Strategic Planning for Tourism in Abu Dhabi - Essay Example

Strategic Planning for Tourism in Abu Dhabi 1. Situation, Communication, and Issue Analyses 1.1. Situation Analysis Masdar is a subsidy company of Mubadala Development Company which is fully owned and controlled by the Abu Dhabi Government. The Abu Dhabi Government established a commercially driven renewable energy company to enhance the country’s renewable energy and sustainable technologies industry (Masdar-a, n.d.). However, the primary aim of this paper is to identify role of Masdar in improving the travel and tourism industry Masdar City and to develop a set of plausible and actionable strategic recommendations to the company that will help it in this respect. Currently, the company has five units i.e. Masdar City, Masdar Power, Masdar Carbon, Masdar Capital and Masdar Institute (Masdar-b, n.d). This paper will attempt to deal with the company’s Masdar City as this unit is engaged in infrastructural development that lead to the growth of the travel and tourism industry. This unit strives to develop a “global clean-technology cluster” called Masdar City which is situated “17km from downtown Abu Dhabi” (Masdar-c, n.d.). Masdar City can be developed as a major tourists’ destination. The company is aiming to develop this city backed with renewable energy and it is well designed with 40,000 residents. The primary essence of the Masdar City is on innovative technologies through R&D. United Arab Emirates (UAE) is now focusing on its tours and travel industry. The UAE Government has aimed to develop its important cities as a popular tourist attraction. For example, in Dubai, the leisure and hotel industry has grown significantly. The travel and tourism industry of Masdar City has a direct competition with Dubai. Moreover, other Gulf countries like Saudi Arab, Kuwait, and Oman etc are also trying to develop their travel and tourism industry. On the other hand, Middle East courtiers like Egypt are major tourist destinations and they are the major competitor of Masdar City in travel and tourism industry (Deulgaonkar, 2011). Tourism and travel industry primarily belong to global market as it targets entire global population. Therefore, the competition in travel and tourism industry is very high. 1.2. Communications Analysis The Masdar is highly respectable company of UAE and it has developed a higher corporate image in the market. The company is a focus-point for the entire nation as it is one the most developed renewable energy company. It has been continuously working for the development of the entire country especially for Abu Dhabi. One of the major tools for the company is its communicational and promotional activities. Its corporate website is critical medium for developing communication with its target audience. In order to develop ‘two-way’ communicational system, it has partnered with several social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. It is also using its website for its advertising strategies and for delivering market signals. The organization generally communicates with target audience to spreading awareness regarding renewable energy, its projects, recent developments etc. Its communicational developments can play a very significantly role in developing the Masdar City as major tourists’ attraction. 1.3. Issue Analysis The Masdar has been successfully maintaining its public relation with its target audience through media partnering and through its corporate website. However, in order to develop the tourism industry of Masdar City in the global market, its communication is not unique and effective. It must be taken into consideration, that for competing in the global market, its communication must reach to global market. The overall conclusion is that its campaign program is not of standard level that can attract foreign tourists. The management of the organization has not focused yet on development of travel and tourism industry in Masdar City. The organization is trying to improve the overall economic and technological condition of Masdar City (Masdar-d, 2009). However, it is necessary to realize that tourism industry plays a very vital role in economic development and hence, proper communication effort is inevitable in this respect. 2. Publics and Primary Research 2.1. Proposed Target Publics “A communication campaign is an attempt to inform, persuade or motivate behaviour changes in a relatively well-defined and large target audience” (Botha et al, 2007, p.284). Therefore, in order to develop communicational and campaigning programs, identification of the target publics and audiences is the foremost task. In case of development of Masdar City’s travel and tourism industry, two major target publics are associated i.e. internal and external. The internal target publics are the employees and external target publics are potential tourists from the global and domestic market. The organization must communicate its mission, vision and objective with these target publics. The internal publics are directly associated with organization; whereas, external publics are indirectly associated. Spreading awareness is very essential for meeting objectives and target publics are key factors in this process. 2.2. Proposed Primary Research In order to conduct research for developing effective communicational plan, entire research must be designed properly and orderly. The primary objective for conducting a comprehensive research is to find the answer, solutions or reason for underlying problems, issues and question. An extensive research methodology passes through several stages like defining problem, literature review, data collection, data analysis, findings, discussion etc. The method of research varies with requirement of problem statements. Primarily, research can be of three types i.e. quantitative (involves statistical calculation) and qualitative (involves non-statistical analysis and discussion). On the other hand, data are the core essence of a research and data are of two type i.e. secondary data and primary data. Secondary data are obtained through secondary sources and primary data are collected directly from the respondents (Malhotra, 2008, p.78). For developing a communication and public relation plan for this research paper, a combination of secondary and primary research will be followed. Necessary primary data will be collected using questionnaire from respondents and secondary data will be collected from various authenticated sources like government agencies, websites, national statistics departments, authentic news etc. The collected data will be analyzed through non-statistical method and a comparative discussion will be carried on to reach at the final conclusion. 3. Goal, Objectives, and Strategy 3.1. Goal Setting up a goal before conducting a research is very necessary. A well defined goal will help to conduct a focused research that will present a favorable and relevant outcome. The primary aim for conducting research is to figure out proper outcome that will help to meet the primary objective of this paper. This paper concentrates on the communication and public relation planning for improving the travel and tourism industry in Masdar City. However, specific, focused and well-defined goal is very necessary for increasing relevancy and viability of this paper. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to ‘develop the Masdar City as healthy tourists’ attraction in the global travel and tourism industry’. 3.2. Objectives Objectives should be more specific, realistic and measureable that must be achieved with a given timeline. Some relevant objectives are given below as per the primary goal of this paper. Obtain the feedbacks of internal publics and the residence of Masdar City to indentify major areas of improvement required in Masdar City within first three months. Spread awareness regarding the attractiveness of Masdar City to more than 50% of external publics. Increase 75% of advertising activities using mediums like social networking sites, television, internet marketing etc. Conduct promotional program in more than ten target countries using attractive photos and explaining the green concept of Masdar City. 3.3. Strategy In to cater the goal of this paper and to achieve the above stated objectives, formulation and implementation of public relation strategies are must. Many scholars and theorists have developed multiple approaches for developing a systematic strategic plan for public relation. Travel and tourism industry is a service industry and hence, the importance of media is more appreciating (Reddi, 2009, p.283). However, in this respect, the most effective and suitable public relation approach is the ‘Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)’. IMC “is the process where information about a business and the product and services it offers for sale, is passed on to other people and businesses” (Harris and Preez, 2008, p.27). IMC is modern concept for communication mix and it includes all necessary areas that are very vital for planning communicational and public relation strategy. Based on IMC approach for planning and executing public relation strategies, some relevant and plausible recommendation are given below. Considering the demographic and behaviors of target public, the most effective advertisements media should be selected. Should aim to build a brand identify of Masdar City in global travels and tourism industry as the most healthy tourist destination by creating brand awareness among target public. Should develop positioning statement and promotional slogan and logo for Masdar City. Target public should be categorized as per their demographic features and develop distinct public relations programs for each group of target public. Create promotional programs in major domestic and foreign markets to promote the unique features of Masdar City. Should obtain the feedback of target publics after successfully conducting promotional programs to understand brand image developed in their mind. Reference Botha, D. et al, (2007). Public relations: fresh perspectives. Pearson South Africa. Deulgaonkar, P. (February 09, 2011). Crisis to benefit Dubai tourism. Retrieved February 25, 2011. http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/crisis-to-benefit-dubai-tourism-2011-02-09-1.353910. Harris, O. C. and Preez, A. D. (2008). Tourism operations. Pearson South Africa. Malhotra, N. K. (2008). Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation. 5th ed. Pearson Education India. Masdar-a. (No date). Background. Retrieved February 25, 2011. http://www.masdar.ae/en/Menu/index.aspx?MenuID=42&CatID=12&mnu=Cat. Masdar-b. (No date). Our Units. Retrieved February 25, 2011. http://www.masdar.ae/en/Menu/Index.aspx?MenuID=48&mnu=Pri. Masdar-c. (No Date). Masdar City. Retrieved February 25, 2011. http://www.masdar.ae/en/Menu/index.aspx?MenuID=48&CatID=27&mnu=Cat. Masdar-d. (February 2009). Masdar City: Project Development Overview. Retrieved February 25, 2011. http://www.usea.org/Programs/CFFS/CFFSDubai/DOE_Masdar_DevelopmentOverview_Feb09.pdf. Reddi, C. V. N. (2009). Effective Public Relations and Media Strategy. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Bibliography Kolb, B, M. (2006). Tourism Marketing for cities and towns: using branding and events to attract tourism. Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More