As visa policies relax, a booth in Beijing entices business visitors to Abu Dhabi. A visitor standing outside the China National Convention Centre in Beijing last week could have been forgiven for thinking that Abu Dhabi had the whole place to itself. The exhibition centre, part of the 2008 Olympic infrastructure, is a prime example of Beijing's heroic new scale of architecture, and the China Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition - a trade show for countries and regions hoping to attract business tourism - couldn't fill more than a corner of the otherwise-empty building. As visiting mortals inched their way across the endless plain of the car park, they had ample time to consider the Abu Dhabi banners festooning the entrance.
"That's all part of our branding," says Gillian Taylor, the business tourism manager at the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, who was in Beijing for the exhibition. "It includes the flags outside, and the logos on the bags that are given to all participants. We want people to have an impression of Abu Dhabi before they even get in the door." The impression doesn't stop there; with the exception of the exhibition booths set up by Beijing and Macau, who have a home-court advantage, Abu Dhabi's stand is the largest in the hall (directions were given as "We're right next to Dubai, but bigger!"). While other countries are shoehorned into prefab cubicles, Abu Dhabi sits upon an expansive platform scattered with cool white armchairs and backed by a scene of men sailing a wooden boat across inviting waters. Dates and coffee are served.
Abu Dhabi's presence at the exhibition is one element of the larger Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 (which ought to impress the Chinese, whose economic plans come in mere five-year increments). It is also the result of a recent change in Chinese policy: before this month, Chinese visa restrictions did not allow tour groups to travel to the UAE; now they do. As a result, the Emirates' recession-battered tourism sector is looking East hungrily.
The name of the game at this exhibition is "business tourism", which is not the same as "business travel", Taylor explains. While the latter might entail just a few company executives visiting somewhere for a day or two of meetings, the former involves large-scale conventions, corporate retreats, and executive getaways. Business tourism, Taylor says, has even developed into a full-blown industry with its own acronym, MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions. "We try not to use the term MICE," she adds (without elaborating).
Potential clients here consist mainly of corporate scouts and travel agents. But the crowd around Abu Dhabi's stand seems far more varied. The booth's "hook", its killer feature, is a little photo stand where passers-by can dress up in a dishdasha or an abaya and have their picture taken before a backdrop of an Arab man leading a camel on a rope. The attraction is an enormous hit, and shows a grasp of Chinese sensibilities rivalled only by Indonesia's booth, which is offering satay.
Self-portrait in hand, visitors are then given a presentation on the emirate in either Chinese or English, consisting of a video and short talk. Waiting in line is a 30-something, bespectacled representative from the China Youth Travel Service, one of the country's largest travel agencies (which has expanded to cater to corporations in addition to "youth"). He opts for Chinese, and the video rolls, beginning with three photos of Abu Dhabi taken in 1949, 1963 and the present. The contrast, needless to say, is striking. The rest of the presentation contains a surprising number of artists' renderings - leaving it unclear whether the sumptuous facilities have yet to be built, or whether this has just been done for effect.
The presentation delivers up a greatest-hits list of Abu Dhabi attractions for the business tourist: from the Yas hotel, built on top of the Formula 1 racetrack, to the Al Ain National Exhibition Center ("Futuristic and Inspiring!"), to the island developments in the capital ("Saadiyat: Culture!" "Yas: Entertainment!"). The young representative's only moment of doubt comes with the "Eight Star Emirates Palace". "But how can it have eight stars?" he wants to know. The young Chinese woman giving the presentation, who has never been to Abu Dhabi, dodges a bit before admitting with a laugh that the hotel next door had seven stars "and everyone says the Emirates Palace is better."
Throughout the presentations a faint hint of Dubai-Abu Dhabi competition can be detected. "The first thing we tell anyone is that Dubai is a wonderful destination, and we are in no way competing with them," says Taylor. "But Abu Dhabi does have some unique things to offer in terms of history and culture." The next-door Dubai stand is dominated by a vaguely mosque-like structure that is canary-yellow.
The young travel agent in glasses admits that the majority of his corporate clients remain hazy on the difference between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. "Many also don't realise that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are different countries," he says. "Actually, some think of the whole Middle East as just one big place." The travel agent and the presenter finally hit on a local analogy. Dubai is like Shanghai, they agree: modern and commercial, leading the development race by dint of a head start. Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, is like Beijing: focused more on history and culture, staid by comparison but also more serious. As it happens, the presenter is from Shanghai and the travel agent a Beijinger. They seem pleased with their analogy, and the tidy win-win scenario it implies.
* Eric Abrahamsen