An evaluation of tourism development as diversification strategy in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been transformed from a land of deserts into a land of opportunities within a span of four decades. The robust economic growth of the UAE is evident from the booming economic sectors such as real estate and construction, tourism and hospitality, telecommunications, shipping and logistics, retail and finance. This growth epitomises the success of an innovative state-led capitalist growth model, under an able leadership. The main objective of this study is to evaluate government policies towards diversification of the UAE economy away from its heavy reliance on oil. The research examines the UAE Government’s policies towards the tourism sector, especially the role of tourism in the diversification of its economy. For this purpose, the approach and methodology employed in this paper is qualitative in nature. A thorough review of the literature has been conducted to understand the historical perspective of resource abundance and oil curse theories and rentiers, city state and economic diversification concepts. Qualitative research methodology in the form of a case study was employed to obtain an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the performance and development of the tourism sector. For this purpose, the larger Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah were selected. The results revealed that the exceptional growth of the UAE since the 1970’s has been triggered by the exploration of oil. The early realization of the resource curse by the government of UAE has resulted in various efforts being made to reduce the dependence and reliance on the oil sector for economic growth.

[1]  Camilla Sandbakken.  The limits to democracy posed by oil rentier states: The cases of Algeria, Nigeria and Libya , 2006 .

[2]  P. Pingali,et al.  Agricultural diversification in Asia: opportunities and constraints. , 2005 .

[3]  Syed Aziz Anwar,et al.  Festival tourism in the United Arab Emirates: First-time versus repeat visitor perceptions , 2004 .

[4]  T. Karl,et al.  The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States Berkeley , 1997 .

[5]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[6]  David L. Hammes,et al.  Subscribe to The Independent Review and receive a free book of your choice such as Liberty in Peril : Democracy and Power in American History , 1999 .

[7]  A. Haila,et al.  Real Estate in Global Cities: Singapore and Hong Kong as Property States , 2000 .

[8]  Bruce T. Lamont,et al.  Mode of Corporate Diversification and Economic Performance , 1985 .

[9]  Otha Linton.  All you need to know. , 2008, Academic radiology.

[10]  G. Baldacchino.  Managing the hinterland beyond: Two ideal‐type strategies of economic development for small island territories , 2006 .

[11]  Saleem H. Ali.  Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed, and a Sustainable Future , 2009 .

[12]  R. Neff,et al.  Peak oil, food systems, and public health. , 2011, American journal of public health.

[13]  F. Brown.  Tourism Reassessed: Blight or Blessing , 1999 .

[14]  Paul Stevens,et al.  Resource Impact: Curse or Blessing? A Literature Survey , 2003 .

[15]  Allan M. Williams,et al.  Tourism: Conceptualizations, Institutions, and Issues , 2008 .

[16]  R. Sharpley,et al.  Planning for Tourism: The Case of Dubai , 2008 .

[17]  Ahmed M. Salah Ouf.  Lower and Higher Urban Quality Cycles in Urban Heritage Areas: Rejuvenation vs. Conservation , 2008 .

[18]  P. Collier,et al.  Greed and Grievance in Civil War , 1999 .

[19]  Sabah A. Jasim,et al.  Trade centres and commercial routes in the Arabian Gulf: Post-Hellenistic discoveries at Dibba, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates , 2006 .

[20]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 1997 .

[21]  M. Clancy.  Tourism and DEVELOPMENTEvidence from Mexico , 1999 .

[22]  Florence Bernault,et al.  The Rentier State in Africa: Oil Rent Dependency and Neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon , 1996, Africa.

[23]  Albert O. Hirschman,et al.  A Generalized Linkage Approach to Development, with Special Reference to Staples , 2014 .

[24]  Panayiota Lyssiotou.  Dynamic analysis of British demand for tourism abroad , 2000 .

[25]  L. Portes.  MACROECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF HIGH AND VOLATILE OIL PRICES , 2012 .

[26]  W. Waugh,et al.  Terrorism and tourism as logical companions. , 1986 .

[27]  Learning sequences and structural diversification in developing countries , 1996 .

[28]  J. Diamond.  Tourism's Role in Economic Development: The Case Reexamined , 1977, Economic Development and Cultural Change.

[29]  Hussein Mahdavy,et al.  The patterns and problems of economic development in rentier states: The case of Iran , 1970 .

[30]  R. Hausmann,et al.  An Alternative Interpretation of the &Apos;Resource Curse&Apos;: Theory and Policy Implications , 2003 .

[31]  J. Sidaway,et al.  Global City Frontiers: Singapore's Hinterland and the Contested Socio-political Geographies of Bintan, Indonesia , 2006 .

[32]  G. Țigu,et al.  Supply Chain Management Performance in Tourism. Continental Hotels Chain Case , 2013 .

[33]  Thomas P. Tangerås,et al.  From Rent Seeking to Human Capital: A Model Where Resource Shocks Cause Transitions from Stagnation to Growth , 2008 .

[34]  F. Giarratani,et al.  An introduction to regional economics , 1971 .

[35]  M. Sinclair,et al.  Tourism and economic development: A survey , 1998 .

[36]  T. Dunning.  Crude Democracy: Natural Resource Wealth and Political Regimes , 2008 .

[37]  Michael T. Klare,et al.  Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum , 2004 .

[38]  S. Edwards.  Exchange Rate Regimes, Capital Flows and Crisis Prevention , 2001 .

[39]  N. Shaxson.  Oil, Corruption and the Resource Curse , 2007 .

[40]  Chris Ryan,et al.  Eco-tourism and luxury – the case of Al Maha, Dubai , 2009 .

[41]  M. Easterby-Smith,et al.  Management Research: An Introduction , 1991 .

[42]  M. C. Hudson,et al.  Middle East Dilemma: The Politics And Economics Of Arab Integration , 1999 .

[43]  D. Harvey.  Social Justice and the City , 2009 .

[44]  J. Stijns.  Natural Resource Abundance and Human Capital Accumulation , 2001 .

[45]  P. Collier.  Natural Resources, Development and Conflict: Channels of Causation and Policy Interventions , 2003 .

[46]  Bruce D. Wundt.  Reevaluating Alternative Measures Of Industrial Diversity As Indicators Of Regional Cyclical Variations , 1992 .

[47]  I. Alon.  Chinese Culture, Organizational Behavior, and International Business Management , 2003 .

[48]  Jeffrey D. Sachs,et al.  The curse of natural resources , 2001 .

[49]  P. Siegel,et al.  Regional Economic Diversity and Diversification , 1995 .

[50]  m-zaidah.  Case study as a research method , 2007 .

[51]  N. Girvan.  Foreign capital and economic underdevelopment in Jamaica , 1971 .

[52]  Dean A. Derosa.  Increasing Export Diversification in Commodity-Exporting Countries: A Theoretical Analysis , 1991, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[53]  Ha-Joon Chang,et al.  Reclaiming Development: An Alternative Economic Policy Manual , 2004 .

[54]  Léonard Wantchekon,et al.  Resource Wealth and Political Regimes in Africa , 2004 .

[55]  R. Sharpley,et al.  The challenges of economic diversification through tourism: the case of Abu Dhabi , 2002 .

[56]  S. Reyna,et al.  The crazy curse and crude domination: Toward an anthropology of oil , 2008 .

[57]  Raphael Amit,et al.  Diversification strategies, business cycles and economic performance , 1988 .

[58]  The oil cycle and the tax-spend hypothesis: the case of Angola , 2007 .

[59]  G. Baldacchino.  The challenge of hypothermia a six-proposition manifesto for small Island territories , 2000 .

[60]  S. Murshed.  When Does Natural Resource Abundance Lead to a Resource Curse , 2004 .

[61]  R. Jacobs.  What to research , 2009 .

[62]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations , 1993 .

[63]  W. Trochim.  Outcome pattern matching and program theory , 1989 .

[64]  Francisco Rodríguez,et al.  Why Do Resource-Abundant Economies Grow More Slowly? , 1999 .

[65]  I. Abed,et al.  United Arab Emirates: A New Perspective , 2001 .

[66]  Rawi E. Abdelal.  Sovereign Wealth in Abu Dhabi , 2009 .

[67]  J. Knottnerus,et al.  Real world research. , 2010, Journal of clinical epidemiology.

[68]  Arman Mansoorian.  RESOURCE DISCOVERIES AND "EXCESSIVE" EXTERNAL BORROWING , 1991 .

[69]  W. Goldfrank,et al.  MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975. , 1982 .

[70]  W. Max Corden,et al.  Booming Sector and De-Industrialisation in a Small Open Economy , 1982 .

[71]  S. So,et al.  Politics of Natural Resource Use in Cambodia , 2009 .

[72]  Allan M. Williams,et al.  Critical Issues in Tourism: A Geographical Perspective , 1996 .

[73]  G. Baldacchino.  Sustainable use practices, including tourism, in/for small islands , 2004 .

[74]  B. Guenther.  The Asian drivers and the resource curse in Sub-Saharan Africa: the potential impacts of rising commodity prices for conflict and governance in the DRC , 2008 .

[75]  Hendrik van den Berg.  Economic Growth and Development , 2001 .

[76]  Victor Tadros.  Resource Wars , 2013, Law and Philosophy.

[77]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  The Emergence of Interpretivism in IS Research , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[78]  Richard M. Auty,et al.  Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis , 1993 .

[79]  H. Rubin,et al.  Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data , 1995 .

[80]  M. Ruthven.  Islam: A Very Short Introduction , 1997 .

[81]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[82]  M. Crang,et al.  The trouble with tourism and travel theory? , 2001 .

[83]  Honggen Xiao,et al.  Case studies in tourism research: A state-of-the-art analysis , 2006 .

[84]  Paul Collier,et al.  Natural Resources and Violent Conflict : Options and Actions , 2003 .

[85]  Samer Bagaeen,et al.  Brand Dubai: The Instant City; or the Instantly Recognizable City , 2007 .

[86]  Philip E. T. Lewis,et al.  Research Methods for Business Students , 2006 .

[87]  S. Khalaf.  Poetics and politics of newly invented traditions in the Gulf: Camel racing in the United Arab Emirates , 2000 .

[88]  L. Carvalho,et al.  The sustainability of tourism supply chain: a case study research. , 2011 .

[89]  J. Lea.  Tourism and development in the Third World , 1988 .

[90]  R. Sharpley.  Tourism and development challenges in the least developed countries: the case of The Gambia , 2009 .

[91]  S. Khan,et al.  Nigeria: The Political Economy of Oil , 1994 .

[92]  S. Deller,et al.  Measuring the Effects of Economic Diversity on Growth and Stability , 1998 .

[93]  B. King,et al.  Dubai outbound tourism: An exploratory study of Emiratis and expatriates , 2011 .

[94]  Michael L. Ross,et al.  The Political Economy of the Resource Curse , 1999, World Politics.

[95]  Moshe Syrquin,et al.  Patterns of structural change , 1988 .

[96]  P. Magee,et al.  Further evidence of desert settlement complexity: report on the 2001 excavations at the Iron Age site of Muweilah, Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates , 2002 .

[97]  J. Cummings,et al.  Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, And Politics , 1989 .

[98]  M. Oppermann.  Tourism space in developing countries , 1993 .

[99]  Oscar Claveria,et al.  Forecasting tourism demand using consumer expectations , 2010 .

[100]  A. Rose,et al.  Which International Institutions Promote International Trade? , 2003 .

[101]  G. Wood.  Business and politics in a criminal state: the case of Equatorial Guinea , 2004 .

[102]  D. Gallacher,et al.  Effects of camel grazing on the ecology of small perennial plants in the Dubai (UAE) inland desert , 2006 .

[103]  Martin Oppermann,et al.  Triangulation : A methodological discussion , 2000 .

[104]  Martin Mowforth,et al.  Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World , 1997 .

[105]  R. Watters,et al.  The Mirab Process: Earlier Analyses in Context , 1986 .

[106]  N. Schoening,et al.  Applying an Industrial Diversification Decision Model to Small Regions , 1989 .

[107]  Paul Streeten,et al.  The special problems of small countries , 1993 .

[108]  S. Becken.  Developing indicators for managing tourism in the face of peak oil , 2008 .

[109]  N. P. Macdonald.  Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil , 1980 .

[110]  D. Telfer.  Food Purchases in a Five-Star Hotel: A Case Study of the Aquila Prambanan Hotel, Yogyakarta, Indonesia , 1996 .

[111]  M. al-Rasheed.  Transnational connections and the Arab Gulf , 2005 .

[112]  E. Anderson.  The Middle East: Geography and Geopolitics , 2000 .

[113]  Role of agriculture in a city-state economy: the case of Singapore. , 1988 .

[114]  L. Cronin.  A Strategy for Tourism and Sustainable Developments , 1990 .

[115]  P. Bardhan.  Corruption and Development: A Review of Issues , 1997 .

[116]  B. Rivero,et al.  The myth of development : non-viable economies of the 21st century , 2001 .

[117]  Michael L. Ross,et al.  Does Oil Hinder Democracy? , 2001 .

[118]  Ramdane Djebarni,et al.  Determinants of job satisfaction in the UAE , 2011 .

[119]  E. Malizia,et al.  THE INFLUENCE OF ECONOMIC DIVERSITY ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND STABILITY , 1993 .

[120]  Philippe Le Billon,et al.  Fuelling War: Natural Resources and Armed Conflicts , 2006 .

[121]  Joan C. Henderson,et al.  Tourism in Dubai: overcoming barriers to destination development , 2006 .

[122]  B. Ascher.  Obstacles to International Travel and Tourism , 1984 .

[123]  Marc Hockings,et al.  Resource Management in Tourism Research: A New Direction? , 2001 .

[124]  B. Mcsherry.  The Political Economy of Oil in Equatorial Guinea , 2006 .

[125]  Philip E. T. Lewis,et al.  Research Methods for Business Students (2nd edition) , 2000 .

[126]  R. Looney.  Can Iraq Overcome the Oil Curse , 2006 .

[127]  R. Auty.  The political economy of resource-driven growth , 2001 .

[128]  P. Rutland.  Putin's Economic Record: Is the Oil Boom Sustainable? , 2008 .

[129]  Frank Akpadock.  DIVERSIFICATION TRENDS OF THE REGIONAL ECONOMY OF MILL-TOWN COMMUNITIES IN NORTHEAST OHIO, 1980-1991 , 1996 .