Fujairah and Sharjah Partnership in Tourism Might Best Start With Fujairah Museum

The emirates of Fujairah and Sharjah are discussing the possibility of teaming up to tackle the task of tourism in their neighbouring spheres.

Top of the List
Judging by customer response the Fujairah Museum might be one of the first projects to address.

Tourist Feedback
Stuart, a recent visitor to Fujairah and Sharjah says in his travel diary (5 July 2009) about the Fujairah museum:

‘Don’t bother. While the fort is mildly interesting, it is surrounded by a construction site. The cultural village which it sits in the middle of is unfinished and surrounded by grey, stone gravel. Nothing to look at and nothing to do. When it is finished it should be fine, I assume that they are going to plant some trees and grass the surrounding area, but for the moment, don’t waste your time or the five Dihrams that I spent in the Museum that took five minutes to walk around.”

‘The museum in Fujairah was in this old building and the displays less than interesting.’

Venturing to Sharjah
Stuart writes of ‘stumbling’ around Sharjah’s Khor Kalba and discovering another museum and the Kalba fort.

He writes about a lack of information—‘How does one find out about these things?’—and a difficulty over getting tickets.

Customer Complaints
Stuart appears to be a seasoned informed traveller who is diligent enough to write up a travel diary and post pictures from his travels.

From such reports we can learn a lot about the positive things and the deficiencies of the tourism smorgasbord being offered by Fujairah and Sharjah.

Without labouring the point and bagging Fujairah tourism authorities, these complaints have been appearing on Internet travel diaries for years.

Open to Feedback
Sometimes criticism can hurt us but to seek customer response is the way to find out what is working in our service and often this is the source of great creativity.

For Example
Take a video camera and interview tourists to Fujairah and Sharjah. Ask them questions and show the answers to the tourism authorities.

Ji Lee at Google masterminded this technique of interviewing people and seeking customer feedback. See him in action below with people on the street:



Further
Fujairah Fort Majestic in the Day, FIF.
Visiting the Fujairah Museum, FIF.
Video Footage of Fujairah, FIF.

Dr Geoff Pound
Geoff can be contacted on email at geoffpound(@)gmail.com on Facebook or Twitter.

Image: Interior of Fujairah Museum