Sharjah college project to promote British tourism

In a first initiative of its kind, 16 Sharjah Women's College students have prepared a project to promote Britain as a tourist destination among UAE and Gulf nationals.

Yalla to Britain is its central theme - a simple, direct message, developed creatively by employing posters, multimedia CDs and websites. Project details, prepared in coordination with the British Tourist Authority (BTA), were unveiled by five of the students at the college yesterday.

"The objective is to gather data on the points that make Britain a desirable destination for Gulf visitors," officials explained.

The material is to be further developed and studied from the legal perspective before being launched this autumn.

"The project is unbelievably creative," noted Mark Miller, BTA General Manager for the Middle East and Indian subcontinent. "The message was excellent - it was simple, with the components embodying all the BTA's objectives.

"This has never been done before, and was the first opportunity we have with nationals from the Gulf to work on a tourist promotion," he added.

The project has also provided an excellent learning experience for the students, noted Ged Ryan, Head of Career Programme at the college. "It is closely integrated into the curricula and represents a real life case study for which the students implemented effective solutions."

The BTA had invited Sharjah Women's College to become involved in a project to research, design and develop a promotional material campaign to help promote Britain as a tourist destination to families from the UAE and the Gulf region, he explained.

"Sixteen students were chosen, and in February they, along with four staff members, embarked on a six-day tourist orientation visit to Britain. They were divided into four groups and trips were organised to sites in London, Scotland, Wales, Manchester and the south-east."

Each group's brief was to visit the tourist sites and collect information on the area, which would be of interest to Gulf visitors.

Fatima Abdul Hussain, one of the students who made the presentation, explained: "The initial phase involved our working with the BTA to collect data using a detailed questionnaire."

Specialising in business management, Fatima said the overviews of the project covered goals and objectives of the campaign, strategy, programmes, schedules, and questions.

Her colleague, Shahla Khan, also a business management student, continued: "We conducted market research to understand what people think of Britain, and of travelling and vacationing there.

"Based on the findings of the research and on our own itineraries of our visit to Britain, we have designed a promotional strategy," she saidd.

The strategy recommends taking Britain to the people on the road, in cars, at shopping malls and at home.

The idea is to create an emotional bridge between Britain and the local culture by using a recognised Arabic expression which will embody the promotional message.

Nadia Khan, graphic arts student, explained that the promotion programme includes radio promotion, brochures, posters and web site interface. The Yalla to Britain poster includes a visual summary and reminder of the four axis of interest, she added.

Nisreen Safar, graphic arts student, demonstrated a web site interface which carried the campaign's theme.