Dubai’s Marketing And Tourism Department Website: Critical Analysis

Introduction

Dubai is the largest and most populated city in the United Arab Emirates. It is considered a global city, business hub and major global transport city. During the 1950’s, Dubai prospered in the gold trade and then flourished in oil production in the 1970’s. Since then, Dubai has advanced to one of the biggest tourism cities in the world. In 2014, Dubai’s hotel rooms were rated second most expensive in the world and in 2018, the world’s tallest hotel was built in Dubai, Gevora Hotel.

Critique of Website

Appearance

The first look at the website is very inviting and vivid. The blue, white and purple consistent color scheme all flow together for a clean and neat look. As soon as you enter the website, a pop up window appears that urges to sign up for a daily newsletter for all things Dubai. The homepage uses a great deal of pictures to glorify the city. Text is easy to see and read but the amount of tabs on the homepage could be overwhelming. There is about 20 links on the first page, four of which pop-up into additional links for information. Scrolling down, there is a great use of layout and design. Photo quality could be better but they flow together nicely. At the bottom of the homepage, there are additional links that correspond with the links at the top of the homepage, with a simpler setup. These links are mostly advertisements for tourists, such as attractions, family packages, shopping, dining and entertainment. However, there is also links for some general information regarding Dubai such as visa information, a city map and tourism demographics. There are also links for official social media pages for the city including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tripadvisor and Pinterest. There is no background music for the website.

Content

The marketing efforts used on the visit dubai website are great. Scrolling down from the homepage, is a section for current and upcoming events. There are multiple links that advertise packages and offers for tourists. The site also provides traveling tips such as dress code, customs, currency changes, weather information and more. The website includes other information and effective articles for tourists such as things to do for free, the Michelin guide to food in Dubai and top attractions in the desert. The sitemap has good organization, it is fairly easily to find specific links. There is little to none employment opportunities that are advertised on the visit dubai website. There are multiple links that give helpful tips for visiting dubai on business, such as event permits and local organizers. Located at the bottom of the homepage, there is a link that allows for submitting comments, suggestions and complaints to website professionals. They also encourage use for their customer care number. The attractiveness of the website is eye-catching, the website does a great job of showing off the archievetect and landscapes of the city.

Website Usability

Dubai’s website is very helpful for one’s looking to book or plan a trip. The site includes a monthly calendar that highlights events. The website also includes their own ‘plan your trip’ generator which allows you to search directly for fights and hotels using your own personal preferences. The pages are fast-loading but the amount of scrolling on the homepage could be minimized.

CVB Social Media Assessment

History of CVB’s Social Media

Account startups for Dubai’s Instagram and Pinterest are unknown but Twitter was created in 2013, Facebook in 2009 and YouTube in 2010. All of Dubai’s social media pages are run and managed by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. All of the CVB’s sites do a great job of keeping up with current events and advertising the outstanding architecture of the country.

Current Platforms and Strategic Focus

Dubai’s Facebook is the most popular social media with 6.7 million likes and 6.7 million followers. The account usually posts only once a day, usually consisting of a short video clip advertising food, attractions, resorts, events and activities. Facebook was the first social media page created for Dubai, in 2009. Even though it has the largest following of all accounts, it does not receive a huge amount of interaction. Most posts get a low amount of likes and shares, usually less than a hundred. However, there are a few posts that have hundreds to thousands of shares.

The second largest social media account of Dubai is Instagram, with 1.2 million followers. Posts are updates regularly, at least once per day. The Instagram account uses a great deal of tags and hashtags and has the most amount of interaction. Averaging between 10-20 thousand likes and averaging 200 comments per post.

The third largest social media account is the official Visit Dubai Twitter account, with 147,000 followers. Posts are usually once a day, which a great amount are the same from the Facebook account. The account takes advantage of hashtags, mentions and polls for further interaction. The account does not get much interaction though, averaging under 100 retweets per post. However, there are 9 other verified Twitter accounts for Dubai advertised for different countries such as the United Kingdom, The United States and Switzerland.

Dubai’s YouTube account has 231,000 subscribers and is updated weekly. Video views range from high thousands to millions. A positive aspect of the YouTube account is that they have videos in multiple different languages to attract a larger range of viewers. Dubai’s Pinterest account is not regularly updated and does not have a lot of followers. Dubai’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all have links to the visitdubai website.

AIPL Assessment

When analyzing the awareness, influence desire, purchase initiation and loyalty and value on their multiple social media accounts, I think Dubai does a great job of advertising their country on different platforms. Their updates are weekly (if not daily) and they do a great job of keeping up with current events. They do a great job of keeping consistently in their brand, the ‘visit Dubai name and blue and purple logo is seen on every one of the social media accounts.

Recommendations (SWOT Analysis)

For the most part, Dubai’s marketing and tourism department does a great job for advertising on social media. Strengths that have are their consistent brand and logo, the great use of beautiful photos that show off the country without any need of a caption and the one-of-a-kind attractions they offer. Their website is fairly easily to nagative and booking needs are easy to find. Another strength is that they have taken the extra step to create vidoes and media accounts in multiple languages. Some weaknesses I can point out are that the website may be too cluttered with too many links. Also, some social media accounts could be more regularly updates. Even with large following, some accounts do not get the amount of interaction that they should. I would recommendate that social media marketers could increase interaction on social media by resharing, liking or replying to fans. The low amounts of sharing and liking on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook could be a potential threat to Dubai and its marketing.