Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) has unveiled a hotel-industry led initiative to support and bolster growth of the emirate’s expanding tourism industry, as part of a revised and enhanced programme of Industry Development Committees.

The stakeholder programme which boasts members of 15 hotel groups representing over 60 of the emirate’s four- and five-star hotels, has been simplified and improved to help spearhead the delivery of the authority’s vision for the development of a distinctive destination aligned to the Abu Dhabi 2030 Vision for economic diversification.

“The introduction of an overarching hotel committee is an opportunity for us to align our mutual strategies through our inclusive industry approach which has already delivered significant achievements over the past two years,” said Sultan Al Dhaheri, TCA Abu Dhabi’s acting executive director of tourism.

“This group will address the challenges we face in delivering visitor growth to the destination, and identify opportunities which will benefit the hotel sector. Our open, two-way dialogue will see this committee act as representatives for the sector, and set the direction for all other hotel operators through peer-to-peer information sharing,” he said.

The new refined hotel committee structure made up of the industry’s high level decision-makers has been introduced to direct the hotel sector and will meet quarterly, supported by newly-established dedicated Sales Engagement and Human Resources development committees.

“We have developed a new charter to support this objective and have designated two sub committees to support our main Hotel committee to finalise and implement strategies for promotion and development identified by the group,” added Al Dhaheri.

The move comes as the authority looks to engage the emirate’s growing accommodation sector and identify stakeholders’ specific needs to better market and attract higher visitation, and convert extended length of stay in the destination.

Among issues to be pursued are the growing challenges facing downward pressure on occupancy and average length of stay, and the initiatives being delivered by TCA Abu Dhabi to stimulate and grow demand and methods that can be implemented by hoteliers to tackle both challenges.

“We have also introduced a new quarterly survey to reflect the views and input of non-member hotels which are also crucial to the success of this group, covering a diverse range of issues related to the hotel sector,” said Al Dhaheri.

The associated sales engagement group will identify tactics to implement corrective measures to address opportunities identified by the main group, as well as support seasonal festivals, events and MICE activities introduced by TCA Abu Dhabi to stimulate demand for the market. The Human Resources development committee will face head-on challenges and skills-shortages facing the sector in attracting Emirati talent into the field of hotel operations and enhancing skill of national and non-national employees.

Established in 2013, the Industry Development Committee (IDC) structure was formed to facilitate wider and closer interaction with the private sector to develop improved communication and align industry efforts to increase the volume of visitors to the emirate.

The authority’s efforts to streamline and improve stakeholder engagement through the IDC meetings include a responsibility to shape and implement strategies designed to increase visitor numbers, highlight challenges affecting the tourism industry and work with multiple government entities to improve or rectify them.

The committees are also responsible for identifying opportunities which could be exploited by the tourism industry and TCA Abu Dhabi to further increase visitor numbers, both in terms of promotion and development of Abu Dhabi’s destination credentials, and work toward increasing the volume of Emiratis working in the tourism sector.

The improvements will be rolled out across the range of five sector IDC committees covering Retail, Tour Operators, MICE, Cruise and Golf Tourism. – TradeArabia News Service