Reputation counts a lot in tourism industry

The positioning of Dubai, and indeed UAE as a tourist destination is becoming an important element of the economy.

The influx of over 6.4 million hotel guests in 2004 and additionally another one million plus Visitors Friends and Relatives (VFRs) who do not stay in hotels but with friends and relatives, gives Dubai a huge market for tourism.

Add to this the number of hotel guests and visitors to Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the other emirates one can safely guess that the total UAE tourism market is upward of 10 million visitors per year.

This is indeed a strong element of the economy and it is not surprising that tourism is appearing more in the lingua franca of the people. Admittedly the ratio of business travellers to tourists is not clearly determined but indeed the growth of tourists is a visible element of the business landscape.

The emergence of Dubailand and indeed the emphasis of being a tourist destination covering leisure, sports, shopping and entertainment is an important element of the business model. However, this is not an area without challenges.

The current prognosis is that Dubai has established itself as major destination in the tourist network and the general interest for visitors is spreading, as is shown by the French travellers voting Dubai as one of the top ten destinations for them. The issues are of capacity, content and repetition that are important to address.

Higher yield

In terms of capacity it is important that as the lure to tourists increases there are sufficient hotels and flights into Dubai to cater to the demand.

Last year, in my opinion as the shortage of hotel rooms emerged, hotel operators got greedy and hiked up rates, to the point where some tour operators even complained that agreements were being violated for pre-agreed rates to achieve a higher yield. The result is that tour operators then feel the pinch and will not be so eager to promote the location to a tourist.

There has to be an understanding that the issue of capacity will be solved with tens of new hotels being built and then the tour operators will hold their own on the issue of rates.

My advice to the hotels, 'do relationships not transactions". Thus the issue of capacity in terms of more hotels and more flights will be solved in the near future and it is maintaining a sustainable inflow that will count.

Tour operators

In terms of content the beach and the shopping mall phase of Dubai's attraction was crucial to bring in the initial wave of interest. Now the time has come for improving the content offering to the tourists.

I would imagine a lot needs to be done to place this content offering into the minds of the potential travellers from now. Outside the area of attractions and theme parks there has to be an encouragement towards archeological tours, nature tours, desert experiences and many more elements of what this country has to offer.

The content offering has to be first class in terms of its offering, positioning and operations and merely pieced together in a mimic fashion.

Tourists will either love it or hate it, and this will depend on the emphasis that is placed on the value of the content, the price points it is offered at and the support system that goes into make the who experience enjoyable.

The success of a strategy to attract tourists has to in the end analysis depend upon the repetition factor that is achieved through the offering and the over all experience. In an ideal situation one would want people to either come back each year, own a holiday home here or a time share participation.

I always believe the best marketing one can put out is when a client recommends your business to another person. That is what the repetition element of the tourism industry is all about, people coming back and saying 'wow you must go there'.

In a nutshell, this is the way forward and the right ingredients are always going to be the result of impeccable planning, sensible strategy and smart marketing. Back them up with good capacity, great content and a happy tourist will return.

The writer is the UAE-based president of Sher Consulting.