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The purpose of this paper id to investigate the influence of nationality on residents’ perceptions of the impacts of tourism, and their support for tourism development, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Data were collected from self-administered questionnaires from 407 residents, representing 30 nationalities residing in Abu Dhabi.

The findings suggest differences in perceptions of the impacts of tourism between national and expatriate residents. Despite these differences, both groups reported support of tourism development.

This paper groups residents into only two groups – nationals and expatriates – which limits the explanation of findings. Tourism officials should customize strategies to reach targeted group of residents.

Extant literature examines residents’ perceptions of the impacts of tourism in homogenous groups, and little research explores the influence of nationality on residents’ perceptions. This study is the first to be conducted in Abu Dhabi – where more than 80 per cent of the population is comprised of expatriates – that identifies differences in perceptions between national and expatriate residents regarding tourism’s impacts.

Teaching notes are available upon request.

The purpose of this paper is to enable tourism management and strategic management students to evaluate and analyze tourism activities in the United Arab Emirates by TCA. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of developing tourism in rural areas in the United Arab Emirates and to build up proper strategies. They will be able to perform the organization’s competitive standing using Porter’s Five competitive forces and analyze its business strategies as well. They will be able to analyze the current status of the organization using SWOT analysis and to design alternative strategies for the company using TOWS analysis.

The Department of Tourism and Culture – Abu Dhabi, also known as the TCA, is a governmental tourism authority in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi established 14 years ago as part of an economy-diversifying strategy for the non-oil era. The TCA is responsible of creating tourism activities to generate new tourists in Abu Dhabi, which will increase the revenue of the authority and as well increase the gross domestic product of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) economy. Tourism activities have been focused on Abu Dhabi City as is it considered the capital city of the UAE. However, other cities are also part of this strategy, e.g. Al Ain City, which is located in the eastern region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and Al Dhafra City, which is located in the western region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, both of which lack the required infrastructure, population, and tourism activity, due in part at least to the fact that the TCA’s strategy plans have been focused on Abu Dhabi City. Sultan Al Mutawa Al Dhaheri (Al Dhaheri), the TCA’s Executive Director of Tourism, has been responsible for developing tourism in Al Ain City and Al Dhafra, but due to the current situation of the two cities regarding the low revenue growth (and the consequent lack of investors willing to invest) and no critical mass (i.e. a sufficient number of hotel rooms available), Al Dhaheri is facing a dilemma regarding achieving TCA strategy in Al Ain City and Al Dhafra City.

This case study will be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate level students majoring in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Business Administration and Strategic Management.

CSS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

This paper aims to investigate residents’ perceptions of tourism’s impact on their support for tourism development in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires from Abu Dhabi residents (n = 407), who represented 30 nationalities residing in the emirate. Based on social exchange theory, structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

Results suggest that Abu Dhabi residents perceive the impacts of tourism positively and are more sensitive to the environmental and economic influences of tourism than the social and cultural influences.

This study was limited to Abu Dhabi residents; findings cannot be generalized to other emirates in the UAE, or other countries.

This study adds value to extant tourism literature by investigating residents’ perceptions of the influence of tourism in one of the richest cities worldwide, which aspires to be one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the Middle East.

The purpose of this paper is to use a newly developed Global Liveable Cities Index (GLCI), to assess how Abu Dhabi ranks among global cities. The paper sheds some light on the strengths and weaknesses associated with the city’s emergence as a global city, as identified by the index.

This paper makes use of a new measure of liveability – the GLCI – to rank the world ' s major cities. The GLCI advances the measurement of the “Liveability” construct by taking into account the multi-dimensional sensibility of diverse groups of ordinary persons across 64 cities. The paper also conducts policy simulations to help aid city planners invest in areas with low scores in the GLCI.

The results from the analysis show Abu Dhabi as a city that has a lot more potential than what most conventional city benchmarking exercises have revealed. It is a city with immense potential in the region by not just being the driver of growth but also being a nodal center for attraction of global talent. It is fast growing into a city of opportunity and already satisfies the characteristics of an emerging global city with a lot of regional attention. The empirical results also find that its potential has been clearly under-rated by many existing studies and indices primarily because of their narrow scope in measuring liveability. The GLCI results brought together multiple indicators to devise an index that is strongly based on a combination of analytical and philosophical values. Taking stock of the rankings of Abu Dhabi using the GLCI so far as well as the policy simulations, one can conclude that Abu Dhabi has multiple strengths as an aspiring global city. The results also indicate that one area that has been consistently identified as lacking in Abu Dhabi is that of environmental sustainability.

While cities have always played a historic role in powering economic growth in some form or the other, the scale of expansions and the speed at which it is happening today appears unprecedented. While a considerable number of indices benchmarking cities exist, they are rather narrow in scope. None of them model liveability from the perspective of an ordinary person with multi-dimensional sensibilities toward issues like economic well-being, social mobility, personal security, political governance, environmental sustainability and aesthetics for a more representative coverage of major cities around the world. These factors are critical measures of “liveability” of a city that in turn elevates it to the status of a global city. This paper thus makes an original contribution to the literature on understanding global cities by applying a newly developed GLCI to assess how Abu Dhabi ranks among global cities. The paper sheds some light on the strengths and weaknesses associated with the city’s emergence as a global city, as identified by the index.

To examine and create an ideal pathway model that can implement aiming to change the current improper practices in managing municipal solid waste (MSW) to sustainable practices. To acquire a better understanding of public participation and community culture helps in achieving the aim of reducing the amount of waste generation, sending less waste to landfill sites and encouraging the reuse and recycling of materials instead. To help students whom the awareness in the community regarding the importance of protecting the environment and acting in a civilization way has increased. To improve the MSW sustainability practices and enhance the waste sustainability practices together with energy and material conservation. To have more extensive knowledge and awareness of issues in waste management and some of the dilemmas managers of strategic and operations face.

Abu Dhabi’s center of waste management is known as Tadweer is a governmental entity under the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. Tadweer is responsible for managing every MSWs includes collecting, transferring, segregating, treating, recycling, reusing and tracking all kinds of wastes. CEO of Tadweer Dr Salem Alkabi called his team that manages various departments such as strategy, operations, projects and licensing. The meeting was to discuss Tadweer’s future directing and strategy for mismanagement of solid waste dumping into landfills in Abu Dhabi. Dumping in landfills is the main challenge Tadweer faced. Mr. Abdulrahman Albloushi’s strategy and business development executive director of Tadweer highlighted to Alkaabi how Tadweer could improve the waste management practices to make it more sustainable. Furthermore, assisting the center gets more benefit from the waste s instead of losing this valuable waste into landfills. Consequently, Mr. Abdulrahman must grapple with some difficult questions: how much the effectiveness in collecting waste from where it generated and removing it out-of-sight?

This case study is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and executive MBA students of business management programs, especially for waste management, environmental management and strategic management courses.

Teaching Notes are available upon request.

CSS 4: Environmental management.

This paper in its first part aims at contextualizing Abu Dhabi's urban development and understanding the factors that have governed its urban growth through a historical case study approach. Relying on archival records and primary sources five stages of urban growth are identified. Data mining of media archives allows for a first hand account of developments taking place thus grounding the depictions. The second part contextualizes this review through a case study of the Central Market project — also known as Abu Dhabi's World Trade Center. The paper concludes by elaborating on the significance of such a historical analysis as it shifts the discourse away from a focus on the ‘artificiality’ of cities in the Gulf to one that is based on a recognition about the historicity of its urban centers, however recent it may be. Additionally the pertinence of such an analysis for cities worldwide is discussed as well.

The choice of a well‐planned integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy is crucial for the successful launch of an event. This paper is a case‐study based description of how a brand management consultancy house, TMC, used IMC to launch a world music festival event in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in 2009, registering a visitorship of five‐times their target, 89 per cent satisfaction and a staggering 99 per cent of the visitors planning to visit the festival again in 2010.

A literature review on event marketing, megamarketing and integrated marketing communications is conducted to illustrate the challenges involved in launching communication campaigns in the marketing of events. Primary research was conducted by way of in‐depth interviews with TMH and the case study is developed based on the information furnished.

Event marketing requires the support of a well‐crafted IMC plan to realise the objectives set for the event. This paper brings out the role of public relations, direct marketing, social media networking, advertising and media planning in the IMC campaign launched by a brand management consultancy house and how it successfully achieved the objectives for the event.

Traditional communication media may not be sufficient to succeed in the current media clutter and over‐communicated market place. In this context, social networking media are emerging as a new media type and are an important addition to the current media. Understanding the target audience and preparing a customised media mix involving traditional and modern media may have a synergistic effect on end results.

The paper provides the marketers with an IMC perspective to analyse traditional and emerging media types and integrate them with a communications plan to optimise end results. In particular, the paper brings out the need for total customisation of media mix for different market conditions.

The purpose of this paper is the introduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Abu Dhabi, the biggest Emirate and one with the largest oil reserve in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Abu Dhabi set the first renewable energy policy in the region in January 2009. The policy calls for at least 7 percent of Abu Dhabi's power generation capacity to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. In 2006, the leadership of Abu Dhabi made a strategic decision to establish a globally competitive renewable energy sector in the country and hence the Masdar Initiative was created. It is driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), also called Masdar.

The paper focuses on the corporate social responsibility of Masdar and the role the firm is playing as the “prime mover” in the renewable energy sector in UAE and the region. The paper is structured in the following manner. First, the literature on corporate social responsibility is reviewed. Second, the environmental challenges of UAE are highlighted. Third, the paper discusses the different business units of Masdar and their related projects and investments at local, regional and global levels. Finally, the role of ADFEC as a “prime mover” in sustainability and corporate social responsibility is highlighted.

Masdar has taken leadership in CSR and sustainable energy technologies in Abu Dhabi, UAE and the region.

The case demonstrates the willingness of oil‐producing countries to become more sustainable and to do something about climate change. The Masdar Initiative, which includes the first carbon‐neutral city, can be regarded as a benchmark for future similar projects in the region and around the world.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of situational factors and internal psychological states on employees’ decisions to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior. This study used a model combining the theory of planned behavior, norm activation model and comprehensive action determination model. This stud also explored the moderating role of habit (HAB) on the relationship between intention and actual voluntary pro-environmental behavior.

Data were collected through three waves of time-lagged survey questionnaires from 519 employees of public organizations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) had a significant impact on intention to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior, as did all other variables except perceived behavioral control. HABs related to pro-environmental behavior enhanced the relationship between intention and actual behavior.

The main factors influencing employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavioral intentions were perceived CSR, personal moral norms, organizational citizenship behaviors toward the environment and attitude. Public organization planners, managers and practitioners can use these findings to improve their organization’s environmental performance, leveraging nonmandated actions.

Employees can achieve a better work–life balance in organizations with flexible CSR policies and which sponsor social activities to improve public well-being and individuals’ life quality. Positive sense-making of corporate social activity helps employees develop social interactions with stakeholders, increasing their involvement in society and decreasing work stress.

This study sheds light on the factors influencing employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavior. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to combine these three models to explain the variables affecting intent to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior in the workplace.