The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) has selected Olery, leading travel data provider in the Middle East, to deliver real-time data and reports on the performance and standing of hotels in Sharjah in line with the Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021 goals to attract 10 million visitors to the emirate by year 2021.

The agreement was signed by HE Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Director General of SCTDA and Kim Van Wijngaard, CEO and cofounder of Olery.

Speaking on the occasion, HE Al Midfa said that putting in place a strong analytical framework is part of the SCTDAs growth and development strategy in order to bolster Sharjahs position as an attractive global tourism destination with a difference in accordance with the objectives of Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021. These efforts have been recognised internationally with the emirate being crowned as the Cultural Capital of the Arab world in 1998 by UNESCO, Islamic Culture Capital for 2014 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and Arab Tourism Capital for 2015 by the Arab Tourism Organisation, added Al Midfa.

In view of the remarkable growth of Sharjahs hospitality and tourism industry and in numbers of hotels and hotel guests over the past few years, we need a world-class system to provide us with accurate data and industry insights in order to charter our growth and set future goals, said the Director General.

Commenting on the Authoritys joining hands with Olery, the Director General said: Olery has established itself in the Middle East as a trusted partner of tourism authorities and reliable provider of travel data. The company has a strong data analysis system in place and is committed to serving forward-looking tourism authorities and stakeholders such as the SCTDA.

Al Midfa added: We believe that the insights and expertise provided by Olery will immensely help and benefit the hospitality and tourism industry in the emirate as we aim to unite all the efforts, initiatives and tourism programmes under the umbrella of Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021.

The Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021 aims to make the emirate the ideal family destination as it looks to attract more than 10 million tourists by 2021 when the UAE celebrates its 50th anniversary. The Vision is based on four key pillars: Ideal Family Tourism Destination, Innovative Tourism Approach, World Class Tourism Facilities and Capabilities, and International Cultural Hub.

For her part, Olery CEO Kim Van Wijngaard said: We welcome the SCTDA as our partner and client. We have seen astonishing growth of the hospitality industry in the region. Tourism authorities such as the SCTDA that are engaged in actively shaping the image and reputation of their destination understand that a strong analytical foundation is a huge advantage. This is what we deliver.

Olerys hospitality monitoring system draws on traveller and guest reviews from dozens of booking websites to provide accurate, real-time and online insights into the performance and standing of hotels and other accommodation facilities individually as well as for Sharjah as destination. It provides a ready, dashboard analysis with comments and feedback of guests and customers, offering the stakeholders a quick and comprehensive overview.

For benchmarking, the system relies on the Guest Experience Index, the only scientifically backed quality measure in the hospitality industry developed by Olery in cooperation with the VU University, Amsterdam. The proprietary algorithm takes several ratings, results from sentiment analysis and the reliability of review sources into account.