Human Foundations of the Sports Tourism Industry in the United Arab Emirates

By: Dr. Hamada El-Antably

Since its establishment on December 2, 1971, the United Arab Emirates has adopted an ambitious vision for human development, the foundations of which were laid by the nation’s founder, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan—may God rest his soul—who famously stated: “Man is the basis of any civilizational process.” His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the State, continued to carry out this insightful vision by placing human development, human capability-building, and the empowerment of national human resources at the forefront of national work strategies across all stages. This stemmed from his firm conviction that: “A homeland without citizens has no value nor benefit, no matter how much wealth and resources its land contains.” Consequently, the state’s experience and achievements in comprehensive human development at all levels have become a model and earned regional and international acclaim.

Human foundations represent the second pillar of sports tourism and its activities. They are no less important than natural foundations, which constitute the primary element of sports tourism attraction; for instance, the presence of an attractive tourism environment in an area that is difficult to access strips it of its significance and tourism value. Meanwhile, the availability of comfortable accommodation, entertainment means, and diverse tourism services are among the essentials of successful tourism work and a key factor in attracting sports tourists to sports regions and facilities.

Moreover, the high level of tourism awareness among the citizens of the country or the host community for tourists and visitors, as well as the low population density in tourism areas, are important factors in the tourist attraction of the host region, leaving a good impression on both visitors and residents. This is coupled with a warm welcome and a commitment to providing the highest level of services and tourism activities without causing annoyance or intrusion. All of these factors constitute essential components of the human foundations in any tourist region due to their importance in tourism attraction. Many countries around the world focus on developing their sports tourism primarily through human foundations despite a lack of natural attraction factors, making it necessary to focus on these foundations and work on developing them for a successful tourism activity.

First: The Transportation and Transit Network

If tourism is fundamentally the movement of tourists between the supply and demand environments, this movement requires a medium to act as a carrier and complement to make it happen, giving it special importance as one of the primary human factors influencing tourist movement activity globally. Therefore, the transportation network is considered one of the three main pillars of the sports tourism industry alongside accommodation and equipment. From a technical tourism perspective, transportation is a major part of infrastructure requirements and holds immense importance for tourism activity within the tourism supply environment. Thus, transport services are most closely tied to the development of tourism movement, especially when economically viable. Tourism without travel does not exist, setting it apart from other leisure activities.

Each mode of transport generally (land, air, and maritime) has its diverse issues, and there are appendages and equipment associated with each that also have their own problems, but they must all converge on a crucial point: providing the elements of comfort and speed.

The United Arab Emirates has successfully established an advanced infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, and other transport projects within a short period, surrounded by high-level services, placing the UAE among the most modern and influential nations in the world.

Below, we shed light on the transport modes utilized in the UAE’s sports tourism industry to determine their characteristics and role in stimulating and developing sports tourism.

1. Land Transport

The land transport system consists of two main elements: the road and the vehicle. The road is a fundamental element in transport, perhaps even more so than the vehicle used upon it, as poor road conditions can hinder the use of certain transport vehicles requiring high road quality.

The road network in the UAE serves as the backbone of its commercial, economic, and tourism growth. Accessibility to the UAE is extremely smooth; it can be reached via land, sea, and air. For a long time, it played the role of a connecting link between East Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, the Gulf region, and the Arabian Peninsula, as traders utilized it as a major stopping point. This reflected on the revival and prosperity of its transit trade movement, particularly in the Emirate of Dubai, alongside other economic activities including sports tourism.

The UAE is connected by a network of highway roads featuring internationally agreed-upon specifications, linking it to all major cities in the Middle East. Some of these roads were built or developed along the same historic trade routes that once connected the UAE to the rest of the Middle East. These modern roads are characterized by capacity and ease of movement, particularly between the country and the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The country is linked by an internal road network boasting international standards among its cities. For instance, these roads connect the Emirate of Dubai to Sharjah and the Northern Emirates to the east, Abu Dhabi to Al Ain to the west, Dubai to Abu Dhabi to the west, and Sharjah to its eastern coast neighbor Fujairah. They also connect to its three cities—Khor Fakkan, Kalba, and Dibba Al-Hisn—and other coastal cities on the Arabian Gulf through a developed road network. Furthermore, Dubai is linked to the south with Al Ain (affiliated with Abu Dhabi) and with the Sultanate of Oman to the southeast.

A unified road network links all seven emirates, starting from Abu Dhabi and ending in the Emirate of Fujairah, followed by another network extending from Abu Dhabi to the end of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. This confirms that the UAE is interconnected via a developed road network forming more than ten major highways spanning over a thousand kilometers, represented by Abu Dhabi–Dubai, Dubai–Sharjah, Sharjah–Ajman–Umm Al Quwain–Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi–Al Ain, Abu Dhabi–Dubai–Sharjah–Fujairah, Dubai–Al Ain, and other main roads linking the country’s major cities.

A striking development in the country’s transport network was the inauguration of the first phase of the Dubai Metro on September 9, 2009, at a total cost reaching 29 billion dirhams, alongside the announcement of the establishment of “Etihad Rail” with a capital of 1 billion dirhams. This unveiled a railway project costing between 25 and 30 billion dirhams with a length of 100 kilometers, connecting Al Ghuwaifat at the border point with Saudi Arabia in the west to the border point with Oman in the east. The railway built by Etihad Rail in the country will form part of a regional railway project linking Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, enhancing and facilitating passenger and transport movement among them. The “Etihad Train” will constitute part of the Gulf train linking the six GCC states at a cost of around 25 billion dollars.

The Department of Transport in Abu Dhabi formulated its Comprehensive Surface Transport Master Plan 2030 within the framework of the “Abu Dhabi 2030” strategy, upgrading transport infrastructure across all cities and suburbs of the emirate to rank among the globally advanced cities in transport infrastructure. The plan includes establishing long-term infrastructure for roads and multi-modal transport, represented by a safe, modern, and advanced transport network connecting Abu Dhabi to its surrounding areas and linking all parts of the emirate locally, regionally, and internationally. This supports the comprehensive renaissance witnessed by the emirate across all fields by facilitating the movement of individuals and groups across all transport means, including the metro, train, tram, and water transport.

The launch of the Dubai Metro on September 9, 2009, represented a significant and pivotal milestone in developing the public transport network in Dubai, making it the first Gulf city to utilize an integrated metro network. The Dubai Metro is the first driverless automated metro network in the Middle East, aiming to alleviate traffic congestion, reduce travel time via transport, and mitigate pollution resulting from conventional transit means. Upon completing its final phase, its length will reach 70 kilometers of lines and 47 stations (including ten underground stations) in addition to two lines under construction. The Dubai Metro crossed the threshold of three million passengers across ten stations via the Red Line from the launch of its first trips until November 9, 2009.

2. Air Transport

Air transport is among the newest, fastest, most advanced, and most widely used modern transport modes, capable of covering long distances and overcoming natural isolation regions, while offering exceptional comfort. Air transport represents one of the primary pillars and components of tourism movement; an attractive tourism environment in an isolated mountain community that is difficult to reach loses its resort appeal and tourism value. If such isolation poses a barrier to tourism movement, air transport becomes the optimal and sole means to overcome this obstacle.

When the country was established in 1971, there were only three small airports in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah. Today, it greets the world through seven international airports located in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, and Al Ain. In the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, there are three international airports: Abu Dhabi International Airport, Al Ain International Airport, and Al Bateen Executive Airport, which is dedicated to receiving VIP state guests. The Abu Dhabi government allocated about 1 billion dirhams for airport development projects to meet the emirate’s growth needs and elevate them to modern standards in line with 21st-century metrics.

The Airports Council International (ACI) projected that passenger capacity across existing and new national airports would reach over 250 million passengers by 2020, capturing first place in the Middle East and North Africa in terms of passenger capacity. The country will also pump over 22 billion dollars into expansion and airport construction projects across various emirates after the number of travelers through national airports reached around 40 million passengers, serviced by approximately 285 airlines.

National airlines—Etihad Airways, Emirates, Air Arabia, flydubai, and Ras Al Khaimah Airways—have achieved successive qualitative leaps in the size of their modern wide-body aircraft fleets, the growing global travel destinations they reach, and the number of passengers utilizing them.

We can summarize the role played by various transport modes in tourism, domestically or internationally—especially air transport—as holding a pioneering role in tourism movement among global tourism regions, which naturally require long-distance travel frequently crossing water barriers or geographical obstacles impeding ease of movement.

This increase in international air transport movement in particular is the result of several factors, most notably: people are more inclined to travel by air; air travel is incomparably faster; and costs are generally lower. A decisive development for air transport was the creation of inclusive tour packages where travelers board chartered flights at prices substantially lower than standard scheduled services.

The UAE features eight international airports in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, and Al Ain, while new international airports and major expansions are underway at Abu Dhabi and Dubai international airports. Investments in national airports over the next five years are expected to reach around 100 billion dirhams. ACI projected passenger capacity in existing and new international airports to exceed 250 million passengers by 2020, securing first place in the Middle East and North Africa in capacity.

Abu Dhabi Airports (ADAC) commenced execution in mid-2012 of the new Midfield Terminal Complex at Abu Dhabi International Airport, spanning 700,000 square meters at a cost of 10.8 billion dirhams. This quintuples the total airport area following the building’s opening, accommodating around 40 million passengers annually and raising the airport’s capacity to roughly 50 million passengers.

The Dubai government earmarked investments of about 30 billion dirhams until the end of 2020 to expand and develop airports—26 billion to develop Dubai International Airport and 4 billion for projects at Al Maktoum International Airport, which successfully attracted 40 air cargo companies establishing Dubai World Central (DWC) at the airport as their hub.

3. Maritime Transport

Along the UAE’s coastline, there are over 26 maritime ports, 15 of which constitute the country’s main maritime gateways. In recent years, the state has invested billions of dirhams to develop port infrastructure and establish new ports, most notably Khalifa Port within the new industrial zones in Mussafah, covering an area of 600 square kilometers at a cost of 5.5 billion dirhams.

Free zones offering numerous facilities and exemptions to attract investments and encourage investors to establish commercial, industrial, and utility projects supporting the national economy have been established in many national ports. One of the largest is the Jebel Ali Free Zone (“Jafza”), which attracted over 377 new companies in 2009, pushing the total number of companies in Jafza past 6,000.

The largest of these ports—Zayed Port in Abu Dhabi, Rashid Port and Jebel Ali in Dubai, Khalid Port and Khor Fakkan in Sharjah, Ajman Port, Umm Al Quwain Port, Fujairah Port, and Saqr Port in Ras Al Khaimah—contribute a prominent role in developing and prospering economic and commercial movement due to their strategic locations, proximity to global markets, and linking the country via Asia and Africa to numerous global continents.

DP World, officially established in September 2005 following the merger of Dubai Ports Authority and DP World Terminals, ranks among the largest global port operators, managing over 52 ports across 24 countries on five continents with a capacity of 50 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) annually.

Specialized cruise berths have recently been allocated in certain national ports, such as Rashid Port in Dubai, Khalid Port in Sharjah, and Zayed Port in Abu Dhabi.

Furthermore, on December 12, 2012, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan inaugurated Khalifa Port in the Taweelah area of Abu Dhabi, which stands as one of the largest and most advanced ports in the Middle East and North Africa regarding available technology, area, and operational capacity. He stated: “The inauguration of this port, built according to the latest international standards, will be an important milestone in the modernization and development journey witnessed by our country through the efforts of its sons.”

His Highness emphasized providing necessary support to the national maritime transport sector, especially Khalifa Port, to complete its construction phases so it can stand as one of the most important commercial ports in the region, across the Middle East, and as a link between global economic regions by capitalizing on its location and the UAE’s strategic position. He stated: “The opening of this massive edifice reinforces our directions toward completing the vision of Abu Dhabi 2030 with confident steps, contributing to sustaining the high-paced growth witnessed by the UAE to meet the ambitions of national youth in building a vital economic base.”

Second: Infrastructure

Infrastructure—which encompasses energy, electricity, drinking water, transportation, wired and wireless communications, and health services—is considered one of the essential pillars for establishing the sports tourism industry anywhere. The efficiency of these services also serves as an important indicator measuring the potential for developing tourism resources in the UAE as a tourism destination and a welcoming hub for numerous visitors.

When studying infrastructure for the purpose of establishing and reviving sports tourism in a given location, it is essential that the efficiency of this service infrastructure rises and its capacity exceeds that of the original residential and urban community so that planning authorities can invest this surplus beyond the residents’ needs and present and sell it to the tourist.

We will comprehensively examine these services at the national level, clarifying the importance of this infrastructure to the flow of sports tourism—whether its impact is positive or negative—and the extent of its adequacy or deficiency in fulfilling tourism development paths.

1. Electricity and Water

The availability of electricity and water is recognized internationally as one of the civilizational indicators. Since the formation of the Federation in 1971, concerned authorities in the country have strived to provide electricity and water supplies for both consumption and production purposes. The electricity and water sector is considered one of the primary foundations of the economic and social development process; there is a strong connection between the success of development programs and the provision of electricity and water elements. Observing the rapid progress in the country’s overall economic and social developments, as well as the significant rise in living standards, electricity and water projects are among the largest projects at the local level, representing the civilizational march keeping pace with economic developments in the fields of industry, urban development, and tourism.

The cumulative effect of the record increase in water and electricity production growth in the UAE has become a primary consideration regarding supply planning. Looking to the future, the government has focused on the need to research the development of alternative resources for fuel-dependent services—natural gas remaining the optimal fuel to this day—while also focusing on securing funding for new projects.

At the same time, there are ongoing challenges regarding shortages in water and electricity supply, particularly through the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) to the Northern Emirates, although Abu Dhabi also faces tightness in this area.

Significant progress has been made in addressing these problems. For example, both the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) secured funding for new projects, while the former expanded financial assistance for new infrastructure and raised its exports of electricity generated at its plants to Sharjah and the Northern Emirates to help them meet supply shortages. Recognizing the importance of sustainable development, attention was also directed toward spreading public awareness regarding the need to slow the growth of water and electricity consumption, while new energy sources were planned in the form of solar power plants and nuclear reactors. The year 2009 was crowned with the most significant development in the country’s history regarding development: signing a contract worth 37 billion dirhams ($20 billion) with a consortium of South Korean companies to build four nuclear power plants by the year 2020. This step means that the UAE will be the first Arab country to use nuclear energy.

The UAE has practically entered advanced stages in nuclear power production after the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) signed contracts on October 22, 2012, with six international companies from the United States, South Korea, Canada, Russia, and France to import nuclear fuel for 15 years at a total value reaching $3 billion. The contracted fuel will provide production capacity of up to 450 megawatts-hour of electrical energy, sufficient for 15 years, as the operation of the first nuclear power plant is scheduled to begin in the current year 2017 among four plants to be built at the Barakah site in the Western Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi until 2020, with each plant producing 1,400 megawatts. This secures future needs for safe, efficient, and eco-friendly electrical energy and ensures the implementation of ambitious sustainable development plans.

Substantial growth was also evident in the water sector, as the government attempted to reduce what is considered globally to be one of the highest per capita water consumption rates. The country possesses limited fresh water resources and has increasingly relied on producing desalinated seawater through cogeneration in power plants. According to the Ministry of Environment and Water, for a long period of the year and depending on temperatures, about 98% of consumed water is produced through seawater desalination.

The UAE is the second-largest country in the world in producing desalinated seawater, with 30 seawater desalination plants whose production capacity reaches 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. Although the UAE has been able to secure the population and development needs of fresh water, the phenomenon of excessive consumption of these vital resources constitutes one of the most significant challenges facing the country. ADWEA continued implementing the Fujairah 2 plant in the Qidfa area on the UAE’s eastern coast, which has a production capacity of 2,000 megawatts. The mentioned plant operates on natural gas pumped via pipeline from the Taweelah area in northeast Abu Dhabi. The plant provides electricity to both Abu Dhabi and the grid in the Northern Emirates, while its attached desalination plant supplies 130 million gallons of water every day to both the city of Al Ain and the Emirate of Fujairah.

ADWEA also utilized its first major source of renewable energy: a solar panel plant in Masdar City to generate 10 megawatts of electricity, linking the plant to the main grid. It also reached an agreement to finance facilities in the massive Shuweihat 2 water and electricity plant, which will produce more than 1,600 megawatts of electricity and 100 million gallons of water daily.

2. Health Services

The importance of health services efficiency for the tourism industry stems from the spread of medical tourism on one hand, and the tourist’s desire to secure themselves medically at their tourism destination regarding ambulances, hospitals, and the non-spread of epidemics and diseases on the other.

Tourists can receive required treatment in emergency departments 24 hours a day in the best medical centers and specialized outpatient clinics supervised by the Ministry of Health, the Department of Medical Services, and private clinics as well.

Since its establishment in 1971, the UAE has worked to provide high-level health services, encompassing therapeutic, preventive, and promotive services, in addition to implementing strategic programs to combat chronic and infectious diseases and provide maternal and child care. Specialized centers and diagnostic-therapeutic units spread across all the country’s hospitals, such as open-heart surgery units, organ transplants, hemodialysis units for kidney failure patients, nuclear medicine units, surgical laparoscopy, diabetes treatment units, and other specialized departments. The Ministry of Health gave special importance to developing the capabilities of national cadres.

The number of hospitals in the country reached 92 hospitals, including 34 hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health, and more than 3,169 primary health care centers, in addition to 11 main school health centers, 10 maternal and child care centers, and 110 specialized maternal and child units inside primary care centers and hospitals.

The number of patients treated in Ministry of Health hospitals reached more than 1,800,000 patients, the number of beds reached 9,585, and the number of doctors and technicians reached 15,572 doctors and technicians.

3. Wired and Wireless Communications

The world is described as a small village under the communications revolution and information openness owed to telephone networks (wired communications) and satellites (wireless communications). Under this openness, tourists need to follow up on their businesses remotely and to shorten or eliminate distances through communications. Therefore, Emirates Telecommunications Corporation provided the latest communication technologies and granted them at the national level, linking the UAE with about 136 countries via satellites, enabling sports, commercial, and other tourism and economic facilities to find the necessary resources to complete their activities. Communication services in the UAE include radiotelephone calls with ships at sea, telefax service via the most precise equipment for receiving and transmitting documents, messages, drawings, and pictures, as well as telex service.

The communications sector has witnessed major developments in recent years, as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) contributed to maintaining, developing, and continuously updating the global standard of telecommunications services and regulating the competitive relationship between the two main operators, “Etisalat” and “du.” It also played an important role in regulating the frequency spectrum and supporting new companies offering communications-related services, such as “Yahsat.” The “Global Information Technology Report” prepared by the World Economic Forum ranked the UAE first in the Middle East and Africa and second globally in the government usage index of information technology among 144 countries included in the 2013 Global Information Technology and Communications Report issued by the World Economic Forum. This important achievement comes after the UAE’s ranking jumped 30 places from its 2012 ranking in the same index, representing the largest jump ever monitored in this year’s index, distinguishing it as one of the most network-connected economies in the world, thus surpassing all other Arab countries. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in the UAE was established pursuant to Federal Decree-Law No. 3 of 2003 to undertake formulating the supreme policy of the telecommunications sector, securing communication services throughout the country, ensuring service quality in compliance with license conditions by licensees, encouraging telecommunications and information technology services in the country, promoting and developing the sector through training and development and establishing relevant training institutions, and finding solutions for disputes that may arise between licensed operators.

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (“Etisalat”) made a qualitative leap in the world of communications regarding value-added services and third-generation mobile phone services. Thanks to its leadership, Etisalat managed to push the penetration rate of mobile phone service in the UAE across its network to 162 percent, with its customer list today including 7.44 million subscribers, while the number of fixed communication lines reached 3.1 million lines. Meanwhile, the number of subscription lines for dial-up and broadband internet services reached 1.27 million subscribers. Etisalat’s coverage network is considered one of the most advanced networks globally, with more than 520 international roaming partners in 190 countries. During this period, it continued to develop all operating exchanges in the country to operate with advanced digital technology, supporting local and international communications with a fiber-optic network providing massive transmission capabilities with the highest degree of efficiency and effectiveness, offering a wide range of the latest telephony and data exchange services, alongside its capacity to attract future services requiring high speeds.

“Yahsat” Satellite Communications Company is the first national UAE satellite operating company, wholly owned by Mubadala. The company provides innovative satellite communication solutions to governments and commercial enterprises in the Middle East, Africa, and Southwest Asia. The company launched the “Yahsat 1A” satellite in October 2010, and “Yahsat 1B” was launched in the first half of 2011, enabling the company to provide “Yahclick” broadband service in all areas covered by the satellite.

“Thuraya” Space Communications Company, in which Etisalat owns most shares, is a leading provider of efficient and economical mobile satellite telephony services through portable devices operating on a dual system (satellite system/GSM) and public telephone devices operating via satellites dedicated to rural and remote areas. Thuraya enables users in rural and remote areas, those at sea, or those outside terrestrial network coverage by providing them with reliable means to access voice and data communication services. The launch of Thuraya’s third satellite enabled it to occupy first place globally in the field of mobile satellite telephony, as the company is currently one of the major space communications operators in the world. The company’s importance in the communications industry lies in the fact that it covers more than two-thirds of the world’s population in the most densely populated regions, such as China and the Asian continent.

Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) launched high-speed satellite internet service in 2012, characterized by high performance and wide coverage locally and in key customer, corporate, and individual markets in more than 28 countries across the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Africa.

Third: Superstructure (Tourism Facilities)

The collection of tourism facilities and conveniences is no less important by any means than the establishment of infrastructure networks; in fact, it may surpass them at times. A balance between infrastructure and superstructure likely stands behind the success of the sports tourism industry in the UAE over the past few years and into the future.

The tourism facilities provided to tourists within the tourist supply environment (the UAE) are divided into the following:

Accommodation facilities.

Supply facilities.

Transportation facilities.

Hospitality resources.

Tourism-qualified workforce.

Management and organization.

Accommodation Facilities

The ACT tourism development report successfully defined accommodation (hospitality) facilities as including hotels, sleeping services, motels, pensions, furnished apartments, holiday camps, chalets, and timeshare units. A tourist’s choice of accommodation in the UAE depends on the planned duration of their stay and the level of service desired, which correlates with their financial capabilities. Accordingly, the UAE has provided suitable accommodation units for all social classes.

The UAE boasts a large number of companies that lease furnished apartments and hotel apartments suitable for families and individuals intending a long-term stay of a week, a month, or more, while maintaining a high standard of service alongside other recreational and utility facilities. The number of furnished apartment rental companies in the country developed significantly during the last decade of the twentieth century.

Resorts and hotels can be classified by location into airport hotels, highway hotels, and suburban hotels, and by tourism class into deluxe, first, second, and third-class hotels. The UAE is linked to a series of international hotel chains spread across the world, which enjoy the highest level of service (Forti Grand – Hilton – Hyatt Regency – Ramada – Sheraton – Marriott – InterContinental – Holiday Inn). These deluxe hotels are distributed geographically across the UAE’s coasts, on the outskirts of cities, in central business districts (CBD), and in remote areas reflecting mountain environments. Alongside deluxe and first-class hotels, there is a large number of second and third-class hotels scattered across the country’s cities and suburbs.

Tourists enjoy accommodation facilities that include food and beverage services. The UAE abounds with luxury restaurants distributed across all the country’s cities, offering delicious French, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Persian cuisines, as well as a number of authentic Arab dishes. The country is distinguished by specialty restaurants focusing on specific items such as seafood and pasta restaurants, alongside numerous fast-food outlets along the roads. Additionally, popular restaurants and cafes spread throughout the UAE offer local dishes and sweets such as Harees, Thareed, Regag, and other traditional foods.

Supply Facilities

Accommodation facilities are linked to supply industries required by tourists, including the souvenir industry, bazaars, and duty-free markets in airports. Tourists also require laundry and ironing services. This category of facilities encompasses the aforementioned food and beverage services, as well as necessary commercial and sporting shops, diverse markets, pharmacies, and hair salons.

Defert classified these facilities into five hierarchically descending levels based on the tourist’s economic standing, starting with daily services, then commercial services, clothing and furniture services, security and fire services, and at the top of the hierarchical order, luxury services such as jewelry and luxury goods shops.

The UAE has been keen to ensure this diverse range of services exists within its borders, ranging from grocery, dairy, and food stores to jewelry shops and security services. Every hotel in the UAE has ensured the presence of most of these facilities, such as shops selling national and international newspapers and magazines, clothing and athletic equipment stores, photography gear, the finest perfumes and flowers, telex, fax, and internet communication services, mobile phone rental shops, audiovisual halls equipped with simultaneous interpretation systems for conferences and seminars, resident doctors in hotels for first aid, and fire protection technology on every floor of any hotel regardless of its star rating.

On the other hand—outside the hotels—many prominent shopping centers are spread across the country, such as Al Ghurair Center, Wafi Center, Al Taawun Center, Hamdan Center, City Centre, BurJuman Center, Sahara Centre, Al Fardan Center, and other commercial hubs scattered throughout the cities.

Transportation Facilities

These serve the tourism industry on three levels: the international level, linking the UAE to the rest of the world’s airports; the national level, serving tourists and connecting them to the rest of the country’s emirates; and the third level, local domestic transportation facilities that transport tourists inside the cities or the tourist destination itself during visits or internal transfers. These are represented by air-conditioned buses belonging to hotel management or travel and tourism agencies in the country, as well as hotel limousines or private taxis. All these types operate at standards matching the nature and level of tourism activity and the level of tourists, and they are subject to technical and health supervision, as the issue of transportation has been thoroughly addressed previously.

Hospitality Resources

Due to the elevated level of tourism awareness and perception among the UAE population, many tourists have experienced the spirit of the hospitable citizen. This kind spirit stands as a primary pillar alongside other components of hospitality resources, such as guide services, ease of language and communication, respect for traffic signals, ease of financial transactions via credit cards and traveler’s checks, facilitation of banking and customs procedures, and the exemption of personal items from customs duties. The country has also provided multilingual publications and tourist information regarding both archaeological and cultural tourist sites. The United Arab Emirates is considered one of the safest and most stable tourism destinations for visitors.

The UAE has eased entry visa regulations to the point where any hotel, tourism company, or commercial enterprise in the country, especially in the Emirate of Dubai, can easily grant visas to both visitors and tourists alike.

Tourism-Qualified Workforce

The growing workforce day after day contributes to elevating the level of tourism services and superstructure. The abundance of tourism companies and tour operators has helped qualify the tourism workforce in the country. The UAE includes more than 150 tourism service companies, in addition to a college that graduates qualified employees for the tourism field in the country.

Management and Organization

The connection of tourism activity to numerous sectors and fields in the UAE has led to the issuance of certain laws and regulations for tourism work, serving as a constitution to which all works and activities related to tourism activity in each emirate of the country refer.

Through these laws and regulations, all procedures related to tourism activity in the country are organized, such as hotelkeeping, travel agencies and companies, public shops, and the supervision of tourism services. Certain emirates in the country have managed to issue decrees establishing a special authority or department for tourism. For instance, the Emirate of Dubai issued a law in January 1997 establishing the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in place of the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Promotion Board, aiming to develop the tourism industry in Dubai specifically and the country generally.

Similarly, the Emirate of Sharjah issued a similar law establishing the Commerce and Tourism Development Authority to plan, formulate general strategy and policy, and practically supervise the tourism industry in its various aspects in Sharjah.

By Dr. Hamada El-Antably