Membership Collective Group opens its doors to The Ned Doha in Qatar, its third Ned hotel and members’ club and its first location in the Middle East. Founded in London in 2017, The Ned expanded in the summer of 2022 to include The Ned NoMad in New York, and now The Ned Doha opens in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Set over five floors in the former site of the Ministry of Interior, overlooking the Arabian Gulf and Doha’s skyline, The Ned Doha features 90 bedrooms and suites, six public restaurants, a pool and club lounge, a health club with spa, salon, and fitness center, and a new 775sqm (8,350sq ft) event space for large-scale conferences, events, and receptions. “Five years after launching The Ned in London, we are excited to open in Doha. We are really excited to occupy one of the city’s most architecturally significant buildings, comprising of a hotel, multiple restaurants and its own private members’ club” said Gareth Banner, Group Managing Director, The Ned. “We look forward to providing our guests and members with a distinct experience, welcoming them to stay, connect, eat and have a good time.” Originally designed in the 1960s by Lebanese architect William Sednaoui, the building has been redesigned by David Chipperfield Architects of London with interiors by Soho House Design. Drawing inspiration from The Ned’s original address in London, there is a live performance stage beneath an atrium surrounded by a collection of restaurants and rich green marble sourced from the Greek island of Tinos. Set across five floors and facing the Al Corniche Waterfront, the arrival experience showcases a water feature, contemporary sculptures, as well as a striking, …

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), Chairman of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced the masterplan for King Salman International Airport which will boost Riyadh’s position as a global logistics hub, stimulate transport, trade and tourism, and act as a bridge linking the East with the West. The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh to be among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of Riyadh’s population to 15–20 million people by 2030. King Salman International Airport is expected to be one of the world’s largest airports covering an area of approximately 57 km2, allowing for six parallel runways and including the existing terminals named after King Khalid. It will also include 12km2 of airport support facilities, residential and recreational facilities, retail outlets, and other logistics real estate. The airport aims to accommodate up to 120 million travelers by 2030 and 185 million travelers, with the capacity to process 3.5 million tons of cargo, by 2050. It will become an aerotropolis centered around a seamless customer journey, world-class efficient operations, and innovation. Riyadh’s identity and the Saudi culture will be taken into consideration in the airport’s design to ensure a unique travel experience for visitors and transit travelers. With sustainability at its core, the new airport will achieve LEED Platinum certification by incorporating cutting edge green initiatives into its design and will be powered by renewable energy. The announcement comes as part of PIF’s strategy which focuses on unlocking the capabilities of promising sectors to enhance Saudi Arabia’s efforts in diversifying …

German National Tourist Office GCC will be hosting a webinar focusing on medical tourism in Berlin on Wednesday 7th December 2022 at 12 noon, UAE time. This webinar will bring to light the many new offerings for the visitors who need expert medical care and attention. Speaking to TTME Yamina Sofo, Director, German National Tourist Office GCC shared that she will start off the webinar with the importance of the GCC market and its impact especially the last summer, then move on to share insights on the current campaigns that focus on sustainable tourism. Sofo stated, “the webinar is two fold, first our focus is on the Feel Good campaign which is to demonstrate our commitment to promote sustainable tourism ensuring that all players and stakeholders are involved and benefitted long term. Sustainable tourism is not a mere PR exercise, but a campaign that will add value to the traveller whilst granting them an opportunity to explore a truly authentic experience. Travellers can explore wide open spaces, natural forests, springs, lakes and rivers across Germany. Secondly, we will be promoting medical tourism with our capital Berlin, Michaela Kehrer, Medical Tourism Manager visitBerlin, will be sharing her expertise on what can be expected when on medical travel.”

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 22nd Global Summit opened its doors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in what is set to be the largest event in its history. The global tourism body’s highly anticipated Global Summit, which is the most influential Travel & Tourism event in the calendar, kicked off today in Riyadh with an estimated 3,000 people expected to attend. Addressing media from around the world, Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, announced that the event taking place this week is set to break all records, with more international business leaders and foreign government delegations attending than ever before. Simpson also revealed over the next five years, WTTC Members are set to invest more than $10.5 billion dollars in the Kingdom. Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO said: “Our Global Summit will be our biggest ever in terms of business leaders, international media and governments from around the world. Our event is bringing together many of the world’s most powerful Travel & Tourism business leaders to discuss and secure its long-term future, which is critical to economies, jobs, and livelihoods around the world.” His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, said: “The Kingdom is proud to welcome the 22nd WTTC Global Summit to Riyadh. “With more government ministers and world leading CEOs than ever before, it will be a true display of the future we want to create. A future founded in public and private sector partnership, with sustainability and innovation at its core.” Under the theme “Travel for a Better Future” the event will focus on the value of the sector, not only to the global economy, but to the planet and communities …

Dubai Calendar, the official listing platform for events in the city, has curated a range of the best live entertainment, cultural, lifestyle and sporting events that will take place in Dubai during December 2022. The epic line up of events includes the BudX FIFA Fan Festival, Emirates Airline Dubai 7s, Dubai Shopping Festival and the Christmas Concert at Dubai Opera, and much more. As the sporting season moves into top gear with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM, Dubai is pulling out all the stops to add to the excitement with a host of football-themed fan zones, sports lounges, and family-friendly destinations to welcome sports enthusiasts. These destinations include the BudX FIFA Fan Festival at Dubai Harbour which will be one of only six international flagship FIFA Fan Festivals worldwide. Additionally, there will be fan-zones dotted throughout the city, from the football-themed Fan City at Expo City Dubai, Fanzone by McGettigan’s at the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre, Press Play at Precision Football and many more. Emirates Dubai 7s is one of the largest sports and entertainment festivals in the Middle East. This year is set to be bigger and better than ever before, with international music headliners such as Gorgon City and Craig David making for an epic celebration of music and the best international men’s and women’s rugby teams from 1st – 3rd  December. Get ready to see the region’s most skilled horses and talented jockeys go head to head for a grand prize at the Racing at Meydan. The action continues this winter with races scheduled from 4th November to 19th February with the first race starting at 6pm. Feel patriotic and full of life at the Skechers …

Emirates officially opened its ‘Emirates World’ retail store experience in the heart of Jumeirah, one of Dubai’s most vibrant communities. Located in Jumeirah Town Centre, the airline’s redesigned 3,000 square foot retail store is an open and fluid space for customers to shop for all of their travel needs in a lounge-like environment. It will also offer customers the ability to literally immerse themselves in Emirates’ signature products via VR/ AR technologies. Emirates World was officially inaugurated with a special ribbon cutting by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group. Also in attendance was Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline, Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, senior Emirates commercial and sales executives, in addition to government representatives, industry guests, corporate customers and members of the media. Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer said: “Emirates World sets a new standard for the travel retail store experience and embodies our commitment to provide customers best-in-class products and services across every touchpoint. The opening of this latest concept store is an expression of our retail vision for the future and marks the first of several stores we’ll be opening in the coming years across our network. It’s also part of our larger retail strategy to make the store experience more convenient, engaging and personal.  We’ll employ a mix of the latest technology coupled with personalised one-to-one service from our highly knowledgeable travel consultants. Our open, welcoming, and functional space will also allow customers to discover our products like Premium Economy seats, in addition to a host of other elegantly displayed experiences.” The Emirates World store features a free-flowing open floor plan that allows customers …

The special one-off concert will take place at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena on Friday 27 January 2023 and will feature two and a half hours of new and reimagined arrangements from the Oscar-winning composer’s stellar back catalogue, all spectacularly recreated on stage by Zimmer himself, together with a large orchestra and complemented by Hans Zimmer’s magnificent live band and dancers. Hans Zimmer Live is being brought to the United Arab Emirates by Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) as part of its Dubai Presents series and will be one of the closing shows of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), which runs across the city from December 2022 to 29 January 2023. Hans Zimmer commented: “I’m thrilled to bring Hans Zimmer Live to Dubai for the very first time. As one of the world’s most exciting and dynamic cities that’s home to over 200 nationalities, this is a great opportunity to speak to a multicultural global audience in the universal language of music. It seems fitting to bring our show to such an extraordinary city, and treat its people to an unforgettable evening of music and entertainment!” Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, commented: “Hans Zimmer is one of the all-time music greats and it’s an honour that Dubai will be the first place in the Middle East to host his renowned live show. Hosting this concert further reinforces Dubai’s position as a global events hub for award-winning international artists to perform and we will continue to work with our stakeholders to further enhance our event offerings in line with the vision of His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister …

The fifth edition of the Commercial Strategy Conference by Hospitality Sales Marketing Association HSMAI Middle East kicked off with TravTalk ME, TravelTV MiddleEast and Tourismbreakingnews as media partners. Almost 300 participants attended the opening day from all the leading hotel chains in the Middle East. In her opening remarks Mona Faraj, Managing Director of HSMAI ME welcomed everyone for the event, “this year we have created two stages – one the main stage for topical events and the other focused on trends and insights with topical content on marketing and communications. Last year, I was told Mona you’re not covering enough topical content across commercial disciplines, specifically marketing and communications, you know we are all marketers here whether we know it or not, but we don’t have the skills for it and what we did is that we created or formed the most active marketing advisory board that have put a lot of the content over the past two years. Every single year we listen to your feedback and try to deliver educational content that is more meaningful to you. We also did a lot of new content this year, so you will see later on we have a new rock star later on and you will hear why, we brought in the lightning round, now please make sure you attend all six of them, your up for a treat. 2022 was a year full of educational webinars, activities, events and exposure because it is important to maintain that social element within our regional organisational members.” She concluded saying that over the past year 29 events were hosted by HSMAI ME and that they look forward to make it 50 …

NH Collection Dubai The Palm announces its opening in February 2023 and will be the first NH Collection property to launch in the United Arab Emirates. The new-build 533-key property is located beside the lagoon of Palm Jumeirah with direct beach access and spectacular views across the Dubai skyline and is set to become a singular new location for exceptional hospitality in Dubai. The property features 227 hotel guest rooms and suites and 306 studios and apartments across 11 room categories. The bold, original décor of the interiors and accommodation reflect local colours and the vibrancy of the destination, something guests will feel each time they step into their elegant room or suite with captivating views of the Marina skyline and Arabian Gulf. Higher room categories, including the Premium Sea View Room, the One Bedroom Sea View Suite, and Superior One Bedroom Sea View Apartment, will feature exclusive access to the NH Collection Premium Lounge. NH Collection Dubai The Palm will have five distinctive dining venues, set to become favourites with guests, Dubai residents, and visitors. Maiora, where an abundance of dishes from around the world are served for all-day dining. Te-Lounge, for those who need refreshment after the gym or a light, healthy bite. Seven Sports Bar, where friends can catch up in an informal setting or watch the big event over classic snacks and drinks. Revo Café, a chic urban hangout where creative and healthy dishes are crafted, and SEEN, a modern multi-sensory rooftop venue with spectacular sunset views and expertly mixed cocktails. From the 45-metre rooftop infinity pool, fully-equipped fitness centre, kids’ club, and NH Collection Spa, to the selection of eclectic dining venues, when NH Collection …

JW Marriott announced its debut in Saudi Arabia with the opening of JW Marriott Hotel Riyadh. The highly anticipated luxury hotel welcomes guests for a transformative and elevated stay to nourish the mind, body and spirit. Spanning 349-rooms, the property is the ideal choice for travellers seeking a refreshing stay in the heart of Riyadh’s new commercial and residential district. “We are excited to debut JW Marriott, an iconic legacy brand,in Saudi Arabia with the opening of JW Marriott Hotel Riyadh,” said Bruce Rohr, Global Brand Leader, JW Marriott Hotels. “JW Marriott combines personalized, luxury service with principles of mindfulness that are integral to today’s business and leisure traveler. Those seeking a retreat from the hustle and bustle of this dynamic city will find JW Marriott Hotel Riyadh the perfect place for a modern, wellness-focused and balanced stay.” “The opening of JW Marriott Hotel Riyadh marks the brand’s long awaited debut in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Guests will be encouraged to experience every moment to the fullest at this luxurious new destination that follows      the JW Marriott’s philosophy to provide guests the ideal haven to recharge and reflect,” said Candice D’Cruz, Vice President – Luxury Brands, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Marriott International. A sense of luxury is present from the first moment of arrival as guests are welcomed into a lobby adorned with an emerald-green wall accented by unique light fixtures and textured furnishings that give a nod to the aesthetic of a wadi environment. Leveraging the natural wonders of the local surroundings, the guest experience begins with a reception area inspired by the capital’s desert sand dunes, from the curved reception desk that reflects the movement of …