Abu Dhabi Set to Launch Spectacular New Global Awards Initiative for the Tourism Industry

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) is set to launch a new award scheme to honour excellence in the travel and tourism industry, with the aim of establishing the accolade as a new industry benchmark worldwide.

The new Abu Dhabi Tourism Excellence Awards (ADTEA) have been conceived to recognise significant achievements, stimulate engagement and networking, and raise the industry’s overall competitiveness – both at home and abroad. Additionally, the awards have been launched to cultivate a culture of achievement and, with the inaugural winners’ presentation ceremony to be held every year, the awards will also encourage the sharing of best practices, as the event will bring together industry partners to network, engage, interact and align strategies and direction. The launch of the Awards comes as Abu Dhabi’s 168 hotels and hotel apartments, which offer a full spectrum of accommodation ratings including luxury 5-star establishments, are enjoying higher global visibility and impressive year-on-year growth. 

This year’s presentation ceremony will take place on April 1, 2020, with the general public and organisations invited to nominate themselves in a range of categories via the dedicated website.

The best of the best in each category will be chosen by a panel of expert judges with the winners announced at the gala award ceremony.

Awards will be presented in key categories, covering all major touchpoints within the industry’s value chain. 

There will be Awards for Grand Excellence in Tourism, Excellence in Tourist Happiness, Ambassador of Excellence, Excellence in Cultural Tourism, Excellence in Leisure, Hospitality Excellence De Luxe, Exceptional Cuisine Experience, Exceptional Travel Operator as well as an Excellence in MICE Events award.

“DCT Abu Dhabi believes this is the perfect time to launch the Tourism Excellence Awards - to capitalise and underscore the UAE capital’s already documented successes, but also to create a platform from which we can collectively make further gains,” said HE Saood Al Hosani, Acting Undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi. “The enhanced competition between all tourism sector entities that these awards will encourage will ultimately, and organically, result in the enhancing of the visitor experience, which in turn will boost visitation metrics to the emirate as well as bringing reputational gains.”

Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry saw another successful year in 2019, with DCT Abu Dhabi launching the Tourism Excellence Awards to recognise, honour and celebrate those who have performed above and beyond their peers to achieve this success. The awards will also work to motivate greater achievements in the sector by the sharing of best practices and ideas, which will help raise the tourism industry’s levels of excellence and competitiveness as it works towards building Abu Dhabi into an innovative destination of distinction.

To make a submission for an award, entrants are invited to visit the website abudhabitourismaward.com and fill in the entry form, where further information about the awards can also be found.

The shortlist of nominees in each category will be announced on coming March.