Business tourism helps capital to avoid trade downturn

But tourism officials say they intend to make pleasure travel a more important sector in the coming years.

ABU DHABI // The capital's tourism sector has been synonymous with business travel, but tourism officials say they intend to make pleasure travel a more important the sector in coming years. Business tourism, one of the most resilient sectors of the economy, has protected Abu Dhabi from the economic downturn. But tourism officials say the addition of travel for pleasure would boost the local economy even further. "The majority of travel that happens in Abu Dhabi is either business travel or expats living here that want to go home a couple of times every year, and outbound tourism is the bulk of travel agencies' business here," said Hani Khorsheed, the secretary general of the Abu Dhabi Travel and Tourism Agencies Committee. "The reason why our business has not been affected by the economic crisis is because there is no tourism here yet." Abu Dhabi will host Business Tourism Week in March, incorporating the Gulf Meetings and Events Conference, the Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition, and an event organised by the Society of Incentive Travel Executives. More than 250 exhibitors are expected. Mubarak al Muhairi, the director general of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, (ADTA) said improving business tourism was one of the authority's major tasks, but it was also planning to build the leisure sector. Mr al Muhairi said the authority would reach its 2012 target of 2.7 million hotel guests a year by aiming for "discerning tourists who have a keen interest in heritage and culture". Saadiyat Island, scheduled to open in 2018, has been touted as the main attraction for what the Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) calls cultural tourists. Rita Aoun-Abdo, the art and culture advisor at the TDIC, said Saadiyat Island would distinguish Abu Dhabi from Dubai and other GCC countries. "We're using art and culture as a catalyst to position Abu Dhabi locally and internationally," Ms Aoun-Abdo said. Antonia Carver, the editor of Bidoun, a Middle East arts and culture magazine, said Abu Dhabi had high hopes for cultural tourism, even though it was "starting from zero". "In the Gulf, it's a new idea to go to an art museum. They're thinking of putting in a museum before they've thought about an arts school and this is totally unusual," Ms Carver said. "But there's also big, new middle-class tourism nations, like India, and bringing them here might be a real possibility." Bassem Kudsi, a spokesman for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach), said as long as the emirate had something truly unique to offer, the tourists should come. "We have the geography, things like Sir Bani Yas Island," Mr Kudsi said. "We have the camel festival, the sand dunes. With other events we're targeting European travellers, like the Abu Dhabi Classics programme. It takes time but we are starting to build a critical mass." ADTA was working on other ways to attract more leisure tourists, with plans to expand overseas promotion, through 17 exhibitions, three more than last year, in 11 countries. It will have promotions at the China Incentive Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition, the China International Travel Market, and other exhibitions in Italy. * With additional reporting by Amena Bakr