Abu Dhabi Bets on Service Quality as a Competitive Asset

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement (DGE) convened the Hospitality Excellence Forum, drawing 280 leaders from more than 80 government, semi-government, free zone and private-sector entities to draft and endorse a new set of hospitality standards for the emirate.

The economic logic is straightforward. Service quality is being treated as a competitive asset, and the standards are designed to create a shared framework that improves customer experiences across sectors. Participants examined how services are designed and delivered, with a focus on making interactions more intuitive, responsive and people-centred.

At the centre of the work were 16 priority customer journeys, spanning airport and rail travel as well as visits to theme parks and shopping centres. Teams mapped each interaction from the customer’s perspective and developed enhanced hospitality standards intended to produce more seamless and memorable experiences. The proposed standards were then presented to chairmen and senior leaders for endorsement, with implementation plans to follow across participating entities.

The ambition extends well beyond the hospitality industry itself. Sessions explored how hospitality principles can be applied to everyday experiences across key sectors, including healthcare, education, transport, government services and business interactions, positioning service excellence as a cross-cutting standard for how Abu Dhabi’s organisations operate and compete.

His Excellency Ahmed Tamim Hisham Al Kuttab, Chairman of DGE, framed the initiative as a shift from efficiency to experience. “Abu Dhabi’s ambition is not only to deliver efficient services, but to create experiences that make people feel valued, understood and supported. Every interaction matters, whether someone is accessing healthcare, starting a business or completing a government transaction, and our goal is to make those moments simpler, more personal and more responsive to their needs,” he said. “This is how we strengthen trust, improve quality of life and ensure government services continue to evolve around the people they serve.”

Meanwhile, the intellectual underpinning of the forum came from Unreasonable Hospitality, the customer service philosophy and book by entrepreneur Will Guidara. Participants used it to define what exceptional service means within their own organisations and to develop practical hospitality standards that embed these principles into customer journeys and service delivery.

For His Excellency Saeed Al Mulla, Director General of Customer Experience Affairs at DGE, the benchmark for public services has shifted. “People do not compare government services only with other government services. They compare every interaction with the best experiences they have anywhere. By bringing leaders together across sectors, we are creating a common vision for exceptional customer experience in Abu Dhabi,” he said. “The real outcome of this forum will be seen in the daily experiences of citizens, residents, businesses and visitors, through services that are easier to use, more proactive and designed around their needs.”

The forum forms part of Abu Dhabi’s ongoing efforts to elevate customer experience across sectors by embedding hospitality principles into everyday interactions and service delivery. The endorsed standards now move from the conference floor into implementation plans across the participating entities, and the test will be whether they translate into measurable gains in service quality across the emirate’s economy.