Abu Dhabi adds 37,000 tourism jobs as visitor numbers surge

Abu Dhabi added 37,000 jobs to its tourism sector in 2024 as more visitors flocked to the emirate's hotels, restaurants and attractions amid increased investments in promotional campaigns globally. The tourism industry is expected to reach a total of 225,000 jobs this year, up from 188,000 last year, Saood Al Hosani, undersecretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), told The National. The department is also targeting a 10 per cent Emiratisation rate by the end of 2025, up from about 3 per cent currently, to encourage more UAE citizens to work in tourism-related jobs. “We really believe that Emiratis can differentiate the experiences within the hospitality and tourism sectors … there's a change of perception and change of desire from the new generation to work in the hospitality sector,” Mr Al Hosani said. Abu Dhabi's tourism sector is expected to contribute Dh55 billion ($14.97 billion) to the emirate's gross domestic product in 2024, up from Dh46 billion last year, with a “north star” target of more than Dh90 billion by 2030, Mr Al Hosani said. Abu Dhabi is seeking to diversify its non-oil sectors – as part of wider plans to reduce the economy's reliance on oil – with a focus on growing strategic industries including tourism, aviation and hospitality. In April, it announced plans to invest more than $10 billion in infrastructure as part of a new strategy to boost international visitor numbers and cultural activity. The Abu Dhabi Tourism Strategy 2030 aims to create 178,000 new jobs in the emirate, bringing the total number of jobs in the tourism and hospitality sectors to about 366,000 by the end of the decade. The UAE capital also aims to attract 39.3 million annual visitors, up from 24 million last year, as it targets high-spending travellers. It has opened the new Terminal A in Zayed International Airport, while next year it plans to open the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi , Zayed National Museum , the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi . The emirate is forecast to host 6.2 million hotel guests by the end of this year, up 10 per cent from last year, as it targets 26 markets globally with promotional campaigns to attract visitors to Abu Dhabi, Mr Al Hosani said. Hotels across the emirate received 4.8 million guests in the first 10 months of the year, he said. “The increase in international hotel guests came out of the growth in investment in marketing and promotion,” Mr Al Hosani said. “We used to promote to 11 markets and today we are promoting to 26 key source markets. As a result, we now have a very high occupancy rate across all the hotels.” Hotel occupancy rates across the emirate in the first two weeks of December reached 83 per cent, while properties in Abu Dhabi city are 85 per cent full, with a length of stay of 2.7 nights, according to the DCT official. To accommodate demand, Abu Dhabi, which currently has about 34,500 hotel rooms, expects to add 360 more rooms by year-end and another 1,000 rooms in 2025, Mr Al Hosani said. It forecasts the need for an additional 13,000 to 14,000 hotel rooms by 2030. “We always focus on the mid-to-high-income, so it will be four or five start hotels. This is our strategy and based on that, this is the infrastructure being built here,” he said. Abu Dhabi's top source markets for international tourist arrivals include China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France and the UK. Airline seat capacity between Abu Dhabi and China has continued to grow, helped by a preliminary agreement to increase air connectivity between the UAE and the Asian country. The emirate is also exploring potential new source markets to diversify its portfolio and reduce risks. “We did tap into the CIS countries, which will become now potential markets for us. Within China, we have tapped into different regions. We used to market in one region, now we have three regions. Also in India, it is the same case,” Mr Al Hosani said. In May, DCT Abu Dhabi teamed up with Etihad Airways to launch the Abu Dhabi Stopover campaign, with the aim of attracting more than 100,000 visitors to the UAE capital over the next year. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways is also aiming to boost point-to-point traffic to further increase visitor demand. “In the 26 markets in which we invest, we always try to be dynamic: we look at the economic situation, connectivity and seat capacity. Based on the inputs, we shift our strategies. The top 10 markets remain the same since last year, but we always keep monitoring and stay agile,” Mr Al Hosani said. The DCT executive said there is growing interest from venture capital companies to invest in Abu Dhabi's cultural and creative arts projects that are aimed at drawing tourists and further boosting the city's attractiveness. “Many VCs are interested in investing in different accelerator programmes and start-ups with gaming, film, and various verticals of culture and creative industries. And some of them are also interested in creating tourism projects like hotels, resorts and beach clubs,” Mr Al Hosani said. “We are finalising the deals,” he said, adding that some agreements will be announced in the first quarter of 2025. Saudi Arabia's hosting of the Fifa World Cup in 2034 is expected to provide a boost to the tourism sectors of the kingdom and its neighbours in the Gulf, Mr Al Hosani said. The kingdom last week was announced as the host of the showpiece sports event a decade from now. “Definitely it's going to have a positive impact on Saudi and for us as the neighbour countries, we can tap in and promote and market the destination across that global event,” he said, noting that this would be helped by the proposed single unified tourist visa for the Gulf. A similar regional spillover effect was reported by businesses in the UAE and other neighbouring Gulf countries when Qatar hosted the Fifa World Cup in 2022.

Abu Dhabi adds 37,000 tourism jobs as visitor numbers surge

Tourism's contribution to the emirate's economy set to surge to $14.9 billion in 2024 amid economic diversification push