Sustainability

Becoming a leading sustainable tourism destination

In line with Abu Dhabi’s vision to become a leading sustainable tourism destination, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) is implementing innovative new initiatives to promote sustainability within the tourism industry and enable partners to apply sustainable practices.

These include new sector-specific sustainability guidelines, a pledge towards net zero carbon for all events by 2050, a carbon calculator to estimate the carbon footprint of hotels Abu Dhabi, and a sustainability audit for all hotels in the emirate.

Sustainable Tourism Guidelines
The sustainable tourism guidelines were developed by DCT Abu Dhabi to raise awareness and enhance knowledge among its stakeholders, and encourage the implementation of sustainable practices across the different sectors in the tourism industry. The guidelines serve as a resource to support stakeholders in defining their sustainability roadmap and applying efficient and sustainable initiatives and solutions to their operations.

The sustainable tourism guidelines outline recommendations across key sustainability categories, encompassing culture and heritage, events, food and beverage, hotels, and leisure and entertainment attractions, as well as travel agents and tour operators. Based on the guidelines, the tourism industry in Abu Dhabi can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate the effects of climate change, and contribute to innovative solutions.

Carbon Calculator
As the regulator of the emirate’s tourism industry, DCT Abu Dhabi has announced its carbon calculator initiative, which can be used to estimate and analyse the carbon footprint of Abu Dhabi’s hotels across various carbon emission sources, establish a feedback mechanism to reward the most sustainable hotels and support the ones that have room for improvement, and leverage the carbon footprint baseline to subsequently enable the subsequent setting of reduction targets.

Sustainability Hotels Audit
Targeting an overall reduction of Abu Dhabi’s carbon footprint, DCT Abu Dhabi is facilitating energy audits for hotels in the emirate to identify which energy saving solutions have the best effect on the environment.

DCT Abu Dhabi’s comprehensive sustainability framework for the tourism industry is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is in line with the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s Vision for 2030 Agenda, providing a clear roadmap for travel agents, tour operators and other entities towards achieving a more sustainable and inclusive business. It is also informed by global travellers’ concerns about the environment and their interest in sustainable travel.

To find out more about DCT Abu Dhabi’s efforts towards a more sustainable tourism industry, click below to download the sustainability guidelines.

Download Sustainable Tourism Guidelines

Last Modified - 23/05/2023