The United Arab Emirates is a Federation of seven Emirates. The most well known ones are Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Abu Dhabi is also the county’s capital. In the past several decades the United Arab Emirates have improved a lot in the sphere of travelling and tourism. The most magnificent cities of the UAE simply rose from the sand.
Amazingly beautiful buildings, sky scrapers, five star hotels, parks and enormous shopping centers are situated right now on the areas where twenty years ago there was a dry and non-populated desert. To attract the flow of finances from the abroad the UAE started to rapidly develop tourism, build the areas and create places of interest. This took a lot of effort and investment from the country’s budget.
The Emirates attract tourists willing to see ancient places of interest such as Oases Areas, mosques and churches, and also many new fascinating sites are being created these days. Ones of the most popular attractions of the modern Emirates are Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world, Palm Islands, artificially made by humans and Burj Al Arab, known as “the world’s only seven star hotel”.
A lot of international workers were encouraged to obtain jobs in the Emirates; employees from all over the world are still coming to the United Arab Emirates to work in spheres of travelling, tourism, hotel and restaurant business, building and engineering, landscape design, oil industry. As a result the United Arab Emirates have become popular all over the world and turned into one of the most multinational countries.
Dubai alone attracts over ten million tourists every year. One of the best ways to spread the information and attract tourists is advertisements on TV and in the internet. If the material is well-put and properly organised – it will make a great impact on people’s minds, encourage potential customers to make a research on the subject of the advertisement and become interested in it. All of the tourist resorts have many commercials running.
The influence from this way of informing people about the business cannot be underestimated. Just like in any business, to create a good and successful advertisement or commercial – the makers need to study the range of potential clients, their needs, desires, wishes and be ready to perform a program they would find appealing.
Tourists that visit the United Arab Emirates have various interests and come from various cultures and countries. This is why the biggest and most beautiful cities of the Emirates suggest the widest range of services of all kinds ready to please all tastes.
The commercials I have picked for my research are designed to promote of tourism in the United Arab Emirates. They present short video clips with views and sceneries of various spheres of life in the Emirates. Modern commercials for tourism do not rely on verbal advertisement.
Instead they collect the most attractive images of the country they present and compile an interesting short video, designed to touch the viewer’s emotions, cause a desire to visit the country and see all the scenes from the video in reality. Two of the videos I have chosen are made to show the esthetic beauty of life and nature in the United Arab Emirates.
The third video is called “UAE Exchange Travel Ad”- it advertises a travelling agency using humor as a tool to approach the viewers (Uaeexchangetravel). It creates an idea that choosing Exchange Travel agency is the most safe and comfortable way to travel while mocking low budget firms that offer little comfort and bad conditions for their clients.
The two esthetic videos are applying for other human emotions – fascination, feeling of relaxation, love for beauty and desire to be quiet, need for peaceful environment and space. People from big busy cities of the world would be especially interested in these advertisements. The clip called “Be Still” is a winner of Cannes Lions 2010 Award (Farrukh).
The video is full of geometrical shapes pleasant to a human eye, peaceful and serene sceneries, accompanied with quiet music, it shows the Emirates as an extremely quiet and peaceful place, pure, calm and close to nature, the images of old-fashioned markets and people, the views of ancient buildings make the viewer percept Abu Dhabi as a place beyond the flow of time. It is perfect for people tired of the speed of everyday life, looking for relaxation.
The second clip is called “Award Winning Abu Dhabi Tourism,Al Gharbia TV Commercial”, it has no narration, but it is full of panoramic views, showing space and stillness, the atmosphere of absolute peace (ActionImpactDubai).
The absence of verbal element emphasises that the beauty of the UAE does not need comment, it goes without saying. The commercials have affected me a lot, made me interested in the sceneries I saw, made me desire to visit the UAE. I think they are very successful and useful tools to bring public attention to the tourism in the Emirates.
Works Cited
ActionImpactDubai. “Award Winning Abu Dhabi Tourism, Al Gharbia TV Commercial”. Online video clip. YouTube.
Farrukh, Naeem. “Abu Dhabi Tourism TV AD by TBWA/RAAD Abu Dhabi – Be Still – Cannes Lions 2010 Winner”. Online video clip. YouTube.
Uaeexchangetravel. “UAE Exchange Travel Ad”. Online video clip. YouTube.