Abu Dhabi bets big on concerts, sporting events, the Sphere, and now Disney to boost tourism

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi is betting big on high-profile entertainment, mega sporting events, and groundbreaking attractions to lure global international visitors. The UAE’s capital city is setting its sights on a substantial increase in visitors, aiming for 7.2 million international tourists by 2030, a sharp rise from the 3.8 million recorded in 2023. This aggressive growth is backed by an expected $10 billion expenditure on its comprehensive Tourism Strategy 2030.

A cornerstone of this vision was recently highlighted by the announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi, a monumental tourism project set to enhance the country's appeal significantly.

According to Abdulla Yousuf, Director of International Operations for Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT- Abu Dhabi), events, particularly sporting events, are at the heart of this forward-looking strategy.

The emirate plans to leverage its capacity to host sold-out concerts and major global sports spectacles, alongside the development of a "twin" to the iconic Las Vegas Sphere, to intensely compete within the rapidly evolving tourism landscape of the region.

New attractions

Abu Dhabi is rapidly expanding its attractions, recently opening TeamLab Phenomena on Saadiyat Island. More major cultural institutions are set to open by 2025 in the Saadiyat Cultural District, including Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Natural History Museum, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum. Looking ahead, the emirate will also see the Sphere Abu Dhabi entertainment venue and a Harry Potter experience at Warner Bros. World. More recently, leisure and entertainment company Miral inked a pact with Disney to open a theme park in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

Here is a look at the highlights from Gulf News’ conversation with Yousuf:

What is DCT Abu Dhabi most focused on to boost visitor numbers?

Today, we're focused on accelerating the room inventory goal to achieve our target of 56,000 rooms by 2030, up from 34,000. The strategy focused on diversifying our market base. In 2019, we had 14 markets; today, we operate in more than 44 markets. We looked at our capabilities and infrastructure and identified opportunities. Today, Abu Dhabi is a leading destination in the region regarding cultural offerings and live entertainment. We've seen this with Ed Sheeran last weekend, Coldplay in January, and more in the pipeline. In sports, we've had NBA, UFC, and EuroLeague basketball. We've anchored certain events in the destination that have become reasons for people to travel.

More importantly, despite our current hotel inventory, we looked at what we have and asked ourselves, "How do we still provide value for money for people who are coming?" So, even though RevPAR and ADR have increased by 25 per cent, our occupancy continues to grow. What does that mean? It means people still see that whatever they're paying in Abu Dhabi gives them value for money. Yes, I'm paying a competitive rate compared to the region, but I get to experience NBA, UFC, F1, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, comedy shows, and certain cultural festivals. These are things you can only find in Abu Dhabi.

Could you comment on some of the new marketplaces you're looking at and regions you're focused on?

If I focus on specific regions, we look at the CIS market: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan. These are markets where we saw great connectivity and relevancy regarding the product. Central and East Europe is something we started early this year, specifically the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania. We are establishing our offices in these markets to enable us to connect through expert teams with established relationships. Spain is a market where we've seen a lot of interest and growth in the last couple of years. We are developing markets in Central and East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. We started with Korea last year and are beginning with Japan this year.

You enjoyed an excellent Q1 2025; what would you say is your forecast for later this year, including the summer?

We are becoming a year-round destination. Our July and August performance last year saw 79 per cent occupancy. We invested in infrastructure; we invested in theme parks. We identified the right audience for summer as being families, and the value offers we started to work on during summer have been designed for an audience that doesn't mind the summer heat as long as there is value for money and they have a great experience. This is what we promised over the summer, and this has helped us work closer with our international partners to say we need to start distinguishing the audience of winter from the audience of summer.

New hotels?

The focus (is also) on more on hotels. How do we increase hotel rooms? The starting point is to show investors the value of the money they can get if they put up a new hotel in Abu Dhabi. Why does it need to be Abu Dhabi and nowhere else? Today, we have a very proven track record based on our marketing strategy and tourism strategy, showing what you can get in Abu Dhabi regarding IP events that take place only in Abu Dhabi, exclusive to Abu Dhabi. The future development of the emirate should give investors confidence that the future of tourism will come from Abu Dhabi.