Management Guru

Comparative Analysis: Twitter Pages of Singapore & Dubai Tourism

2012-02-13T04:42:00.000-08:00

Singapore and Dubai are two of the “top 10” tourist designations, across the globej. Singapore was 4^th most visited city in the world while Dubai was 7^th, in 2010. (enjoyourholidya.com, 2011) With such a statistics, stating that they are not tourism hubs par excellence will be an understatement. Dubai is world famous for “an arsenal of spellbinding real estate constructions”; while Singapore’s strength lies in its, cosmopolitan culture and status as a world class business hub.

Notwithstanding the geographical and cultural imparity, they share lot of similarities across various cultural, social & economical parameters. One of them is- they have visionary leaderships which emphasize on robust marketing of their respective states. Both Singapore & Dubai are among the most well marketed destinations, across the globe.

Twitter: an effective destination marketing tool

The advertisement & brand building across various industry verticals is being transformed, with digital / social media encroaching vigorously onto the space, so far dominated by traditional media. (Print, Outdoors, TV, Radio etc). The tourism industry has also not escaped from this new digital revolution lead by Social Media. These days Social Media plays a crucial role in various areas related to tourism, one of them being branding in the form of- showcase information, handle queries, contain negative perception etc. All the Social Medias, Facebook, Blogs, You Tube, Twitter etc play a pivotal role towards constructing the Brand Identity of a tourist destination.

One such platform is Twitter. As much 2011, it has 200 million users, with 100 million active & 50 million daily users (jeffbullas.com, 2011). It is this sheer number of users that makes this micro-blogging site a great digital marketing platform for tourist destinations. The following blog post will do a comparative analysis of Twitter account of two of the leading tourist destination- I Love Dubai (Dubai) & YourSingapore (Singapore). The tool used will be Tweet Stats & Klout.

Twitter statistics analysis

Fig 2: shows no. of Tweets for I love Dubai & YourSingapore over the period of last 19 months. Source: Tweet Stats

Table 1: Compares the two pages across various twitter engagement parameters. Source: Tweet Stats

Fig 2: shows the aggregate daily tweets for both the pages. Source: tweet stats

Fig 3: shows the aggregate hourly tweets for both the pages. Source: Tweet Stats

Klout Score: measure of twitter account influence

Every social media channel has its influence. The social media platforms exercise its influence by motivating target audience to Retweet, Share, Like, Comment etc. The more the target audience engages in such activities, the more is the likelihood of influence. Klout is an analytical tool that helps, estimating the degree of influence for various social media platforms. It will be used in the given analysis, to compare the influence of the both the Twitter pages.

Table 2: compares the Klout scores, no. of people & topic influenced; for both the pages. Klout Score: measures the ability to drive action with the help of retweet and replies.

Analysis

· Over all “YourSingapore” has a much better “Twitter Presence”, marked by a very high number of tweets in comparison with “I Love Dubai”.

· “YourSingapore” also receives a much higher engagement from the audience. This is reflected with the high percentages of Retweet & Responses.

· Notwithstanding, the zoom in mid 2010; the number of tweets has gradually dwindled henceforth for “YourSingapore”.

· In the past few months, both the pages have similar “Twitter Presence”. In fact it’s slightly favored towards the “I Love Dubai” page.

· When it comes to the “Klout Parameters”, there is high parity across the two pages.

Reference

1> Enjoyourholiday.com, 2011, available at <http://www.enjoyourholiday.com/2011/04/18/top-10-most-visited-cities-in-the-world / >

2> Jeffbullas.com, 2011, 11 new Twitter facts, available at http://goo.gl/FEsAo >

Analysis of E-Commerce in Middle East and North Africa - Part 2

2012-02-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

The last article dealt with the fundamentals of e-commerce activities in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA). The given article is next in the series, which will primarily deal with the degree of e-commerce activities across various demographic profiles in the MENA region. The segments, where the average percentage of e-commerce activities is more than 5, will be considered as key segment.

Table 1: shows the percentage of online purchase among the population (includes internet users as well as non users) for the region as well as individual economies across various age groups. Source: Insights MENA

Table 2: shows the percentage of online purchase among the MEN population (includes internet users as well as non users) for the region as well as individual economies, across various age groups. Source: Insights MENA

Table 3: shows the percentage of online purchase among the Women population (includes internet users as well as non users) for the region as well as individual economies, across various age groups. Source: Insights MENA

Key Insights

Most of the key market segments are concentrated in UAE & Saudi Arabia. It is somehow even higher in UAE, which not only benefits from high, per capita GDP & internet penetration but also cosmopolitan culture. (UAE houses people from 206 nationalities) Some of the key points pertaining to the e-commerce behavior for various demographic segments in the MENA region, are as follows-

· Key market segments (irrespective of gender): UAE (all the age group), Saudi Arabia (25-34, 35-44)

· Key market segments (men): UAE (all the age group), Saudi Arabia (25-34, 35-44), Jordan (25-34)

· Key market segments (women): UAE (15-24, 25-34, 35-44), Saudi Arabia (25-34)

· Jordan’s women segment’s spectacularly off the mark performance: Jordan is one of the Middle Eastern countries, which has run a decent show, when it comes to digital media. It’s “MEN” segment has been quite active in terms of e-commerce activities. But the same does not hold true for “WOMEN” segment. The “WOMEN” segment’s performance has been spectacularly off the mark with almost zero e-commerce activities across all the age group.

· Morocco (15-24) & Saudi Arabia (25-34) women segment outperforms their male counterparts: In the MENA region, where the women still needs some time to catch up with their male counterparts, it is very unlikely that they can outperform them in terms of e-commerce activities. Yet, there are couples of section where the “WOMEN” have outperformed their “MEN” counterparts- Morocco (15-24) and Saudi Arabia (25-34), where in terms of % of average e-commerce activities; they have outperformed their male counterparts. This diversion from the general trend is indicative of slow but certain change in the gender dynamics in the region.

· Abysmally low e-commerce penetration in the 45+ segment: All across the MENA, excluding UAE, the 45 + segments appears to be dysfunctional in terms of e-commerce activities.

Analysis of E-Commerce in Middle East & North Africa - Part 1

2012-01-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Fig 1: Insights MENA photo, a website which specializes in studying internet consumption in MENA region. Source: http://www.insightsmena.com/ en/

Internet and the digital world have become an integral part of daily life for a large number of people across the globe. For many, a considerable amount of time daily spends on the web. The digital world is also making strong inroads in the commercial space. According to a survey conducted by “Neilson”, 875 million individuals have purchased online, at least once a year. According to “world internet statistics”, as on 2011, Middle East constitutes only 3.4 percentages of the global users and hence does not contribute much on the e-commerce front. (If North African countries be included, the percentage will go a bit higher). Even though it does not play a very big role so far, e-commerce seems to have a great potential in the near future. The future growth could be fuelled by-high economic growth, young demographics, investments in the ICT infrastructure and political transition. Keeping this in mind, “Management Guru Blog”, will do a comprehensive analysis of the overall e-commerce industry in the MENA region. The entire report will be produced in a series, delving into the various aspects of e-commerce in the region. The very first in the series, will a give a brief description of the internet consumption as well as e-commerce activities in the region.

E-commerce Statistics for Middle East & North Africa (mena)

Table 1: shows the GNI per capita and internet penetration in some selected MENA countries. Source: World Bank.

Table 2: Shows, mobile internet usage, in terms of percentage. Source: Insights MENA

Fig 1: shows the average weekly internet consumption by internet users (non internet users are not included in this), in minutes for the entire MENA region as well as for selected economies. The total internet consumption is the sum total of average weekly access via laptop/desktop and mobile. Source: Insights MENA

Fig 2: shows the percentages of online research and purchases made, across the overall population (includes internet users as well as non users), for MENA region and some selected economies. Source: Insights MENA.

Fig 3: shows the percentage of internet users, who always pay attention to online ads while surfing the web, for MENA as well as other individual economies. Source: MENA Insights.

Table 3: shows the average weekly frequency, of some selected online activities, for internet users of MENA region and some individual economies of the region. Source: Insights MENA

Analysis

Some of the key findings of the statistics are as follows:

· High per capita income influences high e-commerce activities: Countries like UAE and Saudi Arabia have fared well than their other Arab counterparts, on account of high per capita income. High per capita income results in high penetration of- internet, internet enabled better quality handsets, credit cards etc. This eventually has resulted in high percentages of E-commerce research and purchase activities, in these countries.

· Unique case of Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia, the largest MENA economy, enjoys a comparatively high internet penetration and internet enabled mobile usage of, 41 and 54, percentages respectively. It has a very high online research percentage of 18 and 42 percentages of internet users claim to always pay attention to online advertisements. In spite of having strong arsenals, the overall percentages of e-commerce stands at moderate five percentages, just one percentage point higher than the overall MENA average of four. It seems, cash based culture and low reliance on credit cards, coupled with under performance in the 45 plus segment, has deterred Saudi Arabia from realizing its full e-commerce potential.

· Jordan has huge e-commerce potential: Jordan offers another good case to study. Unlike gulf countries, it does not have any natural oil resources of its own and according to “World Bank” is considered as a developing nation with moderate per capita GNI of US $ 5,790. But, the tiny Levant state is also among one of the most innovative Middle Eastern countries and in the recent years have taken strides in the areas of, innovation and technology adoption. It enjoys decent; internet penetration, average weekly internet consumption and outlook towards e-commerce. A close look to some of the online activities of an average Jordanian internet user provides lot of interesting insights. An average user clicks an online ad, some 5.93 times a week and spends considerable time in research also. But when it comes to buying a product online, seems he hardly engages himself. It might be due to the same factors preventing other countries as well- cash based culture, low credit card penetration and apprehension of using the internet for making payments. Jordan can be considered as one of the huge potential market for e-commerce in the region. With higher credit card/debit card penetration and education campaigns, higher e-commerce percentages could be realized in near future.

Comparative Analysis of Retail Industry of Malaysia & Saudi Arabia

2012-01-16T04:13:00.000-08:00

Fig 1: shows an eXtra store, Saudi Arabia’s leading electronic retail. Source: alroyya.com

Retail industry is the part of the economy, involved in selling finished products to the end users. Retail shops could be found in wide range of formats, ranging from large hyper markets and department stores, to small convenience stores and general stores. It primarily includes six sub categories: - food & general retail, fashion apparels, fast food restaurants, fast manufacturing consumer goods (fmcg), luxury products and electronic appliances & consumer durables.

All across the globe, both in the developed as well as developing world, retail industry plays a pivotal role in the national economies. It has a wide range of direct as well as indirect economic significance- ranging from mass level employment generation (both urban and rural) to bringing, speed and efficiency into the entire supply chain system.

The given report intents, comparing retail sectors Malaysia and Saudi Arabia; one an emerging economy and a constitutional monarchy from South East Asia and other an oil rich Islamic Monarchy from the Gulf. Both the nation, share similarities across various socio-cultural as well as demographic parameter. Hence provide a good case to do comparative analysis. They will be compared across following parameters- economics, retail industry outlook, policy frame work, tourism, demographics and transportation.

Economics, demographics & infrastructure

The following part compares Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, across few of the general economic, demographic and infra structure related parameters.

Fig 1: shows the GDP growth rate of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia vis- a-vis, world’s growth rate.

Table 1: compares Malaysia and Saudi Arabia across various economic parameters. Source: World Bank

Table 2: compares Malaysia and Saudi Arabia across parameters related to infrastructure. Source: World Bank.

Retail industry outlook

Malaysia

Malaysia, an upper middle income country according to World Bank, enjoys a robust and growing retail sectors. According to Business Monitor International, total retail sales in Malaysia were estimated at US $ 33 billion, in 2009. Like other Asian countries it has penchant for gigantic malls and hypermarkets and is dominated by players such as Giant (domestic), Tesco (UK) and Care four (France). The retail sector in Malaysia is fueled by large proportion urbanized middle class (50% of the population) with high disposable income; a large proportion of youth (42% aged between 10 and 34, as on 2008) and high tourist arrival. Tourism accounts for 30% of retail consumption in Malaysia. (RECON, 2008)

Fig 2: shows the growth in retail sales vis-a-vis GDP growth rate for 2010. Source: Thestaronline.com

Fig 3: shows the number of outlet and total sales for major retailer in Malaysia for 2009. Source: Malaysia retail annual report, USDA Foreign Network.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the biggest Gulf country and the biggest economy in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) region. The region is marked by growth in retail space, young demographics, high tourist arrival and change of role of women in social sphere. Saudi Arabia, the biggest and one of the freest economies in the region, is considered as one of the most fertile market for the retail industry. Rapidly growing population, brand conscious young demographics (45 percentage of population aged 20-44) and high level of disposable income will be key drivers for the industry, in the kingdom. After oil, banking and telecom; retail is the fourth largest industry in the country, both in terms of number of, establishments as well as employees. It earned a total of US $ 55 billion, from retail sales in 2008, up from US $ 37 billion in 2004. (PR Log, 2009) The market is dominated by small retail stores, though big retailers, both domestic and international players, are trying to up their ante in the much fragmented retail industry.

Table 3: shows values for various retail industry related parameters. Source: JONES LANG LASALLE, AMEinfo.com

Fig 4: shows the retail sales of Saudi Arabia, in billion US $, over the last few years. Source: AMEinfo.com

Presence of major retail brands in Malaysia & Saudi Arabia

The following part of the report will compare the presence of few of the leading retail brands in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. The no. of outlets, in some of the cases, has been described in brackets.

Table 4: shows the presence of some of the major retail brands in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Source: Mystore411.com and others

Policy

One of the key pillars for the growth of any industry in a country is policy and regulatory framework. An open and market oriented policy framework are more likely to stimulate growth and development in the long run. The following part of the report will compare Malaysia and Saudi Arabia across general business environment as well as policy framework pertaining to retail industry.

Retail business environment

General business environment

Saudi Arabian economy is marked by liberal economic policies and free market mechanisms stimulating foreign investments. The kingdom has biggest oil reserve outside Soviet Union and USA and like other Gulf counterparts, aim at diversifying its economy into industrial and service sector. The state generally does not interfere with the inflow and outflow of capital. It incentivizes businesses by providing favorable tax exempts, subsidies, provision of land at low price, exemption of custom duties on export etc. (Al A, 2007)

In line with Saudi Arabia, Malaysian economy is also marked with investor friendly business environment. During 1970s, when Malaysian economy was primarily based on mining and agriculture, govt. took diversification measures backed with centralized planning. During 70s to 90s, like other Asian Tigers, Malaysia recorded a strong economic growth. In the present time also govt. plays a pivotal role in the economy, but gradually it is reducing. One of the remarkable features of Malaysia economy is availability of easy credits.

Malaysia

The key elements of retail industry (especially pertaining to foreign investments) policies of Malaysia are as follows (MDTCC, 2010)

· Aims at modernization of the industry, ensuring growth of the local business at the same time

· All foreign involvements in retail sector, including; acquisition & merger, expansion, relocation, buying, taking over etc; require permission from Ministry of domestic trade, cooperative and consumerism (MTDCC).

· Work force should be reflective of over all racial composition of Malaysian population. It should ensure development of local inhabitants or Bumiputera.

· Regulatory framework for Hypermarket-minimum capital required is US $15.95 million (RM 50 million), at least 30% stake should be provided to Bumiputera within 3 years of incorporation, minimum floor space should be 5000 square meters and 30% of space needs to be allocated for Bumiputera SME product.

· Regulatory framework for Departmental store-minimum capital required is US $6.38 million (RM 20 million), and 30% of space needs to be allocated for Bumiputera SME product.

· Foreign investment is not allowed in the following- super market/ mini market (<3000 square meters), provision shop, convenience stores, fuel station with convenience stores, etc.

Saudi Arabia

The key elements of retail industry (especially pertaining to foreign investments) policies of Saudi Arabia are as follows:

· Retail being one of the few sectors, in Saudi Arabia, where 100 percent foreign ownership is not permitted. As per the guidelines, last revised in 2004, the maximum limit for foreign ownership in retail sector is 49 percentages.

· Any company in Saudi Arabia, with foreign investment, requires a foreign investment license.

· Franchising a popular concept used in the Kingdom. Franchise owners need to be local inhabitants and not 3^rd party. Many of the leading retail brands such as Baskin Robins, McDonalds, and Burger King Etc operate in the Kingdom in franchise arrangement.

Tourism

Along with local inhabitants, tourism inflow also helps in boosting retail sales. Both Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are successful tourism destination. Religious pilgrimage is the key driver of Saudi tourism, whereas its Malaysian counterpart depends on exotic beachfront resorts, festivals and medical tourism. The following chart compares tourist inflow of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Fig 5: compares the annual inflow of foreign tourists in millions, for Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Source: Tourism Malaysia and Indexmundi.

Demographics

Demographic profile is one of the key drivers of the retail industry worldwide. A young, vibrant and well aware population ensures high spending on retail.

Table 5: compares Malaysia and Saudi Arabia across demographic parameters. Data are for the year 2010. Source: CIA World Fact book.

Transportation

A good transportation network, especially high volume of private motor vehicles, ensures the growth and development of out of town hyper markets. In the absence of motor vehicle people tend to visit nearby retail stores only.

A well developed transport and logistics network does not only help in sales but also ensures better functioning of big hyper market chains. In the absence of good logistic, big hypermarket chains are unlikely to import and circulate retail items in large volume, effectively.

Table 6: compares Malaysia and Saudi Arabia across transportation parameters (most recent by year). Source: nationmaster.com, numbeo.com

Conclusion

The report has compared Malaysia and Saudi Arabia across various parameters- economics, retail industry outlook, policy frame work, tourism, demographics and transportation. As discussed earlier, both the nations offer a great case to study. They have their own share of agreements as well as disagreements. Some of the key conclusions drawn are as follows:

· In both the countries, retail sector is important constituent of the national GDP and is witnessing high annual growth. The high growth of the retail sector is fuelled by higher disposable income, high percentages of youth and vibrant tourism sectors.

· Malaysia is considered as a high middle income country, where as Saudi Arabia, on account of high oil and natural gas reserve, is one of the rich nations in the world. Marked with high per capita income, it is a more fertile ground for luxury retail.

· Both are luring big retail brands to operate in their country. Saudi Arabia is a better destination than Malaysia in terms of a number of ease of doing business parameters such as – dealing with construction permit, getting electricity, registering property, taxation etc. Malaysia’s strength lies in the easy credits and high FDI in retail; 70 % against, 49 % in Saudi Arabia

· Malaysia has better infrastructure, logistic as well as telecommunication infrastructure, both considered as a backbone for developing a vibrant retail sector. Saudi Arabian strength lies in availability of gasoline at dirt cheap price and high availability of electricity.

Reference

1> RECON, 2008, Malaysia: a gateway to South East Asia,

2> Al Amri, 2007, doing business in Saudi Arabia, available at < http://www.alamri.com/DOING%20BUSINESS%20IN%20SAUDI%20ARABIA.pdf>

3> Doing Business, 2011, home page, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings

4> MDTCC, 2011, Guide lines for foreign participation in the distributive trade, available at < http://www.kpdnkk.gov.my/kpdnkk-theme/images/pdf/WRT_Guideline.pdf>

5> Masterintelligence.com, 2011, Master card worldwide consumer confidence index, available at < http://www.masterintelligence.com/ViewRegionReport.jsp?hidReportTypeId=2&hidRegionId=1&hidUserId=null>

Comparative Analysis: Digital presence of five leading tourism destinations of Asia

2011-12-30T03:23:00.000-08:00

Introduction

In the present context, which is marked by the gradual shrinkage of regular and conventional media and arrival of digital media, tourism industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. Digital media has become very significant for the travel and tourism industry. It plays a very crucial role in the entire cycle, a traveler undergoes-selection, planning, information gathering, booking, and visit. The following table gives a list of e-marketing activities corresponding to various stages of travel. (Nguyen N, 2007)

Table 1: shows the e-marketing activities corresponding to various stages of travel.

In order to up their ante in this transformed tourism landscape, it is essential for tourist destinations to have a strong presence across various web platforms- travel websites, social media, social media, and mobile application etc. The following report will analyze the online brand strength of leading tourist destinations from Asia- Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Istanbul. It will do a comparative analysis of the online brand presence across the following platforms- search engines (Yahoo and Google), travel websites (Trip Advisor, Frommer, Virtual Tourist, official tourist websites) and social media (Face Book and You Tube) etc.

Search engines

Search engines play a vital role in any form of marketing. The following part provides a simple estimate of search results related to the five locations in Google and Yahoo, two of search engine giants.

Fig 2: shows the image search results in millions for the five destination in Yahoo & Google

Fig 3: shows the image search results in millions for the five destination in Yahoo & Google

Fig 4: shows the video search results in millions for the five destination in Yahoo & Google

Fig 5: shows the number of search engine results in millions on typing- name of the destination followed by hotels. Exp: Singapore Hotels

Fig6: shows search results in million in Google and Yahoo on typing places to visit. For exp: Hong Kong places to visit.

Official tourist websites

Websites are the representation of the tourist destinations in the web world. Not only do they build the brand image of the destination but also guide unaware tourist by providing all the relevant information in detail. It helps traveler make travelling decision. Some of the essential requirements of travelers are- direction information/map, visa and policy information, local information, photo gallery, multilingual functions, content categorization, multimedia functions, utility functions etc. (Quan Z, Rich D, 2005) Out of all the available websites, the role of an official website is always much more significant, since it represents the official view point. The given part of the report intents to analyze the popularity of official tourist websites of the five destinations both In terms of web analytics as well as qualitative aspects of the website. For web analytics measurement double click ad planner will be used.

Official Websites of tourist destination

Singapore: YourSingapore.com (www.yoursingapore.com )

Dubai: DefinitelyDubai.com (http://www.definitelydubai.com/)

Bangkok: Bangkoktourist.com (http://www.bangkoktourist.com/)

Istanbul: Istanbul.com (http://english.istanbul.com/)

Hong Kong: DiscoverHongkong.com (www.discoverhongkong.com )

Fig 7: shows the total unique visits and page views for the five official sites, over the month of November 2011. The column chart shows unique visits, where as the line graph shows the page views. Source: double click ad planner.

Fig 8: shows the average time spent by a visitor in minutes: seconds. Source: double click ad planner

Table 2: compares the home page of the five official websites across some of the basic parameters.

. Table 3: compares the home page of the five official websites across some of the advanced parameters

In terms of unique visitors and total page views, discover Hong Kong has an insurmountable lead over others. This is followed by Singapore; others are far behind. Discover Hong Kong is available in 14 different languages, a unique feature missing in other websites. The closest to this, is Definitely Dubai, which is available in 5 different languages. Other than the multilingual function most of the websites provide all the basic function listed in table 1. It is the advanced parameters which seem to be the differentiating factor. Yours Singapore has all the five features, followed by Hong Kong with four. The other three have three each. All the five websites have designed very attractive website with lot of multimedia works-videos, photos, flash etc. One of the unique features, of the two successful website is availability of geographical customization- provision of custom made packages for different geographies.

Travel websites

Travel websites play a very significant role in tourism marketing and destination branding. Not only do they provide booking facilities for a gamut of tourism activities but also share reviews for tourist destination in the form of – comments, articles, videos and photos. These travel websites are loved by tourism enthusiast and amateur tourists alike and some of them have huge fan following all across the globe. A larger presence in such websites will ensure stronger brand image for destinations. The given part of the report will compare the five destinations across three of the most popular tourism websites- Frommer, Trip Advisor and Virtual tourist

Frommer

Table 4: shows the no. of destination guides, communities and photos for the five destinations in Frommer.

Trip advisor

Table 5: shows the no. of reviews, forums and articles for the five destinations in Trip Advisor.

Virtual tourist

Table 6: shows the no. of tips and reviews, forums and articles for the five destinations in virtual tourist.

With the help of the three tables it could be concluded that none of the destination emerges as a true winner. There is a lot of variability across the three websites. While Frommer and Trip Advisor are dominated by Bangkok; Singapore has stronghold in Virtual Tourist. Even within the sites there are lots of variations. For instance, Istanbul has the 2^nd least number of tips & reviews in virtual tourist where as highest number of videos. Another point to be considered is that if there is no winner, there is no loser as well. All the five destinations have substantial presence across the three websites in the form of- reviews, photos, videos, forums and communities.

Facebook

Digital media landscape is transforming, with social media playing a very pivotal role. One of the most popular social media site across the globe is Facebook or FB. FB which is available in more than 70 languages, has more than 800 million active users across the world. More than 50 percentage of active users log on to FB on any given day .On an average, every user is connected to 130 friends and 80 communities, events etc. (Facebook statistics, 2011) with the help of its phenomenal popularity and sheer volume across the globe, FB provides a very vibrant platform for marketers, to communicate and interact with their target customers. It also plays a very prominent role in building brand image for tourist destinations. The given part of the report will compare the brand strength of the five tourist destinations on FB. Since there are many FB pages related to the destinations and comparing all of them not possible; the given analysis will select the most popular page for all the destinations and do a comparison among them.

The pages are:

Dubai: I Love Dubai

Istanbul: Istanbul, tours/ sightseeing

Singapore: YourSingapore

Bangkok: Bangkok, public places

Hong Kong: Hong Kong, Attractions, things to do

Fig 9: shows number of likes and people talking about the given destinations on their FB pages. Source: FB pages

Marketing a destination on FB also requires a lot of activities and updates on the group page, besides just having a page. In order to comprehend the level of activities done on each page, a seven day period- 19^th Dec to 25^th Dec, has been selected. Under the given period, all the activities- updates, likes, comments and shares have been recorded, as depicted by the following table.

Table 7: shows the number of updates, comments, likes and shares during 19^th to 25^th Dec, for individual pages of tourist destinations. (Only updates related to tourism has been included)

On FB, Dubai seems to have an edge over other destinations. Its page “I love Dubai” can be considered as one of the best well managed and organized FB page for tourist destination across the globe. Properly moderated, it comes up with regular updates of photos and videos, reflecting the grandiose and extravagance of Dubai. The beautiful photo graphs, attract a large number user likes comments and shares. Other cities which come close to Dubai could be Istanbul and Singapore (YourSingapore). Istanbul like Dubai, is well moderated but is also fraught with lot of irrelevant updates- political spoofs, funny pictures etc. Another flaw for page “Istanbul” could be predominant use of Turkish language, which deprives it of an international appeal. YourSingapore is another well managed page but needs more updates. For the other two, lot needs to be done. Large number of user generated updates, which includes greetings and adieus, contradict with the professional outlook expected out of such pages.

You tube

Another powerful social media tool is “You Tube”. Over 800 million of unique users visit You Tube every month. Over 100 million of users take social actions such as like, share and comment on You Tube every week. (Youtube.com press statistics, 2011) You tube does not only play a pivotal role in branding a tourist destination, but also contains negative perception by interacting directly with the tourists. (Sofia R, Brain H, 2010)

Fig 10: shows the total number of tourism related searches and total views for top 10 searches, for the five destinations. Column chart shows the no. of searches, whereas line chart with data labels show the total no. of views. Source: You Tube

Conclusion and Suggestions

It could be comprehended from various charts and tables that none of the five destinations emerges as a clear cut winner. However, someone close to the numero uno position could Hong Kong, followed by Singapore. Both the city states appear to be comparatively well equipped in building their brand on the web world. Based on the analysis, there are following suggestion, which could help these states further enhance their brand image -

· Bangkok: with an intake of 10.2 million tourists, it is Asia’s most visited city. (enjoyyourholiday.com, 2011). The city also enjoys a high no of user generated reviews, communities, photos and other user generated contents in travel sites such as trip advisor, virtual tourist etc. However it has comparatively lesser web presence as estimated from the search engine section. In the social media segment it has strong base in You Tube, but needs to use Face Book more aptly. It can also work on its website by adding custom made packages.

· Istanbul: is the only city in the globe, stretched across two continents- Asia and Europe. In most of the sections, Istanbul has shown a moderate show, neither too good nor too bad. An area where it needs to put some extra efforts could be You Tube. Another could be official tourist page. The English version (the Turkish version is doing good with 2,00,000 visitors over November 2011) which definitely engaging as reflected from the average time spent, is still not attracting large volume of visitors like its counterpart, Singapore and Hong Kong. One possible measure could be annexing a Russian and German version as Turkey receives quite a good number of tourist arrivals from the two countries.

· Dubai: like Istanbul, Dubai has also showcased moderate performance across most of the sections. One area where it has been exceptional could be FB page “I love Dubai”. With arsenal of spellbinding photographs of Dubai, has been successful in its attempts of engaging and communicating with people. Besides working on platforms like virtual tourists, Dubai can rework on its official tourist site. Adding custom made packages and an Arabic version can help in more traffics.

· Hong Kong and Singapore: are already strong on the web. A simple piece of advice for Hong Kong could be linking social pages with the official tourist website.

Limitations

The given report has some fundamental limitations such as:

· Search engines: based on the keywords, the number of searches give only an approximate estimation of web content available. More ever the total number of searches keeps on varying with time to time.

· Reviews: reviews themselves are not 100 % accurate estimation of the brand presence, since it is not just the numbers but quality of reviews that also matters. More over a negative review can be detrimental to the brand value.

· Google double ad click: the unique visitors, page views and average time spent, calculated by Google double ad click are just estimation rather than the exact data. However out of many website measurement tools available on the internet, it is considered as the most authentic by many web media evangelist.

Reference

1> Nguyen N, 2007,tourism trends and the effect of online booking for Vietnam travel market, available < http://www.findvietnamresorts.com/company/advertise/research.pdf>

2> Quan Z, Rich D, 2005, Usability issue in city tourism websites: content analysis, p-3, available at http://www.arlt-lectures.com/cross-cult-city-tour.pdf

3> Facebook statistics center, 2011, available at http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

4> Youtube.com, 2011,press statistics, available at < http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics>

5> Sofia r, Brain H, 2010, the use of you tube as tourism marketing tool, available at < http://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/2315/1/2315.PDF>

6> Enjoyyourholiday.com, 2011, top 10 visited cities in the world, available at < http://www.enjoyourholiday.com/2011/04/18/top-10-most-visited-cities-in-the-world/>

Fig 1: online brand display image. Source: reactorr.com

Uzbek Tourism: a comprehensive Analysis

2011-12-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Fig 1: photo of Uzbekistan. Source: traveltourist.net

Uzbekistan is a central Asian country rich in culture and heritage and blessed with exotic landscapes. Prior to becoming a free state in 1991, it was the part of USSR. Though considered as a lower middle income, developing nation; it is enjoying a high GDP growth rate and a high literacy of 99 percentages. It is one of the two doubly land locked (a land locked country surrounded by land locked countries) countries in the world. The other is Liechtenstein. Uzbekistan aspires to become a tourist hub par excellence. The given report will analyze Uzbekistan as a tourist hub, its present status and its future potential.

Uzbekistan: country profile

The following part of report will give a brief description of Uzbekistan across economical and social parameters.

Fig 2: shows GDP growth rates of Uzbekistan Vis a Vis World, from 2000-10. Source: World Bank

Fig 3: shows the GDP (PPP) of Uzbekistan in US $ billions from 2002-10. Source: World Bank

Table 1: shows values for Uzbekistan for some selected social parameters.

Uzbekistan: Tourism statistics

The following charts will show the tourism statistics of Uzbekistan

Fig 4: shows the tourism receipt for Uzbekistan for 2007-10, in US $ millions. Source: Euromonitor

Fig 5: shows total no. of world heritage sites in Uzbekistan in comparison to other countries in the nearby region of Central Asia, Europe and Middle East. Source: UNESCO

Table 2: Hotel statistics for Uzbekistan. (Figures are based on the data generated by a website called “Sairam Travels” & may not be exactly correct.)

Fig 7: shows the aircraft departure statistics (most recent by countries). Source: nationmaster.com

Fig 8: shows the per capita emission of CO2 in Metric Tons for Uzbekistan, in comparison to other countries in the nearby region of Central Asia, Europe and Middle East. Source: World Bank

Uzbekistan: types of tourism

Uzbekistan has huge potential for developing into an exotic tourist destination. The Central Asian country is blessed with plethora of archaeological sites and exotic landscapes. The govt. of Uzbekistan is seeking huge investments in developing infrastructure and promoting the county as a great tourist destination. Around 85 percentage of the tourist visiting the nation are 55 or above. (eturbonews.com, 2011). They like the calm and serene atmosphere of Uzbek cities and come here for visiting archaeological sites and monuments dating back to Alexander & Zoroastrian era. Major tourist cities are- Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva etc. Major tourism period is April, May and September, October. The major types of tourism in Uzbekistan are as follows:

· Cultural and Historical tourism: tourism in Uzbekistan is primarily centered on cultural tourism. Situated on the cross roads of Silk Road, Uzbekistan is home to around 4000 historical and architectural monuments. It has a plethora of archaeological sites to offer- mosques, mausoleums, palaces, forts, ruined Buddhist temples, monasteries & statues etc.

· Recreational, Adventure and Nature tourism: Uzbekistan has a wide range of contrasting landscapes & natural beauties - mountains, valleys, desserts, forests, rivers etc. It offers various types of adventure activities such as- trekking, mountain climbing, water sports, river rafting, safaris, bird watching, hunting, fishing, horseback riding etc. It also has lot of mineral rich springs; hence making it great potential hub for recreational tourism.

· Business tourism: this fastest growing central Asian country is a potential hub for business related/ MICE activities (meetings, incentive travels, conferences and exhibitions). Fast GDP growth rate, plenty of oil, natural gas and minerals along with an availability of a gamut of cultural & natural offerings can transform it into a regional business tourist’s hub.

· Religious and Spiritual tourism: many tourists visit Uzbekistan for religious and spiritual purpose. It has a wide range of religious sites such as mosques, tombs, Sufi shrines etc. There are more than 160 Muslim relics located in Uzbekistan.

· Dental & Medical tourism: Uzbekistan has established state of the art dental clinics in Tashkent and other major cities in the country. These clinics are equipped with top quality, instruments & human expertise. One of the remarkable feature of these clinics are that- these are much economical than clinics in Europe and Russia.

UZBEKISTAN: WEB PRESENCE

The following charts and figures will show the web presence of brand Uzbekistan.

Fig 4: shows the number of search results in millions, for Google and Yahoo, on typing, tourism in . All the nations in the list are developing nation, with population lying between 2o to 40 millions.

Fig 9: shows number of reviews in Trip Advisor, related to various countries along with Uzbekistan. Source: Trip Advisor.

Fig 10: shows, number of search result in You Tube, on typing , for instance: Poland tourism. Source: You Tube.

UZBEKISTAN TOURISM: SWOT ANALYSIS

The following part will do a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis of tourism industry in Uzbekistan.

Strengths

· Uzbekistan is witnessing high GDP growth rate. Since 2005, its GDP is growing with more than 7 percentages.

· It has plethora of archaeological sites and natural beauties to offer.

· It enjoys strong social infrastructure. For instance the literacy rate is exorbitantly high at 99 percentages.

· The cities of Uzbekistan are known to be calm and peaceful, often loved by cultural lovers and senior tourists.

· Strategically Uzbekistan is placed on the cross roads of the silk route. Situated in central Asia, it is close to Europe, cash rich Gulf States as well as emerging powers like Russia, China and India.

· Govt. at Uzbekistan is keeping tourism high up on their agendas.

Weakness

· So far the tourism receipt and arrival have been abysmally low. Uzbekistan still has a long way to go to catch up other major tourist destinations such as Turkey, UAE and Greece in the region.

· Uzbekistan is definitely placed in a strategic location, favorable for tourism industry, but it also a region blessed with some heavy weights of tourism industry. The Middle East & Central Asia region has two of the top 10 visited cities of the world- Dubai & Istanbul. (enjoyourholiday.com, 2011)

· Uzbekistan’s tourism industry has abysmally low web presence; as depicted by figure 8,9 and 10, it is even much lower than places like Syria and Romania, not considered as popular tourist destination.

· Across the world there is a perception that Uzbekistan offers only cultural & archaeological sites to visit. The adventurous and recreational aspects are still vastly unknown. (eturbonews.com, 2011)

· It lacks state of the art airlines, convention centers and hotels to bolster its ambition. For instance take the example of small Gulf state UAE, which has got some world class airlines, hotels and convention centers such as- Emirates, Etihad, DWTC, ADNEC, Burj al Arab, Emirates palace etc. In contrast to this, Uzbekistan does not have such resources.

Opportunities

· The govt. of Uzbekistan is implementing strong measures to promote it as a tourist destination. This will surely influence the industry in the coming time.

· There are many unexplored tourist places in Uzbekistan. With the help of better marketing strategy, there true potential could be realized.

· With large amount of mineral sources and spring in the mountain region, Uzbekistan has huge potential for recreational tourism.

· There are also lot of potential for other forms of tourisms- medical (dental), business and adventure.

· Uzbekistan is close to 3 of the 4 BRIC nations (Russia, India & China) both geographically as well as culturally. These nations moving along high growth trajectories will constitute a major portion of the outbound tourism in the coming time. Geographical proximity along with well integrated communication strategy can help Uzbekistan win a substantial pie of outbound tourists from these nations.

Threat

· Many countries in the neighboring countries are also keeping tourism high up on their economic agenda. From Qatar to Turkey everywhere ambitious development plans are being incubated such as- Qatar 2022, Turkey 2023, Abu Dhabi 2030, Dubai 2015 etc. Once the plans will get realized, tourism sector across Central Asia & Middle would become very challenging. Such a competitive space may not be favorable for Uzbek tourism industry to up it's ante in the region.

UZBEKISTAN TOURISM: Road map to success

After analyzing the statistics of Uzbekistan, followed by a “SWOT” analysis; it could be inferred that it has all the potential of becoming a successful tourist destination. it is blessed with a large number of archaeological sites and natural treasures. It also has modern tourism infrastructure and is moving across high growth trajectories. In spite of the inherent potential, the statistics so far has been very disappointing. One of the prime reason could be the Uzbekistan has been grossly misunderstood as a nation and as a tourist destination; primarily may be due to minimal efforts in marketing Uzbekistan on part of the concerned authorities. The following part of the report, will discuss a few strategies, which might lead Uzbekistan to success.

Communication, Communication & Communication

Uzbekistan seems to be suffering from lot of ignorance from tourists across the globe. In spite of having a unique cultural identity, it seems to be perceived as yet another USSR state. Though tough and challenging, it is impediment for Uzbekistan to build a unique brand proposition for itself, which can be done only by more and more communications. It needs to establish itself as one of the fastest growing Central Asian countries, situated on the cross roads of East and West. Uzbekistan is a country which is not only blessed with plethora of archaeological sites and natural treasures; but also armored with modern tourism infrastructure. But until unless, the idea will not be communicated to the myriad tourist spread across the globe, the tourist statistics are not going to get a boosting. So, one of the very 1^st thing it is supposed to do is, advertise and market itself- strongly, largely and widely. Let the world hear the herald of a new tourist destination!

The concluding part of the debate will be discussing few of the possible measures, which Uzbekistan can take to transform itself into successful marketing destination.

Strong Web presence

The present landscape of communication is getting transformed. The strong space enjoyed so far by traditional media such as prints, TV and Radio broadcast is encroached upon by the digital media. Unfortunately Uzbekistan still does not seem to be equipped well enough, to adapt itself to the new media landscape. It has an abysmally low web presence across all the major web platforms. Even countries like Syria or Romania, primarily not considered as popular tourist destinations have much stronger web presence than Uzbekistan. In the present time, Uzbekistan cannot afford to have a low web presence. It needs to implement a fully fledged digital media marketing strategy; utilizing regular web platforms such as- websites, banner ads, articles etc; along with social media platforms such as- Face Book, blogs, You Tube etc.

Cater to China & India

China and India are among the fastest growing outbound tourism markets in the world. With a collective population of around 2.4 billion and high GDP growth rates; they are going to influence the future of tourism heavily. In India outbound tourism expenditures have grown from US $ 1.3 billion to US $ 8.2 billion in 2007. Outbound tourist departures have grown from 3.7 million in 1997 to 9.7 million in 2007 (European Travel Commission, 2009). In case of China it is even much stronger. According to figures released by China Tourism Authority (CTA), China had witnessed an international departure of 51 million, growth of 20 % over last year (Dragon Trail, 2011). Uzbekistan is geographically close to both of them and had shared cultural ties with both the emerging giants since ages. It is high time to leverage it. A unique marketing strategy catering to the two emerging giants can be a good pay off in near future.

Statistics should be made public

Statistics on Uzbekistan are not readily available, even they are not considered very reliable. There are many popular web platforms such as- Budgetyourtrip.com, cost of living index website etc, often used by a large number of tourists worldwide, where data pertaining to Uzbekistan is missing. Similarly, in the annual WEF travel and tourism competitiveness index; an annual report comprising of travel and tourism statistics of almost all the nations in the globe; Uzbekistan is absent. Non availability of data in such an important publication can be detrimental to Uzbek tourism industry and its aspirations. Uzbekistan needs to come up with relevant data and circulate it across all the relevant platforms both off and online. Even if the data are not very attractive, it will help consolidate the image of Uzbekistan as a liberal, modern and globalized state.

Reference

1> Eturbonews.com, 2011, Uzbekistan working to attract youth to stretch tourism season, available at http://www.eturbonews.com/25816/uzbekistan-working-attract-youth-stretch-tourism-season

2> Enjouyyourholiday.com, 2011, top 10 visited cities of the world, available http://www.enjoyourholiday.com/2011/04/18/top-10-most-visited-cities-in-the-world/

3> Eturbonews.com, 2011, Uzbekistan working to attract youth to stretch tourism season, available at http://www.eturbonews.com/25816/uzbekistan-working-attract-youth-stretch-tourism-season

4> European Travel Commission, 2009, abstract, available at < http://www.etc-corporate.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=236 >

5> Dragon Trail, 2011, China soaring towards new tourism records, available at http://www.chinatraveltrends.com/2011/11/china-soaring-towards-new-tourism-records-more-than-2-billion-domestic-and-over-50-million-outbound-travellers-in-the-first-nine-months-of-2011/

Comparative Analysis of the three rising stars of Asia- Hong Kong, Singapore & Dubai

2011-12-11T07:31:00.003-08:00

Fig 1: Skyline of Singapore. Source: Wikipedia

Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai are three major city states, of international standing in Asia. All of them have undergone a phenomenal growth in the last few decades and plays a very pivotal role in the economy of their respective nations and even regions. Considered among some of the best marketed destinations in the globe; they bring in a huge amount of investments along with human capital. All these three city states constantly feature among the list of top 10, most visited cities in the world. The following blog will do a comparative analysis of the following places across a wide range of qualitative as well as quantitative parameters.

Introduction

· Dubai: is one of the most well marketed destinations, across the globe. In the three decades, the small emirate has seen itself leapfrogging from a sleepy town to one of the biggest success saga of Middle East. Placed between the cross roads of East and West, Dubai is also sometimes known as the gateway of the Middle East to the world. The biggest strength of Dubai lies in its visionary and extremely efficient leadership and liberal culture, helping it attract expats from all over the world. It is among the very first Gulf States, that has successfully diversified its economy into various sectors such as-tourism, real estates, retail, trade, media, financial services etc. The very first thing that comes to mind with brand Dubai is the state of art real estate constructions. Dubai boasts some of the biggest, most expensive, state of the art buildings, hotels and real estate assignments- Al Burj, Burj Khalifa, Palm islands etc. Other than these world famous landmarks Dubai offers plethora of state of the art shopping malls, amusement parks, museums, resorts and spa, golf courses, sports stadiums, convention centers etc.

· Singapore: the small city state which once got freedom in 1963 from Malaysia; is not only among one of the most visited cities across the globe; but also an epicenter of trade, commerce, finance, technology and innovation. Considered among the biggest success sagas of 20^th centuries, Singapore had witnessed an average growth rate of 7.9 percentages, since 1963. The Singapore’s success story is based on four pillars- liberal govt. policies, skilled workforce, state of the art sea ports and strategic location. During the time of 60’s and 70’s when this tiny state was suffering from high unemployment, liberal policy frame work was put in place, along with investments in labor incentive industries. In the later stage, Singapore successfully transformed itself from a labor incentive industry to an innovation driven industry. Today it is home to around 500 financial institutions and most of the MNCs of the world. It also has a numero uno position in the “ease of doing business index”. (World Bank data, 2010) Singapore is also great tourist hub with state of the art hotels, resorts, shopping malls, casinos etc. In 2009, it received 9.7 million tourists and was among the list of most visited cities in the world. (annual report on tourism statistics 2009, 2011)

· Hong Kong: it’s a place where East meets the West. Before being handed over to China in 1997, Hong Kong was under British Rule. Even today other than foreign relations and military defense, it maintains a high degree of autonomy. In contrast to mainland China, it enjoys a capitalist structure marked by free trade and low taxation. It is considered as one of the freest economies of the world. Famous economist Milton Friedman once described that if someone wants to see free economy, he should go to go to Hong Kong. Like Singapore it is a major trade and financial center. Like the other three Asian tigers (Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea) Hong Kong underwent industrialization during 60’s and successfully transformed into a service sector economy during 80’s. In 2010 service sector has accounted for 92.5 percentage of GDP, against Industry contributing just 7.4 percentages. (CIA World Fact Book, 2010). A blend of Chinese and Western culture, Hong Kong is also a fabulous tourist destination attracting tourists from all over the globe.

Demographics

All these three places are trade centers and financial capitals of their respective regions, besides being great tourist destinations; there by attracting a large number of expats- businessmen, travelers, working professionals, academicians, celebrities etc. According to the survey conducted by Dubai Statistics Center in 2006, 17 percentages of the population consists of local Emiratis. 71 percentages of the population consist of Asian which mainly includes- Indian, Pakistani, Srilankan, etc. 3 percentage of population has been categorized as Western. In contrast to this in Hong Kong, according to 2006 census 95 percentages of the work force is Chinese followed by Filipino (1.6 percentage), Indonesian (1.3 percentage) and others 2.1 percentage. (Index Mundi, 2011). In Singapore out of the total population of 5.08 million, 3.77 million are Singapore residents against 1.31 million foreign residents. (Comprising of tourists) Out of 3.77 million, residents 3.23 million are citizens where as 0.54 millions are permanent residents. Major ethnic communities include Chinese, Malay, and Indians etc. 0.3 percentage of the population can be categorized as Western. (Department of statistics Singapore, 2011)

Fig 2: compares the population of three states for the year 2010. Source of data: Dubai Statistics center, Singapore Statistics center and CIA World fact book.

Fig 3: shows the population of the three city states in millions, over the period of time. Source of data: Hong Kong year book, Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Department of Statistics Singapore

Table 1: compares the three city states across various parameters. Reference year: 2010; Source of data: US department of State, Index Mundi etc

Table 2: compares the three city states across geographical parameters.

Economics

The following section will compare the three city states across some of the economic parameters- Gross Domestic product (GDP), Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Cost of living Index etc.

Fig 3: showing the GDP of the three city states, US $ billions, for the year 2010. Source: CIA Fact Book, Al Arabia news.

Fig 4: showing the GDP growth rate of the three city states in the past few years. Source: World Bank, Dubai Statistics Center.

Fig 5: showing FDI inflow of the three city states in US $ billions, over the last 6 years. Source: World Bank, Dubai Statistics center.

Table 3: compares the 3 city states across various cost of living indices. Source: NUMBEO

Tourism statistics

Other than being epicenter of trade, commerce and financial activities, the three states are also considered among some of the greatest tourist destinations in the globe. Constantly featuring among the top 10 most visited cities in the globe, they have some of the most magnificent hotels, resorts, casinos, convention centers, amusement parks etc. The following line graph of the report will compare the 3 city states in terms of annual tourist arrivals

Fig 6: showing annual arrival of tourists in millions. Source: Dubai Tourism and Commercial Marketing (DTCM), Press releases by Hong Kong tourism board, Singapore Tourism Board. The comparatively higher figure for Hong Kong is on account on Chinese travelers, which account for approximately 2/3^rd of tourist arrival.

BRAND ESSENCE

This part of the report will try figuring out one word, which can describe the brand of these city states.

Dubai had successfully ventured into wide range of activities ranging from various forms of tourism (leisure, shopping, sports, cultural, dessert, business etc); trade, businesses, industries etc; but one word describing brand Dubai can be luxury. It’s a place where modern day dynamism blends well with traditional Arabic tranquility. Be it the state of the art hotels or resorts; shopping malls or villas; everywhere Dubai reflects luxury. For Singapore, that one word could be innovation. Singapore is the hub of high tech innovation. According to Global Innovation Index 2011, Singapore has been ranked as 3^rd most innovative nation in the world and 1^st in Asia. (Sgentrepreneurs.com, 2011). Similarly one word that can reflect the brand essence of city state Hong Kong could be liberty. Hong Kong is one of the most free and liberal states in the world. It practices liberty in almost every sphere of life- economic, social, political, etc. It offers a top notch living conditions or its residents. Ranked 13^th on the Human Development Index, it is one of the best places to live. Singapore has a rank of 26, whereas Dubai (UAE) has a rank of 30. (Human Development Index and its Component, 2011)

Fig 8: Shows the brand essence of the three city states in one word.

ANALYSIS & conclusion

The given report had tried analyzing the three city states of Asia across various parameters related to demography, economy, tourism etc. With the help of various charts it could be seen that Dubai is still catching up with the Singapore and Hong Kong and will take some time to reach their level. Dubai is an Emirate with extremely big ambitions. For instance by 2015, the Dubai Tourism and Commercial Marketing aims at reaching an annual tourist arrival of 15 million. Though time will tell how far Dubai will excel to realize this ambition; but if realized Dubai will be the most visited tourist destination in the world. Similarly in other spheres also the 2nd largest emirate of UAE holds huge ambitions. Exp: Jebel Ali, the largest man made harbor is also undergoing expansion and once completed in 2030, it is expected to be the biggest container port in the world.

The social and economic structures of these three city states have their own similarities as well as differences. Singapore and Hong Kong are quite synonymous to each other in terms of knowledge economy, high degree of social freedom & liberty and international trade centers; Dubai offers a slightly different case. Though Dubai has successfully diversified its economy (presently Hydrocarbons account for only 2.1 percentage of GDP, contrary to 1985, when it had a giant share of 55 percentages) into real estate, trade and tourism; it is still far behind from becoming a knowledge economy. Similarly in terms of demographic break up, Dubai’s economy is completely dependent on expats, in contrast to local Emiratis which constitute only 17 percentage of population. (Dubaidreams.net, 2011). It is the other way round in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Table 4: shows the diminishing percentage of oil in Dubai’s GDP. Source: USA Today, AME info.com, Dubai Chamber of Commerce

Dubai has its own advantage. It is yet to realize its full potential and hence has a long way to go. In the form of its ambitious 2015 plan, it aims at implementing strong social and economic reforms and transformations. It is one of the fastest growing Emirates and prior to the economic crisis that led to real estate bust; it was enjoying a double digit growth rate. Considered as an epicenter of trade, finance, investments, culture and tourism in the Middle East region, it had help attracting a lot of investments, trade and human capital for the region.

If IT and Technology defines Singapore and Hong Kong; real estate defines Dubai. It is marked by luxury, which gets reflected in the wide range of high profile construction projects incubated by the Emirate. One of the reasons, it can accommodate such projects, is the availability of large amount of free space. While Singapore and Hong Kong are becoming vertical cities, Dubai still enjoys a population density of 408 per square Kilometer, much lesser than most of the major cities in the world. It is also comparatively economical in comparison to the other two cities. (as shown in table 3). In a nutshell, Dubai has carved a unique niche for itself. Created amidst a dessert, it has successfully transformed itself from a sleepy oil rich emirate, where once hydrocarbon accounted for more than 50 percentage of GDP to one of the most economically diversified and socially liberal state in the region.

In terms of political structure Dubai and Singapore share a similar kind of structure. Both of them are blessed with visionary political leadership, which played a pivotal role in their exorbitant growth. They have got an extremely efficient political and bureaucratic apparatus, known for executing big projects swiftly. Contrary to this in Hong Kong, govt. has a minimal role to play in the economic ambit. In fact Hong Kong has one of the most liberal economies across the globe.

In spite of having differences across various economic and social parameters, there are lots of things common in the three states. On Economic front, all of them have liberal economic policies marked by low tax and tariff rates, helping them attract a large amount of investments and top notch human capital. All of them have shown phenomenal growth rate in the recent past. They share a lot of similarities in terms of landscape and geography. They are islands, have extended coastlines, and are situated in strategic locations, which helped them morphed into excellent trading centers. Not blessed with much of exotic natural landscapes, they made huge investments in developing state of the art hotels, beach resorts, golf courses, convention centers, shopping malls; there by transforming into magnificent leisure and business tourism destination. High tourist arrivals have also been very advantageous for their retail sector. On social front, all three of them are marked by open and liberal cosmopolitan culture, attracting expats from all over the globe and providing a platform to grow and flourish. This ability of attracting diversified human resource from various parts of globe had eventually been very beneficial to them.

The three city states converges as well as diverges across different parameters; but one thing that is common to all is the phenomenal success story they have scripted for themselves in such a small interval of time. They came from nowhere and today are destinations of international standing. These city states, developed from scratch, are product of- strategic planning, die hard entrepreneurial spirit and openness towards change. Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai-these are the rising stars of the East, without any substantial past, but definitely with an illustrious present and future.

Analysis of digital media in the Middle East and North Africa Region

2011-11-19T05:18:00.000-08:00

Fig 1: logos of various social media. Source: http://www.middleeastsocialmedia.com/

Introduction

The competitive dynamics of the media industry is being transformed throughout the world. All across the world, the popularity of traditional media channels such as print media, TV broadcast and Radio broadcast are depleting and is being replaced by the digital media. Not only is the digital medium encroaching upon the space of the traditional media; but also changing the dynamics of revenue model- so far enjoyed by the traditional media. Even in the digital media itself, lot of changes are happening. The traditional boundaries, between media companies, telecom operators, handset manufactures and internet service provider is getting blurred. Everyone is trying to encroach upon each other’s space.

The digital media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is still in its nascent stage, as compared to other developed parts of the world such as Western Europe and North Africa; but given the fact that huge investments are made in ICT infrastructure, internet and mobile penetration are increasing at a rampant speed and a new wave of political change is happening all across the region, digital media seems to have a huge potential to grow in the region. The following research article will do an analysis of Digital media, its present state and its future prospect; in the MENA region. It will take help from reports from sources such as: Booz and Company, PWC, Arab Media Outlook, Spot On PR, Neilson etc.

Advantages of digital media:

Digital media offer some unique advantages, which traditional media such as TV & Radio broadcast and print media cannot offer. Some of the unique advantages are:-

· Economical: digital media is very economical. Having a brick and mortar shop will cost a lot; in contrast to this having a web presence is much cheaper. It does not cost much to develop and market a website.

· Curtails geographical barriers: a very remarkable feature of digital media is that, it could be accessed from any part of the globe. Geographical barriers often create challenge for traditional media sources such as newspaper and magazines in disseminating information, but digital media, which has a virtual presence, could be accessed from any part of the world.

Convenience: Digital media is always convenient to use. With the help of a laptop,i-pad or other hand held device plethora of content could be consumed.

· Content can be consumed as well as produced at the same time: with the help of web 2.0 platforms, content can be viewed/consumed as well as produced at the same time. Web 2.0 provides two way communication platforms. Not only does it communicate directly to the end users, but also allow the consumers to share their opinion, feedbacks etc.

· Consumer Insights: with the help of web based analytics, digital media can give a lot of detailed insights, pertaining to consumer behavior and demographics- consumption pattern, duration, geography etc. One remarkable feature is that, all such valuable data could be obtained at a negligible cost.

· Target Marketing: digital media helps in capturing the target audience.

Disadvantages of Digital Media:

Along with advantages, digital media also has some disadvantages such as

· Revenue from advertisements is not easy in the digital media. It’s easy to have a web presence/ digital presence, but it is as difficult to generate revenue out of it.Monetization of digital media is a challenge, through out the globe.

· Generating revenue always takes a large amount of time. Revenue can follow only, after creating a sizeable customer base. For instance, even Facebook took five years to break even. The revenue from marketing could be generated only after securing huge customer base.

· Not everyone is very comfortable with digital media, especially when it comes to money transaction. A large number of individuals are wary of transferring money over the internet. More over the web medium has also been the source of lot of frauds.

· Consumers expect a lot of free content on the web. When it comes to paying for the content, many individuals are not very willing to pay. They just want stuffs for free.

DIGITAL MEDIA: global trends

Globally more than 50% of the internet consumption comprises of 5 nations: USA, China, India, Brazil and Russia. As described earlier a lot of creative rearrangements are happening in the media sector, all across the globe. Some of the major global trends in the digital media are as follows (Morgan Stanley, 2009)

· E-commerce: major products which are purchased online globally are- computer products, electronic items, event tickets, hotel bookings, tour packages, books, music/video etc, toys etc.

· Consumptions of internet on mobile are catching up fast with consumption on desktop. According to Morgan Stanley report, by 2013-14 more users will be consuming internet via mobile devices, rather than desktop computer.

· Social Media: social media users are surpassing the regular email users. People refer spending more time on social media rather than on regular emails.

· Adoption of newer and better telecom services such as 3G will further consolidate the stronghold of mobile medium.

Digital media in Middle East

In contrast to other parts developed world, digital media in MENA region is still not very matured but is surely one of the sectors, which is poised for a high growth in the coming time. As a region, MENA has its own advantages and its own challenges. Presently there are 65 million internet users in the MENA region, which is expected to increase to 80 million by 2012. (AMIR, 2011) Other than global heavyweights such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and regional players such as Kooora, Maktoob etc; the region is also witnessing the arrival of online marketing firms such as Al click, Eastline Marketing etc.

Advantages of Middle East

The Socio Economic structure of the entire Middle East has lot of inherent advantages, which can boost the growth of online media companies in the region. Some of them are (Booz & Company, 2009):

· A uniform, homogeneous market: the Middle East might have many small nations, across the region but, all share the common Arab heritage and enjoy high degree of commonality across various socio-cultural dimensions. Hence the Middle East could be considered as a homogeneous mixture of around 300 million individuals. The idea of uniformity becomes more apt in case of digital media because; unlike regular media such as print and broadcast which are restricted to national boundaries due to regulatory barriers; online media can have a pan Arab presence.

· High mobile penetration: these days a large amount of digital contents are being viewed with the help of mobile devices. MENA region enjoys a high degree of mobile penetration with states like UAE and Saudi Arabia enjoying a mobile penetration of 200 and 125 percentages.

· High literacy rate: Many of the MENA states are taking education, high up on their agendas. Some of the MENA states enjoy a high degree of literacy. For instance: collectively the six gulf state enjoys a literacy rate of more than 75 percentages.

· Several MENA nations are extremely rich: many of the oil rich MENA nations, especially Gulf States are extremely rich and enjoy high per capita GDP. For instance: Qatar, where per capita GDP is around US $ 78,000. By 2015, Gulf States and Egypt are expected to have 13 million households in middle to high income brackets.

· Investments in the ICT infra structure: rather than depending on oil MENA nations are realizing the urgency of economic diversification. One thing which is high up on their agenda is ICT infrastructure. All across the MENA huge investments are being made to develop state of the art ICT infra structure.

· Demographics: the younger generation is more inclined towards the digital media. Somewhere around, 55 percentages of Arab population, is less than 25 years of age, which shows that there is a huge potential for the digital media to flourish in the Arab world.

Challenges for digital media in Middle East & north africa

Along with advantages, MENA also has lot of challenges, providing hindrances to the growth of digital media in the sector.

· Low broad band connectivity: it is expected that broadband connectivity will increase in the coming years; but the present penetration of 12 percentages is much lower than other developed parts of the globe.

Fig2: broad band penetration in different geographies. Source: Arab Media Outlook 2009-13

· Dissimilarity in ICT infrastructure across the region: even though the region shares socio cultural heritages, there is a high degree of economic asymmetry across the whole region. There are cash rich small Gulf States; North African bigger states like Egypt and Morocco which are comparatively more integrated with the world economy; developing states like Jordan and Syria with almost no oil and reserve and states like Libya and Algeria with high oil deposits but high population as well. This asymmetry is also reflected in a wide range of economic parameters such as mobile penetration, internet penetration, broad band connectivity, kind of network technology being used etc. For instance, in emerging markets like Syria and Sudan broadband penetration is less than 1 percentage; in Morocco and Jordan it is 12 and 15 percentages respectively where as in rich Gulf States like UAE and Qatar it is 69 and 84 percentages respectively. This inherent heterogeneous nature of the ICT infrastructure across the region makes it difficult for organizations to adopt a single digital marketing strategy. (Arab media outlook 2009-13, 2009)

· Gap between presence and revenue: any business model does not make any sense, until unless it cannot generate constant stream of revenue. In the MENA companies are finding it tough to en cash their digital presence. For instance: 85 percentages of Arab newspapers have digital presence as well, but digital media constitutes just 2 percentages of their advertising revenue.

Fig 3: shows the breakup of digital media revenue (in US $ million) in the MENA region, for 2009. (Source: Booz & Company)

Fig 4: percentage wise break up of online advertisements in MENA region. Source: Booz & Company, 2009.

Fig 5: percentage wise break up of mobile advertisements in MENA region. Source: Booz & Company, 2009.

· Online shopping activity is abysmally low: according to a research conducted by Neilson (comprising of 1,246 individuals from four countries- UAE, Egypt, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia) less than 1 percentage of individuals prefers engaging themselves in online shopping. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13 , 2009)

· Monetization of the online content, which is somehow a challenge all across the globe, is quiet challenging in the MENA region. The prevalence of a cash based culture and low penetration of credit & debit card penetration makes it more difficult. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13 , 2009)

Internet consumption behavior of MENA users

In order to analyze the prospect of digital media in MENA region, it will be helpful to have a brief overview of internet consumption behavior of people from the region. In order to understand this better, the blog will be taking the help of a research conducted by, Effective Research in conjunction with Spot on PR, in July 2010. The research has been conducted over a base of 2587 individuals, out of which 69 percentages comprised of Egyptians and 20 percentages comprised of individuals from GCC.

Fig6: shows the common activities on internet in the MENA region. Source: Neilson, the survey comprised of 1,810 individuals from 4 countries- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Lebanon.

Education level of individuals surveyed:

Fig7: shows the education level of respondents surveyed, in terms of percentages. Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR.

Place of internet access

Fig8: shows the place of access of internet, for the respondents, in terms of percentages. (Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR, 2010)

Respondent’s, Usage of Social Media Platform:

Fig9: shows respondent's usage of various social media platforms.(Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR, 2010)

Respondent’s daily consumption of other media channels.

Fig10: shows percentage of correspondents consuming various media channels on a daily basis (in case of magazine, weekly figures have been taken). Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR.

Disposition towards Internet Marketers:

Fig11: respondent's disposition towards internet marketers. Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR.

Important Conclusions:

Important conclusions, drawn from the report are as follows:

· Majority (more than two third) of internet users from the region seems to be, graduate or above.

· Internet is primarily used from home.

· Facebook seems to be very popular across the region. The tremendous popularity of Facebook is followed by other local brands such as Kooora, Maktoob etc.

· Internet users from the MENA region simultaneously use a wide range of other media channels as well, such as newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, mobile applications etc

Challenges for Digital Media:

· Less ad spending on digital media: so far digital media contribute a miniscule share of just 2 percentage of overall ad spending in the MENA region. In 2008, the digital advertisement investments per capita in the MENA region was just US $ 2 compared to the global average of US $ 27. (Booz & Company, 2009)

Fig 12: shows per capita digital ad spend across various countries in 2008. Source: Booz & Company, 2009.

· Internet penetration is comparatively low: internet penetration is increasing in the Middle East region at a very fast pace and the present penetration of 28.8 percentages is higher than the global average of 26.6 percentages. Although when compared with other developed parts of the globe; it appears to be very low.

Fig 13: shows internet penetration in various geographical regions (Source: Internet World stats, 2010)

Social media angle

The understanding of digital media in the MENA region will be incomplete without understanding the “Social Media” angle. Social Media is one of the fastest growing segments of media in the MENA. Not only does it make sense for business in present as well as in future; but also plays a pivotal role in socio-political sphere of the region. The best exemplar could be the latest Arab revolution, which started from Egypt & Tunisia and spread across the entire region. Social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter played a major role in the revolution, eventually forcing the incumbent governments to step down. In a wide range of activities such as; creation of popular pages such as “We are all Khalid Said”, meant for addressing the political concerns of the common people; communicating across the user network to stage a mass protest on 25^th January to post revolution analysis and public opinion building on key issues; everywhere social media has been the key player.

Facebook

Facebook or FB is the most popular, social media in the MENA region, very much in line with the general popularity, which it enjoys across the globe. The region has somewhere around 15 million FB users, with GCC countries accounting for some 5 million users (Spot On, 2010) Other than English, other popular versions of FB are French and Arabic.

Fig14: shows the percentage wise break up of FB users in the MENA region. Source: Spot On

The Arabic interface has been added in March, 2009. It helped FB capturing a whole new range of user segment. With a year of its inception, it added 3.5 million users to the existing base. The French version of FB has a total of 3.7 million users and is more popular in francophone countries such as- Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia etc. The top five user communities of FB in the region are- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia and UAE. These five countries, comprise of 70 percentages of FB’s market in MENA region.

Fig 15: percentage wise break up of FB using population of various MENA nations. Source: Spot On

Conclusion

As discussed earlier, the online media/digital media segment in Middle East is in its nascent stage but the future seems to be bright. The following factors will drive/influence growth of digital media in the future:

· Young Demographics will influence growth: one of the biggest advantages that MENA is having is its young demographic. More than 55 percentage of population is aged less than 25. This young generation will be heavily influencing the growth of digital media in the region.

· Broad band penetration: broad band penetration, especially in comparatively bigger states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia will drive growth of digital media in the region.

· Europe could be a role model: though digital media has enough presence in both social as well as economical spheres of the region, the advertisement revenues are still not very high. In this regard Europe of 2000s could be perfect role model, when the advertisements revenue where low there as well. But with the growth of more and broadband and mobile penetration, it got emancipated. With increasing broadband penetration and adoption of better mobile technologies; MENA can undergo the same growth trajectories.

· Arabic and local Content: in order to digital media (as well as other media sources to an extent) to succeed, one area that needs to be addressed is developing local content. According to survey conducted by Neilson, 62 percentages of respondents prefer browsing the web in Arabic rather than English; but the region has dearth of Arabic/local digital content. (Unlike newspaper, where 90 percentages of content are local in nature). In spite of the fact that international brands like Yahoo and Facebook enjoy a high degree of popularity in the region due to their brand value and 1^st mover’s advantage; the fact cannot be discounted that there is a penchant for local content both on and off the web. Hence in order to succeed in the coming future, it is essential to emphasis on the development of more and more local content. This requires funding, govt. support as well as developing local talent. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009)

· Creating right cultural environment for web entrepreneurs to succeed: in order to develop the online media sector in Middle East, a possible step could be developing something similar to Silicon Valley. This will help nurturing young talents to develop web based start ups. In the MENA region one possible role model could be Jordan, which is taking similar initiatives. Jordan is transforming itself into a knowledge economy by- generating 6000 ICT graduates every year, attracting venture capital for web based start ups and taking a comparatively tolerant stand on media sector including the blogosphere. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009)

· Nurturing Talent: one of the most essential pillars for developing the digital media in the region could be having the right talent base. Though many of the Arab/ Gulf countries are taking initiatives, but there is further room for improvement. The students from the region need to be trained on a wide range of subjects such as- digital media, gaming, animation etc.

Reference

1> Morgan Stanley, 2009, Internet trends report

2> Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009, simulating local content in Arab Media Industry, p-169

3> Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009, simulating local content in Arab Media Industry, p-172

4> AMIR, March 2011, P-3

5> Booz & Company, 2009, Winning in MENA new media scene

6> Booz and Company, 2009, Winning in MENA new media scene, p-17

7> Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, digital media, p-68

8> Spot On, 2010, Middle East and North Africa Facebook demographics.
9> Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, digital media, p-169

1> Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, digital media, p-181

Comparative Analysis of the tourism sector of the Gulf countries and Nordic countries

2011-11-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Fig 1: Travel & Tourism competitiveness report (Source: The Armenian Observer Blog)

In the world of tourism, geographical clusters play a very important role. Attractiveness of individual states does not only depend on them, but a large part of it also depends on the attractiveness of the whole region as a tourist destination. This concept is more applicable in small states. Bigger state like India and China or heavily popular and strongly marketed states like Dubai or Singapore are quite independent of their regions but for other places regional clusters do play a very significant role. For exp: Jordan’s attractiveness as a tourist destination will be dependent on the attractiveness of Arab world / MENA region.

It has following impacts:

· Marketing and Branding: helps in the marketing of the whole cluster/ region. If a region has quite a good number of tourist destinations, then it helps in promoting the whole region as a tourist destination, eventually helping in promoting, often overlooked locations.

· Complimentary packages: these days’ tourists prefer tour packages comprising two or more nations. Hence availability of a good number of tourist destinations in single region helps in developing better tour packages. For exp: lot of tourists visiting UK prefers combo packages comprising of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Tourists visiting South East Asia prefer combo packages comprising of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

· Regional cooperation: Tourism is a highly capital intensive industry and it requires huge investment in infrastructure as well as marketing. Regional economic cooperation among the nations in a region enables in developing better infrastructure- in the form of hotels, resorts, roads, airports etc.

The following blog article will do a comparative analysis of two geographical cluster- Gulf countries and Nordic countries. Both the clusters consist of economically well off nations with small population and surface area. Hence they provide a good case to do comparison. The documents used for this are – The Global Competitiveness report and World Economic Forum travel and tourism competitiveness. (Some of the terms have been directly used from WEF report. Their meanings have been explained in the end. )

COMPARISON OF Economic & social indicators FOR THE SIX GULF STATES

Table 1: Showing population of the six Gulf States. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report 2011.)

Aggregate Population: 37.8 Million

Aggregate Surface Area: 2423.2 (000 SQ KM)

Fig 2: Pie chart showing GDP of individual Gulf States. (Source: WEF travel and tourism competency report 2011.)

Aggregate GDP: US $ 863.6 Billion

Fig 3: Showing per capita GDP (PPP, US $) .Source: WEF, travel and tourism report, 2011.

Fig 4: Showing environment performance index of the six Gulf States. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

The Gulf States are comparatively small states with Saudi Arabia being the biggest and most populous while Bahrain being the smallest and least populous. Saudi Arabia on account of being the biggest state is also the biggest economy, followed by UAE. Qatar, one of the fastest economies of the world enjoys the highest per capita GDP among the Gulf States. Other Gulf States shows a high degree of uniformity in terms of per capita GDP with per capita GDP lying between US $ 25,000- 35,000. The average environmental performance index is 127, with UAE showing the highest value of 152 and Saudi Arabia showing the lowest value of 99.

Tourism statistics of gulf state

Fig 5: Showing T&T industry and economy receipt (US $ Billion) of the six Gulf Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Fig 6: Showing, per capita T&T industry and economy receipt (US $) of the six Gulf Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Table 2: Showing the overall competencies of six Gulf Nations. Source: WEF travel and tourism industry report 2011.

Analysis: Dubai is considered as gateway of, Middle East to the whole world and it gets reflected in the above figure. In both categories- Tourism receipt as well as tourism receipt as a percentage of GDP, UAE holds a numero uno position. UAE is followed by Saudi Arabia which receives a considerable amount of tourism receipt on account of conducting the very famous Hajj festival, where Muslim pilgrims from all around the globe come to Mecca. For most of the other Gulf nations, tourism still does not seem to be playing any significant role.

Table 3: Showing population and surface area of the five Nordic nations. (Source: WEF travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Fig 7: Showing the GDP (US $ Billion) of the five Nordic Nations. Source: (WEF travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Fig 8: Showing the per capita GDP (PPP, US $) of the six Nordic Nations. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Fig 9: Showing environmental performance index of the six Nordic Nations, 2011. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Like Gulf countries, Nordic countries are also small nations with Iceland being the smallest and Sweden being the largest. Considered as one of the safest and happiest places in the globe, these states enjoy very low rate of crime, high per capita GDP and high standard of living. Most of the nations have per capita GDP in the range US $ 35,000-40,000, with Norway being an exception. The Nordic nation has a per capita GDP of US$ 51,980. One of the remarkable features of the Nordic nations is exceptionally good environmental performance index. The Numero Uno position in this ranking, which comprises of 139 nations, is with Iceland, smallest Nordic nation. Al most all the nations other than Denmark are ranked within 15 in this ranking.

Table 4: Showing Travel and Tourism competency, of the five Nordic Nations. (Source: Travel and Tourism Competency 2011.)

Average attractiveness: 5.1

Fig 10: Showing T&T industry and economy receipt (US $ Billion) of the Five Nordic Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Fig 11: Showing, per capita T&T industry and economy receipt (US $ Billion) of the Five Nordic Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Comparison

Table 5: Comparison of Gulf and Nordic Nations across various parameters. (Source: WEF travel and tourism report, 2011)

Fig 12: Comparison of Gulf and Nordic Nations across T&T industry and economy receipt. (Source: WEF travel and tourism report, 2011)

Fig 13: Comparison of scores of Gulf and Nordic Nations across, various WEF competitive parameters. (Source: WEF travel and tourism report, 2011)

Analysis: On being compared, the Nordic nations surely score better than the Gulf countries in almost all the parameters, socio-economic as well as statistics pertaining to tourism. Nordic nations have bigger aggregate GDP and enjoy higher per capita than the Gulf countries. An area where the Nordic nations have done exceptionally good is environmental performance and there seems to be a wide gap between the two clusters, across this parameter. Coming to T&T industry receipt, Nordic nations have received US $ 37.3 billion against US $ 22.93 billion received by Gulf countries. An important trend which could be seen over here is that, when compared across T&T economy receipt, the difference has narrowed down. Nordic nations have received US $ 114.83 billion against US $ 103 billion received by Gulf countries. The reason for this small difference could be the multibillion dollar tourism development projects, being incubated all across the Gulf. Given the fact that oil will not last for long, Gulf countries are realizing the significance of economic diversification and tourism is high up on their agenda. In nations where tourism does not contribute much in the GDP, huge investments are being made in developing state of the art tourism facilities. Qatar- the tourism industry in the state estimated at US $ 961 million in 2010 constitutes just 0.9% of the GDP but on account of some of the extravagant tourism development assignments, the overall economic impact is estimated at US $ 9,348 millions, constituting 8.4% of the GDP. (WEF_TravelTourismCompetitiveness Report, 2011) When compared across various WEF competitive parameters, Nordic nations again have a considerable edge over their Gulf counter parts. Comparatively lean across parameters such as T&T business environment and infrastructure and high across others such as human cultural and natural resources and regulatory frame works. With an average score of 5.1 in the overall competitiveness, the Nordic nations are among the top performers in the overall WEF ranking, consisting of around 139 nations where as with an average score of 4.3, Gulf countries are among the “slightly better than the average band”.

Since both the clusters share a lot of similarity, in terms of various socio economic parameters, Nordic nations, with a better performance with the Gulf countries, could be a good role model for the Gulf countries.

Use of key terms

· The T & T competitiveness index is a measurement of factors that make a country, an attractive tourist destination. It consists of T&T regulatory frame work, T&T business environment, T&T human cultural and natural resources. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

· T&T regulatory frame work consists of Policy rules and regulation, environmental sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene and prioritization of travel and tourism. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

· T&T business environment and infrastructure consists of air transport, ground transport, tourism, and ICT infrastructure along with price competitiveness. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

· T&T human cultural and natural resources consist of human resources, affinity to tourism, cultural and natural resources. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

· T&T industry as a narrow perspective of T&T activity that captures the production-side

Industry contribution that is, direct impact only (WEF report, p-105)

· The T&T economy is a broader perspective of Travel & Tourism that takes into consideration the direct as well as the indirect contributions by traditional travel service providers and industry suppliers within the resident economy. (WEF, p-105)

Reference

ü WEF_TravelTourismCompetitiveness Report, 2011, Qatar-Country/Economy profile, p-316

Turkey and UAE as Trade Partners: Generalist Overview

2011-07-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

Fig 1: national flag of Turkey (Source: senojflags.com)

Turkey and UAE are undergoing a very interesting phase in their bilateral relationship, with trade between them undergoing a rapid escalation in the last few years. Though still in its crawling phase, the bilateral trade between the two nations has witnessed a significant growth. According to a study conducted by researcher Ahmed Al-Ananbeh of MoFT’s Department of Analysis and Trade Information, bilateral trade between the nations has increased from US $ 2.074 billion in 2006 to US $ 7.99 billion in 2008. Both Turkey and UAE offer a great case study to explore- one an oil rich Gulf state, with a small population, considered richest among the world in terms of per capita income; other an emerging economy of great geo political significance, placed between the crossroads of Europe and Asia, with a predominantly western orientation. UAE is presently the 3^rd largest export destination for Turkey, with Turkey’s export to UAE increasing from US $ 2.892 billion in 2006 to US $ 7.473 billion in 2008. There had also been a gradual increase in UAE’s non oil export and re export to Turkey. In 2010 Turkey accounted for 1.4% of UAE’s non oil trade with the world. Other than trade both the nations are also exploring business opportunities with each other. Presently UAE’s investments in Turkey are worth US $ 5.01 billion and turkey’s investments in UAE are worth US $ 6.51 billion. (moft.gov.ae, 2011)

In the light of growing relationship between the two nations, “Management Guru” blog will write a set of articles, exploring the various facets of the relationship. The very 1^st blog in the series will just give a generalist overview- country profiles, nature of trade, attractiveness of both the destinations etc. This will be followed by further articles attempting a detailed analysis of the trade consisting of individual items, future prospects, areas of improvements, alternative scenarios etc.

Turkey and UAE: country profiles

The following part will compare the two nations across various social and economical parameters along with the graphical representation of data pertaining to the trade figures of both the nations.

Table 1: - compares Turkey and UAE across various social and economic parameters

Source of data: CIA fact books, Euro Monitor etc.

Fig 2: Value of Import for UAE in US $ billion, over the period of years. Source: National Bureau for Statistics, United Arab Emirates

Fig 3: Value of non oil Export and Re Export for UAE in US $ billion, over the period of years. Source: National Bureau for Statistics, United Arab Emirates

UAE Turkey: Trade Statistics

Table 2: Data pertaining to total weight of Export of Turkey to UAE and vice versa

Source of data: National Bureau of Statistics, UAE

Table 3 : Data pertaining to total value of Export of Turkey to UAE and vice versa

Source: National Statistics Bureau, UAE

Nature of Trade between Turkey and UAE

Major exports from Turkey to UAE include aluminum, precious stones, food stuffs and beverages, plastics followed by animal products, chemicals, vegetable products etc. The following pie chart shows the percentage wise break up of major export items from Turkey to UAE in 2010.

Fig 4: percentage wise break up of Turkish export to UAE in 2010

In the given figure

(a stands for base metals and their articles; b stands for pearls stones and other precious metals; d stands for others; c stands for articles of woods; e stands for food stuffs; g stands for textile and textile articles; c stands vegetable products; f stands for plastic, rubber articles; h stands for chemicals and allied products)

Total value of non oil exports from UAE to Turkey is US $ 160 million. in 2010. The major export items are – Pearls and precious stones followed by plastics, rubber etc. The following pie chart gives a percentage wise break up the UAE’s export to Turkey

Fig 4: percentage wise break up of UAE's export to Turkey in 2010

(In the given figure A stands for pearls and precious stones; B stands for articles of stones, Mica etc; C stands for plastics, rubbers etc; D stands for products of chemicals, E stands for food stuffs and beverages; F stands for others.)

Future Prospect

Presently the trade between Turkey and UAE is in its crawling phase, with GCC and UAE comprising a comparatively smaller share in Turkey’s overall trade in the MENA region. But it has huge latent potential with both the nations taking strong measures to boost their relationship further. In Q1 2011, the total trade volume between them stood over US $ 1.3 billion, 50 % increase compared to the same period last year. (Khaleej Times, 2011).

The following part of the blog will evaluate the future prospect of trade between Turkey and UAE.

Turkey’s attractiveness

Turkey is an attractive, trade partner and investment destination for UAE. Turkish attractiveness is due to a wide range of Economical, Socio-Cultural, Legal and Geographical factors, stated below (Middleeastelectricity.com , 2011) -

· With a GDP growth rate of 8.2% in 2010, it is presently among the fastest growing European nations.

· Strategically well placed between the cross roads of Central Asia and Europe, it is well connected with 1.5 billion lucrative consumers in the region.

· 60 % of its population is aged less than 30, providing a huge and sustainable consumer base.

· Turkish annual trade standing at US $ 320 billion in 2010, constituted 1 % of the world trade.

· Turkey has strong presence in the MENA region making it easier for UAE to build further relationship.

· Since both UAE and Turkey are Islamic societies and UAE had also been once part of the bigger Ottoman empire- both the nations share rich and glorious Islamic heritage and there should be comparatively less cultural differences between them.

· UAE nationals do not require VISA before their arrival to Turkey; they can apply for a VISA once they arrive.

· Turkey is geo graphically close to UAE. Istanbul port is at a distance of 6700 KM from Dubai (Jebel Ali port ) where as the aerial distance is just 2995 KM. (The higher port distance is on account of ships travelling via Suez Canal to reach each other)

UAE’s Attractiveness

Like Turkey, UAE also offers attractive business opportunities, for an emerging economy like Turkey. Other than the common cultural and geographical factors that it shares with Turkey, UAE’s strength lies in the following-

· UAE is among the richest nations in the world. With a GDP per capita of US $ 40,000 in 2008, it was ranked as the 19^th richest nation in the world. (World’s richest countries.com, 2009). With an annual disposable income of US $ 120 billion (2010) it offers a lucrative and elite consumer base. (Euromonitor International, 2011)

· UAE had been one of the fastest growing economies of the world in the last decade. Due to global economic slump, followed by real estate crisis, GDP was hit hard in the last couple of years. But with oil prices’ increasing again, the economy is back on track.

· Dubai, 2^nd largest Emirate of UAE enjoys the status of a regional distribution center and is the 3^rd largest re export center after Hong Kong and Singapore. Dubai has strong ambitions of transforming into a global trade hub. Jebel Ali port with an annual capacity of 11.6 million TEUs, is undergoing expansion and is expected to handle 55 million TEUs by 2030.

· UAE is strategically placed between the cross road of East and West and North and South.

· With the help of flagship carriers like Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways, UAE is well connected to whole world.

· With ambitious plans- Abu Dhabi 2030 and Dubai 2015- UAE is aggressively trying to transform and diversify its economy, thereby providing ample business opportunities for its trade partners.

Though both the nations seem as attractive trade partners, the future for them is also fraught of hindrances Lot of Turkish people are interested in visiting Turkey for trade; for which they need to apply for visa before their arrival. (The same does not hold true for UAE nationals visiting Turkey). Downside of UAE is that though it is one of the richest nations in the world, its small population of 4.7 million does not represent a very big consumer base. Turkey has bigger market bases- Russia, EU nations, Poland- in its nearby vicinity. There are other areas of concern that has to be taken care of in order to bolster the burgeoning trade between the two nations.

References

1> 1>Moft.gov.ae, 2011, moft releases study on UAE Turkey trade exchange, available at http://www.moft.gov.ae/en/det.aspx?detid=262&resourceid=30

2> 2> Khaleej Times, Turkey targets 20 % rise in food trade with UAE, available at http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/business/2011/July/business_July203.xml&section=business&col=

3> 3> Middleeastelectricity.com, 2011, Turkey-UAE investment reach $ 10 billion in 2010, available at http://www.middleeastelectricity.com/Global/Middle_East_Electricity/pdf/TurkeyUAEinvestmentshit10bin20104Mar11GN.pdf

4> 4> World’s richest countries.com, 2009, home page, available at http://www.worldsrichestcountries.com/