The UNWTO/UAE Tourism Leadership Programme in the United Arab Emirates on “Digital Marketing  in Tourism”, organized by the World Tourism Organization, its UNWTO.Themis Foundation and the Ministry of Economy of the United Arab Emirates, was inaugurated on 19th November by Abdulla Al Hammadi, Director of the National Tourism Programme from the Ministry of Economy of United Arab Emirates, Omar Valdez, UNWTO.Themis Foundation Executive Director, Dr. Edith M. Szivas, Course Coordinator at UNWTO.Themis Foundation and the facilitators of the course, Montserrat Peñarroya and Dimitrios Buhalis.

In today's fast-changing and competitive environment, consumers unquestionably desire unique products and experiences - and destinations and businesses respond to this request by designing and promoting experiences that add value to their goods and services. Technology has emerged as the pervasive and robust platform for tourism organizations and for destination distribution and management. New developments such as Augmented Reality provide incredible opportunities for tourism organizations to develop their competitiveness. Furthermore, increasingly SoLoMo marketing which brings together Social Media, Location and Context Based Marketing and Mobile platforms and application will be critical for the competitiveness of tourism. The competitiveness of tourism organisations and destinations in the future will depend on their ability to manage digital tourism in a strategic and operational way to generate technology empowered constant innovation to manage consumer experiences and local assets and resources profitably and sustainably.

This Executive Training Course will challenge participants to think of their use of technology and their digital footprint to maximize their visibility, engagement, conversion and loyalty. Participants will be encouraged to think of how they can co-create tourism experiences and how they can develop benefits for all participants in the marketplace. A theoretical-practical methodology will be followed which includes presentations, discussions, debates, Q&A sessions, group work and practical activities.