Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #42
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MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA<br />
TRENDING DESTINATIONS<br />
WE HAVE BEEN GREATLY<br />
DIVERSIFYING OUR TOURISM OFFERING,<br />
AND ASIDE FROM THE USUAL HOLIDAY<br />
MAKERS, PLACING A GREATER FOCUS ON<br />
DEVELOPING DIFFERENT SUB-SECTORS<br />
Ali Hassan Al Shaiba<br />
Acting Executive Director of the Marketing and<br />
Communications Sector, Abu Dhabi’s Department<br />
of Culture and <strong>Tourism</strong><br />
SPOTLIGHT ON ABU DHABI<br />
The emirate reports growth in cultural, business, medical,<br />
and cruise tourism<br />
Ali Hassan Al Shaiba is Acting<br />
Executive Director of the Marketing<br />
and Communications Sector at Abu<br />
Dhabi’s Department of Culture and<br />
<strong>Tourism</strong>. We asked him how tourism<br />
is progressing in Abu Dhabi and<br />
what the main drivers are.<br />
Visitor figures to Abu Dhabi have<br />
once again risen year-on-year, and we<br />
welcomed an incredible 10 million visitors<br />
to the emirate in 2018. There are many<br />
factors driving this success; we have been<br />
greatly diversifying our tourism offering,<br />
and aside from the usual holiday makers,<br />
placing a greater focus on developing<br />
different sub-sectors – such as cultural,<br />
business, medical, and cruise tourism.<br />
This has been paying off – in 2018, the<br />
cruise sector provided us more than<br />
350,000 visitors, while our world-class<br />
cultural assets, such as Louvre Abu Dhabi,<br />
attracted more than 2.6 million people to<br />
the emirate.<br />
Cultural tourism is of course a main<br />
attraction. What’s new in this respect?<br />
December 2018 saw the addition of a<br />
jewel to Abu Dhabi’s cultural crown, with<br />
the much-anticipated launch of the Al<br />
Hosn cultural site. The original urban block<br />
of the city, Al Hosn features our oldest and<br />
most significant landmark, Qasr Al Hosn,<br />
now transformed into a museum narrating<br />
the history of the emirate, as well as the<br />
Cultural Foundation, dedicated to all<br />
forms of contemporary Emirati culture. Al<br />
Hosn takes its place alongside our many<br />
other cultural assets, such as landmark<br />
museum Louvre Abu Dhabi, which in<br />
November 2018 celebrated both its oneyear<br />
anniversary and the tremendous<br />
milestone of one million visitors.<br />
Gastronomy is growing as an attraction<br />
in Abu Dhabi…<br />
We have a number of fun and tasty public<br />
events celebrating global gastronomy.<br />
Taste of Abu Dhabi is an annual long<br />
weekend of food, drink and music on Yas<br />
Island, showcasing the newest and most<br />
exciting restaurants and chefs from around<br />
the world, and offering live cooking<br />
demonstrations and masterclasses.<br />
What’s new on the hospitality front – in<br />
terms of new resorts and hotels?<br />
We have many new luxury hotels<br />
enhancing the hospitality landscape.<br />
Notable recent additions include The<br />
Edition, located in the redeveloped Bateen<br />
Marina area, and the Saadiyat Rotana.<br />
Saadiyat Island in particular has so much<br />
to offer guests, with a cluster of fantastic<br />
resorts, beautiful beaches, and for a dash<br />
of culture, the exhibitions and events<br />
going on at Manarat al Saadiyat and NYU<br />
Abu Dhabi Art Gallery. For attractions, Yas<br />
Island now boasts the recently-opened<br />
Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi. Yas Island<br />
will also be host to SeaWorld Abu Dhabi,<br />
scheduled to open in 2022 as the firstever<br />
SeaWorld outside the US
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