The national language spoken by Emirati nationals is Arabic, same as other Arabic countries in the region. Due to the high population of expatriates in the federation, other major international languages such as English are also widely spoken, as almost 85% of the federation’s population is made up of expatriates. Both the male and female genders in the United Arab Emirates like wearing long woven tunics that cover most of the body. The main foods eaten by most Emirati nationals are fish, meat and rice.
They also love folk type of music, related to Bedouin music. The UAE’s largest religion base, which also happens to be the official state religion of the federation, is the Islamic religion.Muslims-Sunnis are approximately 75% of the country’s population, with 9% being Christians and the other religions sharing the remainder of the Federation’s population (Mobile reference, 2010). The United Arab Emirates’ economy is considered to be stronger with in the Middle East region, with the federation having the 2nd largest economy after Saudi Arabia.
The federation’s economy is heavily dependent on crude oil and natural gas exports, as these two earn the federation a good deal of foreign exchange. As of 5 years ago, these two exports accounted for 80% of the federation’s export revenues. In recent years however, the government of the United Arab Emirates has undertaken steps to diversify its economy with other sectors such as tourism and the construction industry. The United Arab Emirates ‘ economy is also heavily dependent on foreign labor, with workers in the tourism and construction sector coming from all continents, especially the third world countries(Mobile reference, 2010).
The tourism and hospitality sector of the United Arab Emirates’ economy has been growing steadily over the last decade, as a way of diversifying the economy of the federation and reducing the over dependency on oil and natural gas revenues. Due to a rising tourism and hospitality industry, the Emirati government has been spending billions of dollars in developing infrastructure such as airports, railnetworks, subway networks and stations and roads too. The Dubai international airport was ranked as the busiest international airport in the world in 2013.
There are many major water ports that have been developed too by the government to facilitate easier imports and exports through the country’s coastline. Some of the major tourist attraction centers in the United Arab Emiratesinclude the Burj Khalifah sky scraper – the world’s tallest building, the Dubai Mall, the Dubai Creek, the Dubai Museum, DubaiWaterfront, Falcon city of Wonders and the Dubai World Trade Center. World class hospitality facilities such as the Palm Jumeirah and the Jumeirah beach hotel provide tourists and business men with ample first class accommodation.
As such, the tourism and hospitality industry is highly important to the United Arab Emirates’ economy at present (Mobile reference, 2010). 2. Current Issues Related to Hotels/ Hospitality Industry Thereare various current issues influencing the hotels and hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates. Most of the destinations that are heavily served by this essential industry include the emirate of Abu Dhabi and the emirate of Dubai. These main destinations have a number of accommodation facilities to sufficiently cater for the tourists, business people and other visitors entering into the United Arab Emirates.
The marketing positioning of many business organizations andcompanies in the United Arab Emirate, including of hotels and accommodation providers in the federation’s tourism and hospitality industry is highly influenced by the different destinations. The various destinations frequented by tourists, visitors and even business people coming to the United Arab Emiratesare performing very well, helping the federation to diversify away from dependence on oil and natural gas reserves. A marked increase in revenue has been observed by key different tourist destinations such as the Palm Jumeirah, the Jumeirah beach hotel, the Dubai Creek among others (Mobile reference, 2010).
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