Infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and Its Relationship to the Sports Tourism Industry

By: Dr. Hamada El-Antably

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.

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.

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.

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.

By Dr. Hamada El-Antably