By holding prestigious sports events Abu Dhabi wants to become the most sort after tourist destination in recent times.
Abu Dhabi is zeroing in on its objective of becoming one of the world’s most sought-after destinations with its unique combination of tourist attractions. One of its major strengths is hosting of prestigious sports events.
In the opinion of a global tourism expert, UAE’s capital city Abu Dhabi has the potential to join the list of top budding business and tourism destinations by offering unforgettable visitor experience.
Dr Getz, an internationally acclaimed expert in global tourism, planning and policymaking said, “Abu Dhabi has massive potential to offer a unique experience for visitors and the overall vision must be to differentiate itself from all other destinations globally. The key elements of Abu Dhabi’s long-term vision must be uniqueness, differentiation and culture. This is already being driven very successfully by ADTA and the Tourism, Development & Investment Company (TDIC), and I believe there is still much, much more to come,” as per the news reported by Khaleej Times.
One essential requirement for Abu Dhabi to achieve this objective is to market itself internationally. With an enviable sporting events’ portfolio already in its possession, Abu Dhabi’s most prestigious event is going to be the F1 World Championship (WC) Grand Prix (GP) race in 2009. The event is expected to draw nearly 800 million audiences. Meanwhile, the PGA European Tour approved Abu Dhabi Golf Championship will tee off its 3rd year in next January (2008) and the capital is also set to host its debut Abu Dhabi Cycling Race of Champions, the world’s most lucrative professional cycling event in November 2007.
Awaiting massive arrival of visitors, the city is set to increase hotel capacity to 25,000 rooms by the year 2015 from its existing 11,500 rooms, as per the state-run Tourism Authority of Abu Dhabi. There are also projects to set up a beach resort at the entrance of Abu Dhabi and developing a number of natural islands, comprising of Reem, Yas and particularly Saadiyat into tourist hot spots.
According to a research analyst at RNCOS, “Last three years have witnessed outstanding growth rates in terms of visitors to the Emirates as well as revenue from the tourism sector. With a tourism industry in Abu Dhabi’s capital, the coming years would see new horizons opening up. What makes Abu Dhabi an emerging destination is its perfect blend of culture, heritage, sun, sea and sand, apart from the Championship course, which is challenging as well as visually attractive.”
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