Contemporary Tourism Business Growth in the UAE

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Recommendations
References

Abstract

The following research paper is devoted to the investigation of the factors that predestined the success of the UAE as of the most demanded tourist destination for the last ten years. The paper dwells on the research method and, providing insight on a special questionnaire for tourists, explains the results of the experiment. The explanation complies with the research objectives and is fully supported by the facts that make up the base for the so-called “tourist patterns”.

The findings of the research are then analyzed and discussed, parallels to the literature review are drawn to show the connection of the research objectives and questions to the examined material, and the conclusions are made. There is also a short-term solution designed to help the UAE’s hotels, and the author also gives out several recommendations concerning the ways of how to enhance the current situation in the tourism sector in the UAE.

Introduction

In the present time, the UAE is known to be called the top Arab country. It has got its status due to such characteristics as outstanding tourism business planning and economic generosity. Even the usual leaders in terms of the most popular tourist destinations, such as Cyprus and Greece, were left behind this time. The current tourism industry income in the UAE is as high as 5%. The contemporary tourism business growth in the United Arab Emirates is caused by different factors.

All of the emirates embraced the strategy of providing the best quality service to their tourists, and exactly that helped the UAE earn their respect. It is evident that the UAE’s tourism business “snowball” is going to roll continuously. In the present day, the UAE proudly resides on top of the charts featuring the best tourist destinations. All of that became possible with the help of the UAE’s government and its tourism business policies. This relatively young country has great potential, which has already placed it among the most popular destinations for tourists from all over the world.

Method

For this research, the participants are directly (or indirectly) related to the tourism business, so the results of the research are not based on assumptions but the statistically proven facts. This is why a sample of the tourists who have visited the Emirates is involved in this study. The research method is based on 20 random tourists from each of the three most popular emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah) who shared their critical opinion on what they did/ did not like, and what can be done to improve the current state of each of the emirates’ tourism business.

To obtain the data accurately and with a level of correctness close to the extreme, an open questionnaire has been developed. It used questions with multiple responses having them cover all the probable answer possibilities. Twenty tourists were asked to answer the questions the day before they were leaving the hotel they were staying in for the vacation. The tourists were given clear instructions and a reasonable (~30 minutes as a maximum) amount of time to fill in the questionnaire in a hasteless manner.

The questionnaire was the same for all three emirates. The method used an approach that asked the tourists to fill in the questionnaires on their own and not copy each other ideas, meaning that a single tourist-filled in the questionnaire in a given period when there were no other tourists around. This was done to minimize the risk of having identical answers from a rather considerable number of tourists. In the case where there were several family members, a single copy of the questionnaire has been given out for the whole family. For this research design, the author used the random sampling technique because it could have been used with quite large populations and evaded bias.

Results

After the tourists have handed in their questionnaires, the results have been reviewed and thoroughly analyzed. All the participants managed to give the answers to all the questions in good time. All of the questionnaire sections proved to be comprehendible and easy to fill in. Most of the interviewed provided relevant feedback on the hotel they were staying in and the UAE tourism sector quality as a whole.

The questionnaire helped the researcher to identify several patterns concerning the travel business in the United Arab Emirates. The research method results provided a clear insight into the possible issues of the tourism sector and gave evidence to the research objectives that were stated earlier by the author. The results concerning the home country of the multinational sample of the interviewed who took part in filling in the questionnaire were predicted (see Figure 1).

*Figure 1. Top 4 countries where the tourists come from %.*

The tourists gave an unprejudiced evaluation of what they have seen and experienced in the Emirates during their vacation. The results of the study lean towards being objective and unbiased and the proof of this is the fact that the author has also predicted the level of satisfaction of the interviewed when asked about the hotel and the overall resort quality (see Figure 2). The central objectives of the study were to study the tendency in the growth of tourist numbers in the last four years and to estimate the possible number of tourists that are going to visit the UAE next year.

These goals were achieved and all of the predictions made by the researcher were experimentally and statistically confirmed after the data processing and evaluation. The importance of the research was in the identification of the “tourist patterns” that would help improve the current state of the tourist business. The results represent the current tendencies in the tourism business in the UAE and comply with the research questions and objectives that were set by the author.

Discussion

As all of the results of the study were carefully predicted and practically proved, it is safe to say that the research was carried out accurately and provides great insight on the tourists’ preferences and their honest opinion concerning the UAE recreation opportunities. The findings of the study were found out to be consistent with those of Jeffreys (2014a, 2014b) in terms of the satisfaction with the hotel amenities and overall comfort.

The research also pledges allegiance to the fact specified in The National in 2013 that the UAE has been spending greatly in recent years to build up its tourism sector. All the investments are going to pay off because the UAE is a key tourism destination even for people from bordering countries such as Saudi Arabia (Algethami, 2013). More important, English is generally spoken in Dubai. All street signs and everything else are typically offered in both English and Arabic, so guests who speak English will have no problem getting from one place to another.

The latter has also been proved by the research results expressed in the questionnaire answers. The income in the UAE went up over an identical period by more than 17%, and the tendency is likely to keep on (Krane, 2010). There is a logical explanation behind this as most of the tourists, according to the questionnaire results, were staying in the UAE for 11 days on average. It would also be logical to assume that the UAE makes every effort to preserve the exceptional inheritance of each civic group (Inhorn, 2012).

The protection of the Emirates’ legacy is a strategic objective, while their values also make up a fundamental element that the emirate enthusiastically displays to the world (Hamarneh, 2012). The absolute majority of the tourists came to the UAE by plane and, what is more important, Flydubai and Etihad were the top picks for the tourists (Stephenson & Ali-Knight, 2010). The research stands as a proof of the fact that the policy of opening cheaper hotels brought more tourists from evolving countries such as India and Russia, who now spend more money in the UAE than the tourists from the traditional European and North American countries (Vij & Vij, 2012).

The number of tourists from smaller countries is going to grow considerably in the next couple of years (Picton, 2010). The upsurge in occupancy rates looks exciting when taking into consideration the rise in accommodations that have happened recently and displays the emirate’s commercial progress (Jeffreys, 2008). All the hotels in the UAE soon will undergo mandatory examinations by the specialists that would check the professional skills of the staff even though the research showed that the hotel staff is courteous and pays close attention to their visitors (Ahmad & Daghfous, 2010).

Conclusion

The author of the research believes that the results confirm the original expectations and predictions. The research ran into a limitation inherent in the research procedures which is a low number of the interviewed as the questionnaire would be way more efficient if the studied sample expenses went into hundreds and thousands of tourists. Nevertheless, the results should not differ a lot even on a bigger scale. The author is certain that a set of actions should be implemented to improve the situation.

As a short-term suggestion for the findings, the author would recommend the hotel administration to take notes and conduct polls similar to the one that has been done for the research in all the hotels across the Emirates. In consequence, all of the research findings relate to those of other researchers cited in the literature review and the research accurately reflects and attests the points made by the other authors.

Recommendations

Based on the results of the research, the recommendation is the following: as the Emirates is already doing a great job moving their tourism business forward, they should listen to their visitors’ feedback. This recommendation is explained by the outcome of the study where almost all of the answers depicted an unswerving image of the neat, luxurious, and gratifying UAE. Another recommendation would be to run periodical quality control in every hotel in the Emirates to keep up the professionalism of the hotel staff.

There might also be introduced a kind of course for the hotel workers that would explain the needs of the tourists that come to their hotels. Such a program should be acknowledged and supported by the government, and updated every year by the hotel administration to improve the already high level of flexibility when it comes to serving the tourists.

Given more budget and time, the author of the research would have contacted more hotels from all of the emirates. This includes not only the most luxurious and expensive hotels but the two-three star facilities as well. Such an approach would have let the researcher go deeper in the factual data, and the peculiarities of the questionnaire results would have given a more detailed view of the overall success of the hotels and their possible future in terms of hotel room occupancy and visitor rate. Another approach would have been to compare the last year’s data to the current data and implement this practice as a required basic annual operation for every hotel.

There is a major gap in the research that may be explained by the human factor. Despite the convenience of the questionnaire method, to protect the tourist needs, it should only be operated properly on a bigger scale. The questionnaire would cause a high percentage of errors when working with a small number of tourists. The results might still be close to the realistic values, but the larger the sample would be the more precise the outcome would be.

The implication the research has for the UAE is reflected in the way that the Emirates and its visitors see each other through the prism of their relations, wishes, and opinions. This means that the UAE is fully responsible for the satisfaction of the people who visit the country, and for the United Arab Emirates, it is essential to track the level of the tourists’ consummation and eventual discontent to stay relevant in the tourism business.

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.

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