Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) has begun its second, and significantly expanded, visitor destination survey.

“The year-long survey is designed to provide us and our stakeholders with a deep view covering accurate information on the characteristics, behavior and spending patterns of national and international visitors to our emirate,” explained Sultan Al Dhaheri, Tourism & Corporate Planning Section Head.

“The survey will assist us and our stakeholders in identifying product development opportunities and gaps as well as highlight which of our existing products are high performers delivering optimum visitor satisfaction. All of this will assist us in evaluating performance, providing the diagnostics needed to manage strategic improvement, increase demand, strengthen the travel supply and overall tourism distribution system.”

The survey will also reveal a profile of visitors to the emirate and the key triggers which influenced their decision to come to the destination.

The programme, which is being carried out by an independent, globally-recognised research company, will feature short interviews with a minimum of 30,000 visitors at key locations across the emirate including Abu Dhabi and Al Ain international airports, hotels, malls and main attractions. In this ‘incidence survey’ visitors will be asked their nationality, age and gender, where they live, how many people they are visiting with, the purpose of their visit and where they are staying.

Five thousand people will be interviewed in a wide ‘feedback survey’ which will be geared towards a 60%/40% leisure/business tourism split covering domestic and international visitors.

“This undertaking represents a significant body of work which is essential input into the development of our tourism product and industry as we move forward in building and promoting a world-class, sustainable destination of distinction,” added Al Dhaheri.

When asked to rate their satisfaction with the destination, the visitors will be questioned on their overall destination experience, how they rate the activities they undertook and the accommodation they stayed in as well as any transport options they took up. They will also comment on their arrivals experience, Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure, the food & beverage, whether they would be likely to visit again and whether they will recommend the emirate.