Rebranding a Small-Scale Tourism Business in Abu Dhabi

Internship Report from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 90, University of Canberra (School of Management, Faculty of Business, Government & Law), course: Master of Business Administration, language: English, abstract: There is abundant evidence that in last few decades, the Abu Dhabi Government and private businessmen are exploiting their complete resources either in shape of Emirati hospitality or leisure attractions to emerge as a major tourist spot in the Middle East. The role of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) particularly, tourism companies is very vital to provide locals and foreign visitors the necessary insights into UAE traditions, history and customs while creating a sustainable hub of tourists' entertainments. To maintain existing customers, to attract more overseas visitors form diversified backgrounds and to cope with the current market trends, traditional businesses are transforming rapidly in Abu Dhabi. Most of the business owners are adopting latest technologies, new infrastructure, contemporary marketing mix strategies and vibrant business practices to upgrade their brands and to differentiate their products in the competitive atmosphere. Such practices have also developed additional financial burden and unavoidable organisational pressure on the existing tourism businesses like Golden Eyes Tourism to adapt innovative trends for business sustainability and their future growths. Official portal of UAE Government recently shared that "In year-2016, the direct contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the UAE's GDP was AED 68.5 billion (USD 18.7 billion) which is equivalent to 5.2 per cent of the total GDP. It was forecast to rise by 3.2 per cent in 2017 and to rise by 5.1 per cent per annum from 2017 to 2027 which would be equivalent to 5.4 per cent of the total GDP in 2027. In year-2016, about 4,440,314 guests stayed in hotels in the Abu Dhabi. This is 8 per cent more than the earlier year. Further, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority is working towards the sustainable tourism development of the emirate which also involves launching and implementing 'green' tourism and hotel initiatives. (1) Despite, the proven growth of GDP of United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the apparent expanding business opportunities in Abu Dhabi Emirate, Golden Eyes Tourism has consecutively been experienced a significant reduction in its loyal customers causing diminishing revenue since year 2016. During the last year 2017, company had hardly gained an annual profit of AUD 10 K against a total revenue of AUD 0.5 Million.