The Department of Media and Creative ‎Industries organized a lecture on " Role ‎of Media in Promoting Culture of Travel ‎& Tourism", presented by Mr. Ibrahim Al ‎Dhahli - Editor-in-Chief of Asfaar ‎magazine for travel and tourism, in ‎cooperation with the Department of ‎Tourism and Heritage at the College of ‎Humanities and Social Sciences, in the ‎theater of the College of Information ‎Technology, in the presence of Dr. ‎Ahmed Al Mansoori - Chair of the Media ‎and Creative Industries Department, Dr. ‎Adrian Louis de Man - Chair of Tourism ‎and Heritage Department, and college ‎students‏.‏

Dr. Ahmed Al Mansoori, Chair of the ‎Media and Creative Industries ‎Department, explained, This lecture ‎comes within the department s activities ‎in communicating with the parties and ‎stakeholders in the media sectors and ‎creative industries. It also aims to transfer ‎personal and practical knowledge and ‎experience to university students, ‎providing opportunities to acquire new ‎skills and experiences to add to ‎knowledge and culture of tourism and ‎heritage students in the tourism media. He ‎added that these activities will contribute ‎to refining the students personality, ‎preparing and qualifying them to engage ‎in the labor market, enabling them to ‎interact with events, and enhancing their ‎media culture and ability to produce ‎excellent, creative, and innovative media ‎content.‎

In his presentation, Mr. Ibrahim Al ‎Dhahli, Editor-in-Chief of Asfaar ‎magazine for travel & tourism and a UAE ‎traveler, who was able, during his trips ‎and visits to many countries nearly 170 ‎countries around the world, to write down ‎his notes and enhance his culture with ‎many knowledge and experiences. He ‎emphasized that the tourism in the UAE ‎has achieved qualitative leaps in the past ‎years, due to the interest of the UAE ‎leadership to develop infrastructure and ‎facilities and promote sustainable tourism ‎development, which is among the best ‎infrastructure in the world‏.‏

He said, "The UAE has assumed an ‎advanced position, not only in regional ‎tourism, but also in the global tourism ‎map, and unlike many countries, the ‎growth of the local tourism sector has ‎mainly depended on local investments, as ‎huge investments have been employed in ‎tourism infrastructure by both public and ‎private sectors. Those investments made ‎it possible to establish important facilities ‎without which the tourism sector could ‎not have developed. This also keeps pace ‎with the great development of local ‎airlines, which are gaining day after day a ‎distinctive global presence, and are able ‎to connect the four directions of the ‎globe, which allowed to attract large ‎numbers of tourists from different parts ‎of the world‏.‏

He noted that despite the Corona ‎pandemic, which blocked travel and ‎tourism activities in many tourist places, ‎it provided an opportunity to learn about ‎tourist attractions and promote domestic ‎tourism in the UAE, stressing the ‎importance of the role of local media in ‎shedding light on the culture of domestic ‎tourism, and creating media content that ‎enhances this trend in social and other ‎media. In addition, it is necessary to ‎prepare qualified national staff in tourism ‎media to provide an opportunity to ‎discover talents by creating innovative ‎media content that enhances integration ‎of tourism activities and promotion ‎campaigns to promote many areas and ‎tourism opportunities in the UAE‏.‏

At the end of the lecture, they discussed ‎mechanisms for enhancing media and ‎promotional efforts for tourism industry, ‎promoting culture of international ‎tourism and learning about new cultures ‎around the world to add to the human ‎knowledge in transferring values through ‎exploring and transferring cultures, ‎civilizations, and heritage to the world ‎through tourism media‏.‏