - and the means of preserving them.

The Desert Islands lies off the emirate's Western coastline. It consists of eight islands that again provide a multitude of experiences encompassing a nature reserve, a cultural destination and a showcase for world-class environmental, conservation and ecological tourism including the Arabian Wildlife Park.

Qasr Al Sarab is located in the emirate's Liwa Desert. A signature destination, it will have a five-star hotel, villas, a luxury health spa, children's playground and adjoining excursion and tented villages.

© Hospitality 2008