Summary
Tourism provides employment to the local people. It is also a source of revenue both to the national and local authorities. Tourism provides the tourists with the opportunity to learn other cultural practices. In a broader aspect, tourism industry helps in the conservation of cultural heritage and even the environment.
Overview
Reasons for Travelling
Tourists travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes.
Benefits of Travel
The visiting tourists get to learn of the cultural practices of the people living around the tourists’ attraction site. Travelling is also a good way of spending one’s leisure time. Travelling provides a means of breaking boredom especially for those who work for longer hours.
Visitor Profiles
The company will keep records of the visiting tourists. This will include nationality, duration of the stay, and the room number.
Tourism Trends
The new trends in tourism industry include green tourism, travel with a mission, workforce development and tour safety.
Tourism Development in the UAE
Over a long period of time, UAE drew its revenue mainly from the sales of fuels. However, recently tourism has become one of the major sources of revenue. This has been made possible with the existence of tourist attraction sites, better security, existence of direct fights especially between the major cities, and the hospitality of the local people.
Tourism Careers
There are several careers associated with the tourism industry. These include tour guides, drivers, security officers, accounting and even environmental conservationists.
Effect of Mass Tourism on Emirati Culture
Generally, tourism will instigate the interactions between the tourists and the local people. This may cause assimilation of new cultural practices, and consequently leading to the erosion the Emirati culture.
Cultural Identity
The area has hundreds of years of Arabic history, with this information being a special feature that requires the preservation of the existing culture.
Tangible/Intangible Heritage
The Ra Ghanada’s lagoon is located at a close proximity to the Abu Dhabi City, which harbors both tangible and intangible heritage of the past. The intangible heritage includes the hospitality of the local people, which promotes peaceful coexistence amongst the inhabitants of Ra’s Ghanada area.
Local Culture as Tourism Attraction
The local Emirati culture of the local people serves as a major tourist attraction practice. This culture is unique and enticing to learn.
Festivals and Events
Due to the low number of people inhabiting the area that surrounds the Ra’s Ghanada Lagoon, there are few festivals and events being organized in this area.
Addressing Objectives and Concerns
Multiplier Effect
Given favorable conditions, the moving company intends to expand its operations within the short time in order to accumulate resources for use during the hard economic times.
Leakage
The company seeks to prevent leakage effect by constantly improving the quality of services that it offers so as to ensure high influx of tourists.
Carrying Capacity
The moving hotel will host 500 persons, with only 200 of the 500 spending in the hotel at night. However, the number of tourists in the hotel at any given time will fluctuate depending on the season of the year.
The Impact of the Tourism Industry
Economic Impact
Economically, tourism earns the country foreign exchange. The moving hotel project will also create employment to the local people, and hence a source of income. The project will provide the country with an opportunity to improve her infrastructure and other social amenities.
Environmental Impact
Depending on the nature of practice, tourism may have a negative or positive influence on the environment. The need to provide standard boarding conditions necessitates conservation and proper care of the environment. However, some tourists’ practices, such as smoking, pollute the environment.
Cultural impact
Tourism has an effect of introducing new cultural practices as tourists get to interact with the locals on a regular basis. Tourism industry in a broader aspect encourages cultural exchange amongst the practicing parties.
However, this may result in the assimilation of new practices by the locals from the tourists and may consequently lead to either erosion of the rich local cultures or emergence of new cultural practices.
Social Impact
The moving hotel project sets up the platform for the tourists to enjoy the rich Asian culture. The emergence of trade centers along the beaches may initiate high rates of crime and other social vices including theft cases.
This project will be acceptable to both groups of foreign and local tourists, as it will provide an opportunity to move between different beaches while still enjoying the comfort of the hotel. The management will have to work together with the local authorities to ensure that such vices are given proper attention, and corrective measures are put in place.
Ways to Reduce Impact
The project will implement the use of modern filters in order to ensure that most of the wastes released into the sea waters do not have adverse effects on the aquatic lives. The company will focus on measures to help the local people conserve their unique cultural practices, in addition, setting up security base to help check on the security of the area.
Sustainable Tourism
This involves travelling to areas where animals, flora and cultural heritage are the primary tourist attractions. The project seeks to help in the conservation of the Emirati culture while giving the tourists a chance to enjoy the comfort of the moving hotel.
Travelling Responsibly
Responsible travelling entails travelling to fulfill one’s desires while benefiting the local people and the surrounding environment by playing a role in environmental conservation and rehabilitation.
Interpretation
The moving hotel company intends to employ most of the local people so as to ensure that the tourists are able to get proper answers especially for questions on the Emirati culture and practices.
Tourism Elements
This involves all the factors that make up the tourism industry. They include physiographic factors, resources, people, and infrastructure among other things. Ra’s Ghanada area is generally endowed with these factors that will enable thriving of the tourism project.
Visioning Process
The vision of this project will be to provide the best tourist destination for visitors in Abu Dhabi and promote Emirati culture for people of Abu Dhabi in a completely natural habitat. Generally, this project has an advantage over other projects owing to its uniqueness and the perception of the public regarding its implementation.
Location Analysis
Destination Differentiation
The location of the Ra’s Ghanada allows an easier differentiation of the location of the moving hotel industry from other tourist attraction sites.
Destination Sustainability
The economic sustainability of the project will come from continued investment in luxury items and marketing of the hotel as a luxury destination for the selected few. The funds generated will be used to improve services regularly, as well as promoting the local community to ensure that it is able to cater for its own welfare.
Destination Lifecycle
The hotel will be moving between major centers along the beach as stipulated in the travel plans.
SWOT Analysis
Conducting a SWOT Analysis of the location and concept explains the need of understanding the internal and the external factors of the concept.
Strengths
Ra’s Ghanada area is underdeveloped and it has few inhabitants. This will ease the cost of transferring the inhabitants in order to create space for the project. Ra’s Ghanada lagoon enjoys a close proximity to the main city of Abu Dhabi. The area also enjoys good climate throughout the year.
Weakness
Ra’s Ghanada lagoon has been tipped as a home of magnificent infrastructure and other construction projects in the future. Moreover, the area is characterized with few festivals and recreational events; this may limit the number of visiting tourists.
Opportunity
The moving hotel project has the opportunity to tap the income from the great number of tourists visiting Abu Dhabi City by providing a unique and better experience to her customers.
Threats
Despite creating a new idea, the moving hotel project faces a tough test right from conception to implementation. The financial burden that comes with acquiring the heavy machineries and even hiring of expatriates is enormous and requires an organized boardroom for the project to be a success.
Marketing
Stakeholders
Stakeholders of the moving hotel project include owners of the business, shareholders, government, alliances, suppliers, operational teams, customers, local community, and the interest groups.
Visitor segmentation
The moving hotel project is targeting majorly foreign tourists and the high class families who are willing to spend on leisure tours. The visiting tourists will be majorly foreign tourists at 80%, a good number of regional tourists at 15%, and a few locals averaging just about 5%.
Promotion
The promotion will include low tour rates during off-peak seasons, tour packages for families, and low rates for local tourists. Promotion will also be done through advertisements, booklets, and brochures on planes, promotion campaigns posters, and competition.
Branding
The moving hotel is a brand in the tourism industry as it will be the first of its kind in the UAE market.
Tourism Planning and Tourism Policy
The project upon implementation will work in line with the established government policies that control the tourism industry. These include promoting healthy business environment and conservation of tourist attraction sites.