ABU DHABI Tourism Authority (ADTA) has become the second tourism board worldwide, after the Korean National Tourism Board, to achieve the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard for a sustainability report.
GRI, a network-based organisation which develops and disseminates globally acceptable sustainability reporting guidelines, has confirmed ADTA’s first sustainability report ‘B’ level – just one level below its full disclosure level.
The report, which will be published annually in line with its membership of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group, encapsulates the Authority’s management approach and 2009 sustainability performance.
“This report acts as a baseline from which our annual performance will be measured and presented,” explained Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman, ADTA. “It is also a tool to engage stakeholders and present forward commitments to improve our own sustainability and that of Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector.”
The report, which is now freely available via ADTA or GRI, lists the authority’s targets, which include increasing hotel guest numbers, improving the sector’s Emiratisation rate and increasing the number of licensed tour guides and the number of tourism professionals attending its training courses.
It outlines the authority’s own environmental, health and safety management system targets and those it has set the industry as well as its own internal targets of increasing staff numbers and Emiratisation levels while reducing manpower turnover and energy and water consumption.
“This report being openly documented is a major step forward in our promotion of sustainability throughout Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry,” said Sheikh Sultan. “Sustainability is a core ADTA value and our task is to roll it out and reaffirm its necessity throughout all the communities we engage with and serve.”
GRI’s level confirmation of ADTA’s first sustainability report comes as Abu Dhabi has been named ‘Best Eco-Tourism Destination in the Middle East’ by the UK’s Business Destinations magazine.