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Sixty Emirati youngsters – boys and girls all aged between 15-17 -have graduated with flying coloursfrom Abu Dhabi’s annual Tourism Youth Summer Camp– anAbu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Dhabi) programme organised in conjunction with the European International College (EIC). The 60 successful graduates received their certificatesat an awards ceremony at the Yas Island Rotana hotel which brought the 2013 series to a close.
The students had completed an extensivethree-week programme and the top three boys and girlsreceived prizes following completion of a written quiz and evaluation of their attendance and interactive participation.
The star girl performers were: 15-year-old Maitha Naser Al Saeedi,14-year-old Mariam ThaniSaleh Al Neyadi and 16-year-old Sara Abduallah Al Mazrouei. Star boyperformers were: 17-year-old Mousa Ahmed Al Kaabi, 15-year-old Omar Al Ali and 16-year-old Saif Mohammed Al Dhaheri.
The Camp saw students take part in various workshops designed to boost their awareness of the emirate’s tourism industry and inherent economic, social and environmental impacts. The programme also saw them embark on field trips - including visits to the magnificent Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the entertainment destination of Yas Island - to better acquaint them with Abu Dhabi’s expanding tourism offering and participate in team building exercises to develop their interpersonal skills.
"The programme was designed to create a positive perception of the tourism industry and encourage the next generation of Emirati leaders to consider tourism as a major for their university studies,”said Fatima Al Melhi, IndustryAwareness Executive, TCA Abu Dhabi. “Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry is maturing and the programme is expanding year-on-year year based on feedback from students, and the industry, to ensure topics covered bring the youngsters bang up-to-date with developments in the destination. "
The graduatessay the programme was something of an eye-opener to the diverse tourism industry.
"I was very young when I first heard of the programme and vowed to join the class to find out more about our national tourism when I turned 15. Now I can say that I have a clear vision about the future projectsunderway to develop our destination and am committed to pursue a career in museums management," said Maitha Naser Al Saeedi.
Some students said they signed up for the camp with the encouragement of their parents. Seventeen-year-old Mussa Al Kaabi,was encouraged by his mother to join "It was an important experience for me as I visited many interesting tourist destinations in Abu Dhabi. It was useful to know how to attract new people to those places. I’m now really enthusiastic to consider studying something related to the industry."
With various stakeholders contributing prizes for high performers, the students undertook fact-finding field trips of Yas Island, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Zayed Centre, Abu Dhabi Pearl Journey, The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort and the Manarat Al Saadiyat exhibition centre, as well as experiencing a behindthe-scenes tour of the Etihad Airways’ Training Academy.
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