Boom or Bust? Unveiling the Double-Edged Sword of Tourism in the UAE’s Economy

Table of content

Introduction

Objectives of the Research

Literature Review

Research Design and Theoretical Framework

Research Methods for Data Collection

The Questionnaire

Research Methods for Data Collection

Research Method for Data Analysis

 

Introduction

Tourism plays an important part in the growth and sustenance of economies in different parts of the world. Different countries try to develop and sustain the sites that attract tourists in a region to ensure their continued flow. In the United Arab Emirates, the major economic activity in the nineteenth century was mining of oil and the production of petroleum products. With fears of the oil wells drying up, the leadership in the country decided to invest in tourism to supplement the income of the country.

The United Arab Emirates is a hot region with desert like conditions and a long history of tourism. Ranging from tourism attraction sites to recreation facilities, the region is a strong tourist destination that benefits the region immensely. Many people from around the world visit the region to relax and enjoy the architectural innovations in the region. The project is going to explain and expound on the effect of tourism on the economy of the United Arab Emirates using various research models.

Top 20 Tourist Destinations In The UAE - RIZ & MONA

Objectives of the Research

Carrying out a research will offer an opportunity to consider the various ideas offered by different people in the tourism field. The research will point out the different changes in the country that result from the tourism activities. There are many aspects of the economy, and the research will make it possible to consider different perspectives on the effects.

The effects might be both negative and negative. However, without an excellent research, it may not be possible to point out all the effects. A research will make it possible to identify all the major effects and relate them to the duration of tourism activities in the region. The research will consider the population in the region, the economic level of the country, the structural development and relate all the factors to the tourism activities in the country.

Literature Review

Different countries have different weather conditions. Most of the tourists chose to tour different destinations in the world during winter to escape the cold. In such times, the countries with a hotter climate benefit from the tourists who bring the foreign currencies into the world. Tourist tours the world carrying the currencies from the mother country.

Spending the currency in the tourist destination benefits the country through foreign exchange (Mieiro, Ramos & Alves, 2013, p. 421-427). Tourists, the majority of them, carry dollars that have a higher monetary value compared to currencies in most parts of the world. The foreign currency helps the country in the importation of goods from the international market because of the competitive value. With increased tourism activities, the entry of the foreign currency into the country increases lifting the capability of the country in the importation of goods.

Tourists require luxurious structures to spend time with them. Most of the tourists come to the country to relax after a long period engaging in different activities. The luxurious structures offer them the comfort that they travel to seek. To sustain the presence of the tourists in the country, the country invests in the structures that offer the necessary services to the tourists.

The investments attract more tourists enabling the country to benefit economically from the fees charged to the tourists to use the facilities. Such facilities include swimming pools, hotels and motels, tourists’ attractions among others. The increase in the number of facilities translates to higher income in the country raising the economy of the country (Sang, Ma & Axmacher, 2011, p. 720-725). Tourism gives the country a chance to invest in more tourist destinations and increase the economic benefits.

Economic benefits of tourism reflect in many ways. An example of the benefits is the creation of employment activities (Sahli & Hazari, 2005, p. 155). There are many opportunities for employment that come through tourism activities in a country. People get employment in tourist facilities. Companies get tenders to construct the luxurious structure to accommodate the tourists. The companies hire the local people reducing unemployment rates. In other cases, the people work in the hotels that accommodate the tourists.

Part of the money spent by the tourists’ ends up in the pockets of the local people as their salaries. A higher employment of the citizens increases the amount of taxes that the government charges all the people were earning in the country (Marchiony, 2012, p. 217). With many people paying taxes, the cash flow in the economy is higher increasing the stability of the region. A higher collection of revenue by the thorough government taxes offers a higher chance for the region to grow economically.

Without the tourism activities, the economic growth of the funds spent by the tourists would not be available. Due to the economic ability of tourism activities, the people in the country practice environmental protection practices to preserve the wildlife that attracts tourism. The preservation of the environment protects the wildlife and the protection results into the further economic benefit.

Tourism offers a country the opportunity to grow the infrastructure in the country (Tomlinson, 2009, p. 59). Infrastructure such as roads network and transport systems offer the tourists the free access to specific parts of the country. The funds used to develop the systems come from the income from the tourist. The infrastructure increases the number of tourists in the country translating to higher income and better economic gains.

The Most Beautiful Roads in the UAE

Tourism allows for diversification of the economy (Sharpley & Vass, 2006, p. 1040-1045). Originally, the government earns revenue from activities such as mining and taxes coming from the employed people in the community. An introduction of tourism activities in a country increases the source of funds for the government. The government diversifies the channels of generating income into the expenditure of the government. Tourism activities provide the government with alternative sources of funds making it reduce the taxes on the basic commodities due to sufficient funds.

Many governments increase the taxes that the people pay as a way of increasing the revenue of the government (Mbuagbo & Orock, 2012, p. 277). Alternative sources equip the government with funds and reduce the burden of the population in supporting the government. Tourists also buy commodities from the local populations that signify the culture of the locals. The spending on the locals raises the economic stability of the people and increases the cash flow in the region.

Tourism has many positive attributes, but the negative ones also feature. Due to the huge potential of tourism benefitting a region, the leadership of the country focuses the funds in the country into tourism. The gains from tourism may not meet the objectives of the investment (Christie et al., 2014). Tourism may end up running the economy of a country. In such cases, the returns do reflect the investment in the sector. Some regions do not attract tourist as much as other regions do.

For this reason, the level of investment to attract the tourists differs making some regions spend higher amounts of funds compared to others. Without prior research, the economy of the country may face hurdles in overcoming the failed investment in the sector. In the third world countries, most of the tourist destinations are the wildlife. In a scenario of investing in tourism and an illness attacks the park, the animals may die rendering the investments void.

In other instances, potential investors from the developed countries undertake the developments in the country as a way of improving tourism. Such deals lead to the development of infrastructure and facilities used by the tourists. When tourism starts picking up, the country owes investors a lot of money for the services rendered. It takes a longer time for the investors to gain from the deal before the country benefits.

The investors take the returns from the country leaving the country in debt despite the high tourism activities in the country. Despite the high tourist activities in the country, the country does not face a single benefit. In fact, the tourists deplete the resources in the country but the benefits go to the investors who are harvesting from the tourism. Such arrangements deteriorate the economy in the maintenance of infrastructure such as roads, but no single benefit of economic value goes to the government or the population.

Research Design and Theoretical Framework

The research design will be explanatory. Explanatory research design explains the aspect under observation and tries to explain the current form of the topic. Here, the research question considers the economic effects of tourism in the United Arab Emirates. The research conducted will explain how tourism affects the economy of the country.

All the research conducted will look forward to making the results clear. The explanatory design uses various statistical applications to explain the occurrence under discussion. In this case, the design will require the use of research that collects information from various people and the answers to the research will explain the occurrence more clearly. The design will offer the explanation and point out the specific attributes that make the design applicable to the research. The explanations will cover the state of the economy in the past and the current state and with the use of tourism.

The research conducted will be qualitative. The qualitative research considers the available information in offering reasons for a certain observation. Qualitative research will offer opinions from the people with information on the discussion and offer assistance in explaining the given hypothesis. Qualitative research in the project will be helpful in allocating a response to the research question. The research will explain the condition of the economy and point out the part played by the revenues generated from tourism.

Qualitative research not only points out the current situation but also explains the situation and relates it to the topic under discussion. The data collection methods will present further information for the qualitative analysis that will involve the structured questions for the responses of the professionals. In the end, the research will offer a clear response to the effects of tourism on the economy, be it positive or negative.

The time design in a research defines the mode of breaking up the samples to make the analysis easier. The breaking up of the time intervals eases the process of noting the changes of different parameters hence being able to make a viable assumption on the effect of time on the parameter. The tourism activities in the United Arab Emirates develop with time.

As time goes, the country invests in more structures to attract and maintain the presence of tourists in the country. Breaking up the time will show the effects of time on the economy of the country resulting from tourism. The time dimension will be longitudinal. Longitudinal time dimension divides the time of study into intervals and considers each time individually. The assumption here is that the different time intervals will give out different results and be in a position to point out the aspects in question.

The variables in the economy are economic growth, tourism revenue, some recreation facilities and time. Tourism activities in the country took a gradual growth to the current form. Therefore, the consideration of the different time intervals will make it easier to point out the economic changes resulting from tourism in the country.

The number of tourists in the country and the recreation facilities is some of the variables that show an increase or a reduction in the number of tourists in the country. Increased numbers of tourist destinations in the country indicate an increase in the number of tourists which translates to more revenue for the government hence economic growth. All the factors change with time. Hence, it is only possible to identify the economic growth or depreciation in reference to time.

Research Methods for Data Collection

The method of data collection will involve a questionnaire. The questionnaire will collect data from the respondents who will offer their professional views on the topic. The questionnaire will cover all the important parts of the study and shade more light on the effects of tourism on the economy. The respondents are people with information on the topic and those who can understand the issue with ease.

Questionnaires cover the thoughts of all the people by sampling their responses and using the responses in the analysis of the results obtained. A questionnaire can gather information on a diverse field depending on the information available to the respondents. The following part represents the questionnaire, which the respondents will use to answer the questions that will assist in the report.

The Questionnaire

  1. What is the main economic activity in the country?
  2. Which year did tourism begin in the country?
  3. What are the positive attributes of tourism in the economy?
  4. What are some of the changes that came with tourism in the economy?
  5. What are the major tourist attractions sites in the country?
  6. Is tourism associated with employment rate in the country?
  7. Who are the main tourists in the country?
  8. Are there any negative results of tourism in the economy?
  9. Has the country suffered any of the negative attributes?
  10. What infrastructural developments in the country result from tourism?

The questions in the questionnaire reflect the points of interest in the project. By getting the answers from the respondents, it will be possible to get points to answer the research questions and meet the objectives of the project. The scaling of the research questions and the responses will be self-generated. The reason for using self-generated questions is to ensure that the research covers all the vital parts.

Using research questions from different research conducted by other people focuses on other aspects that are not important in the project. Thus, the generated questions will be important in handling the project and ensuring all the questions and scaling methods are important to the project. The project will use the primary data collected from the questionnaires, and the research will cover more secondary data to clarify the points further.

Research Methods for Data Collection

The methods of data collection will involve using the questionnaires designed in the previous section. The respondents to the questionnaires will be the professionals in the different departments of the government.

The people have access to various information and trends in the economy that involve the aspect of tourism. Such information is important to the project. Additionally, the scholars in the economic sector will also play a part in offering answers to the questions. With their history in the economic sector, it will be possible for them to explain the effect of tourism on the economy of the country.

The analysis of data from the research will offer answers to the research questions and enable to an achievement of the objectives of the company. The questionnaires will fasten the project since the respondents will answer the questions and submit the answers later. The method is better than interviews that insist on the presence of the interviewer and the interviewee at the same time.

The sampling frame will be the economic level of the country over a period of twenty years. In the ten years, the intervals will be for five years each. The population of the study will be the results of tourism in a country regarding the economy. The point of interest will be the economy and the relation to tourism. The method of sampling will be systematic sampling.

The sampling will see the division of the number of years into groups and analyzing the grouped data to find the point of interest. The sampling of the time in groups of five years will make it possible to connect the changes in tourism and economy for the country. Systemic sampling will reduce the sampling space and enable the computation of data that is more accurate.

Research Method for Data Analysis

Qualitative data analysis gives results to the questions in a guaranteed manner. The results are either positive or negative without any intermediate. The basic numbers used in denoting the responses are one and zero for positive and negative respectively. The analysis will clearly spell out the economic advantages and disadvantages in United Arab emirates about tourism in the country.

Qualitative analysis will consider the responses of the people from the questionnaires and analyze them to determine how effective the responses are to the research question. The analysis will consider the collective results obtained from tourism by the economy about the study.

The analysis will consider the views of the different respondents of the questionnaire to enable the research to have a better conclusion that is full of facts. Unlike quantitative research that considers more of the numbers, here the analysis will consider the opinions of all people and settle on the rest. The quality of information is of more importance rather than the quantity.

 

References

Christie, Eneida, Hannah, messerli, Iain, twining-ward. . Louise. (2014). Tourism in africa: Harnessing tourism for growth and improved livelihoods. US: World Bank Publications. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-0190-7

Marchiony, M. Z. (2012). Making debt pay: Examining the use of property tax delinquency as a revenue source.Emory Law Journal, 62(1), 217.

Mbuagbo, O., & Orock, R. (2012). ‘why government should not collect taxes’: Grand corruption in government and citizens’ views on taxation in cameroon. Review of African Political Economy, 39(133), 479-499. doi:10.1080/03056244.2012.710837

Mieiro, S., Ramos, P. N., & Alves, J. (2013;2012;). Gaming tourism boom, foreign currency inflows, andDutch disease effects: An empirical model for macau. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 3(6), 421-427. doi:10.7763/IJTEF.2012.V3.238

Sahli, M., & Hazari, B. (2005). Tourism, employment and national welfare. Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, 12(2), 155. doi:10.1080/16081625.2005.10510656

Sang, W., Ma, K., & Axmacher, J. C. (2011). Securing a future for China’s wild plant resources. BioScience61(9), 720-725.

Sharpley, R., & Vass, A. (2006). Tourism, farming and diversification: An attitudinal study. Tourism Management,27(5), 1040-1052. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2005.10.025

Tomlinson, H. (2009). Rail back in the spotlight: With governments seeking to improve their industrial infrastructure and develop tourism, rail investment is rising again in north africa EMAP Business Information Ltd.