Tag Archives: Dubai

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) highlighted its new initiatives aimed at further enhancing the overall visitor experience and boosting green tourism practices, as part of the activities that are being held during UAE Innovation Week from November 20-26. Dubai Tourism has set up an exhibition stand at BOXPARK, the offbeat outdoor destination by Meraas that is showcasing a new version of the Dubai Calendar App, two exciting concepts developed under the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Initiative, and information on the Dubai Expert training programme. The annual UAE Innovation Week was launched in 2015 by His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai to help create and sustain a culture of innovation in the UAE and help position the country as a global hub for innovation. Dubai Tourism is one of the government entities that are organising activities to celebrate Innovation Week in each emirate. Open daily from 3-9pm, the free-to-attend outdoor exhibition at BOXPARK features an upgraded Dubai Calendar App, a digital smart hub that is being displayed on an interactive screen designed as a mobile phone frame and offering visitors the opportunity to view all upcoming events in Dubai, buy tickets and make seat reservations through just one click. There are also video screens on site, highlighting Dubai Calendar activities. Visitors to the Dubai Tourism stand at BOXPARK can also learn about the Hospitality Sustainability Board Game and the Carbon Calculator, two concepts developed under the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Initiative. Workshops will be held daily during the exhibition to allow representatives from the hotel industry to play the Board Game, an educational tool that was created …

World’s first Bollywood inspired theme park opened its doors at Dubai Parks and Resorts. Bollywood Parks Dubai is a first-of-its-kind theme park that showcases rides and attractions based on some of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters. The park opened with a ceremony that included various live entertainment shows performed by the talented Bollywood artists and dancers. Bollywood Parks Dubai will recreate the Bollywood experience through themed attractions and rides spread across five zones: Bollywood Boulevard, Mumbai Chowk, Rustic Ravine, Royal Plaza and Bollywood Film Studios. Visitors will experience bold action, colourful story-telling and captivating dance sequences inspired by nine popular films: Rock On!!, Don, Lagaan, Sholay, Dabangg, Mughal-e-Azam, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, RA.One and Krrish. Bollywood Parks Dubai’s flagship offering is the 850-seater Rajmahal Theatre that will be home to a separately ticketed Broadway-style, Bollywood -themed show. During the day, the park will have up to 20 live shows across five stages: Rock On!!, Crossroads, Mumbai Express, Rangmanch and Stars on Steps. The park will also offer six themed restaurants that capture India’s mouth-watering culinary offerings and eight retail outlets stocking quintessential filmy fare.

The budget carrier SpiceJet has launched direct daily flights from Dubai to Mangalore. The airline will operate a daily direct flight SG 59 on the Mangalore-Dubai route departing at 0.20 am. Whereas SG 60 will be operational on the Dubai-Mangalore route departing at 12.55 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday and at 3.40 am on Monday and Saturday respectively. SpiceJet will deploy its Boeing 737 fleet for the newly devised schedule. Dubai is one of SpiceJet’s six international destinations and with the launch, SpiceJet now serves non-stop flights to Dubai from 10 Indian cities — Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Delhi, Jaipur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Madurai, Mumbai, Pune and Mangalore and with connections from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, besides Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata.

In partnership with Architectural Heritage Society and IQPC the Cultural Tourism Middle East 2016 was held at Al Murooj Rotana. This brought together high level officials from the Tourism, Cultural Development & Antiquities, Heritage & Arts, Cultural Activities, and Architectural Heritage community to showcase their latest developments and discuss ideas and strategies to boost tourism through culture, heritage, arts and festivals. In the opening remarks by Yousuf Lootah, Executive Director, Dubai Tourism Development and Investments, stated that many initiatives are underway to establish Dubai as a cultural hub with the opening of the Dubai Opera and other culturally important and interesting programmes. In order to build towards making Dubai a cultural hub currently steps are being taken by Dubai Tourism to focus on sustainable tourism. Some of the key areas covered at the event included how the region is setting a foundation to support the expected doubling of tourist arrivals over the next few years in light of the economic downturn, The role cultural tourism play in economic  transformation in a mission to diversify economy, the needs to boost cultural and societal awareness, how the region could make use of their cultural assets to improve their tourism performance, and how  cultural tourism strengthens cultural understanding and perception of the Arab world.

The UAE is one step closer to being the world’s first location for a new form of high speed transport system that can enable people to travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in 12 minutes, following an agreement signed between Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) and pioneering mobility company, Hyperloop One. Alongside the signing of the RTA agreement, the Hyperloop One team introduced, for the first time ever, a vision that represents a complete transformation in the way that people travel in the 21st century as the engineers, architects and designers from Hyperloop One and BIG have collaborated intensively for six months to produce a wholly original system design for Hyperloop travel. The idea of a Hyperloop – a low-pressure tube through which levitating pods containing both passengers and goods can travel at up to 1,200 km/h – has recently gained attention around the world. Benefits include higher standards of safety than a passenger jet, lower build and maintenance costs than high-speed rail, and energy usage, per person, that is similar to a bicycle. Today the company showcased the first-ever routes from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, several Hyperports (the equivalent of a station or airport) throughout Dubai, and the conceptual interiors and exteriors of the individual passenger pods. The work is based on a detailed study of how an urban and inter-city transport network should integrate with the existing infrastructure. It’s autonomous, point-to-point and vastly simplifies the experience of getting from your front door to your destination.

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) hosted the Hospitality Sustainability Board Game, the inaugural activity of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Initiative. Created specifically for the hotel industry, the game, held recently at Media One Hotel, engaged industry professionals from across the city, as they gained insight into Dubai’s commitment to adopting sustainable practices and their role in achieving the goals. Designed by Dubai Tourism in collaboration with Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF, Royal International and Insignia, the game was created as an educational tool for Dubai’s world-class hospitality industry to contribute towards the city’s goal of sustainability. Participants at the event included staff across all aspects of hotel operations, who worked in teams of 2-3 people to measure consumption baselines and identify opportunities to reduce consumption. Speaking at the event, Solaiman Alrifai, Senior Manager, Tourism Development, Dubai Tourism, said that Dubai’s hospitality industry, which recently crossed the 100,000 room threshold, has been a cornerstone of the city’s economy. As they look forward to capacity expansion and increased visitor volumes in the lead-up to 2020 and beyond, it is paramount to implement measures for this industry to reduce consumption and conserve resources. Raising awareness of conservation practices is a key pillar of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Initiative, making this game a very significant step towards creating ä clear understanding of how powerful hospitality employees are in bringing about change.

Over 50 travel agents and tour operators from Dubai and Sharjah attended the Educational seminar session conducted by Qatar Airways and Orange County. The event took place at Raffles Dubai in association with AVIAREPS the representative for ME region for Orange County. They shared the importance of the destination and the many facilities, language, social etiquette etc to welcome guests from the ME region. Glenn Johnston, Vice President Corporate Communications & Public Relations, GM, UAE/Middle East, AVIAREPS, reiterated key ways to reach out to the clients with the many value added options with the one year partnership with Qatar Airways. They also launched the special privilege e-card for the travel agents and tour operators.

Dubai’s holiday home sector is going from strength to strength, with the latest figures released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) revealing a total of 1,805 approved units to date, benefitting both homeowners and visitors to Dubai. In the short time since the introduction of updated regulations in May, a total of 109 homeowners submitted applications for a holiday home permit, of which 39 have now been approved, enabling them to enter the market. These join the 78 approved holiday home operators already doing business in Dubai, moving forward, Dubai Tourism anticipates further growth across the sector. To obtain a licence, homeowners must ensure their property meets the required quality, health and safety standards, while also offering all necessary amenities and guest services, as well as insurance coverage and wider community integration. Owners are also accountable for ensuring the property meets all legislative requirements and complaint management policies, and is accurately listed to visitors and sufficiently maintained. This growth is being driven by effective government regulations designed to increase competitiveness, transparency, safety and standardisation, and comes on the back of Dubai Tourism’s decision earlier this year to allow private homeowners to apply for a holiday home permit and start leasing their properties directly.

Key players in Dubai’s tourism industry came together to mark the city’s milestone achievement of reaching 100,000 rooms across its expanding hotel and hotel apartment inventory following the soft opening of The Westin Dubai, Al Habtoor City. In attendance were His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), and Mohammed Khalaf Al Habtoor, Vice Chairman and CEO of Al Habtoor Group, together with Marriott International’s Alex Kyriakidis, President and Managing Director Middle East and Africa, and Guido de Wilde, Chief Operating Officer Middle East. Commenting on the occasion, His Excellency Almarri said that for the hotel sector, high demand from international travellers, and the consequent growth in tourism volumes, has been the cornerstone of fostering continued investment in supply enhancement, which has seen us cross this historic 100,000 rooms threshold. This has been a journey undertaken collaboratively and achieved through the enduring strength of our public and private partnerships that underscore Dubai’s maturing prominence on the world stage.

Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces held a multi-city Sales Mission in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, signifying the company’s interest in expansion in the region. The events were hosted in Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. The first leg of the Sales Mission kick started with an evening of networking at the Opera Ballroom at Taj Dubai on September 25th 2016. Hosted by Chinmai Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer, Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, the elegant dinner event had Senior Management from various Taj properties around the globe, key media and select travel partners in attendance. Speaking at the event, Chinmai expressed the group’s interest in growing their footprint in the region with two hotels already in the pipeline. This includes a 207 – key hotel located at Jumeirah Lake Towers in Dubai and a 325 – key Resort and Spa located on The Palm, Dubai. Taj Dubai is the iconic group’s first luxury property in the Middle East. Taj Dubai’s 296 rooms are a mix of rich Indian artistry and traditional influences, suffused with a cool, vibrant twist. An intoxicating fusion of extravagance, heritage and contemporary style, Taj Dubai occupies a prime location, a mere five minutes from the famed Downtown area with Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall and just 15 km away from Dubai International Airport, making this one of the most coveted locations for business travellers and tourists alike.