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Dubai Tourism to Join Social Networking Sites

DUBAI — Expect to see Dubai tweeting on events in town and posting photos on Facebook and video on You Tube when the city’s tourism body becomes part of the online social 
networking scene.

Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing plans to have a presence on social networking sites such as Twitter starting early next year. The agency took a step in this direction by officially launching its portal DefinitelyDubai.com at the Arabian Travel Market on Wednesday. The website, designed to cater to three different audiences — tourists, business travellers and residents — had 6,000 hits within three hours on Tuesday before it 
was made public.

“This is just the start of what’s to come online to help renew the vision and promise of Dubai,” said Director General Khalid A bin Sulayem.

Information Technology Director Suhail Buhelaiba said plans were well developed for the tourism body to connect with residents in the country and international tourists via social networking sites.

“It’s one of the best ways to market everything,” Buhelaiba said. “You have all of these social groups coming together. They can post photos of the Burj Al Arab, their friends at the beach and they can tag friends 
in photos.”

The tourism body planned to launch a Facebook group, a channel called Definitely Dubai on video-sharing site You Tube, and a profile on networking site Twitter where Dubai can tweet information and link to social 
news site Digg.

Unofficial tributes to members of the ruling family and major developments such as the Burj Dubai and the Palm islands are on Facebook, along with negative groups and profiles.

Buhelaiba confirmed this was the first time the UAE government would be so involved in social online applications. Previously, telecommunications providers in the country blocked the social networking Website Orkut. Dubai Police Chief Commander Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said in April that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority had a list of 500 terms needed for it to ban certain websites, and that local officials and representatives of search engine Google had discussed this list of proposed banned search words.

Buhelaiba said the tourism body wanted to hear all comments from the public - “good or bad.”

wHe said, “Whatever input we get - we try to fix it. Whatever people say they like or don’t like, we will target it. We want to hear everything.”

Hot topics for the sites remain to be seen, but the new portal DefinitelyDubai.com, designed by digital brand boutique Xische Studios and Market Gurus, has already proven a hit, attracting 6,000 hits on Tuesday, a day before it was made public.

“When the search ends, when you get the answer, that’s Definitely Dubai,” said Corporate Support Executive Director Ibrahim Yaqoot.

· zoe@khaleejtimes.com