Dubai Business Events (DBE), the city’s official convention bureau, has reported strong results for the first half of 2017, with 97 bids submitted to host business events being successfully awarded to the city. There are 97 more that have been submitted and the city is awaiting verdict on them. Key wins include: Baby Care Annual Incentive (2018), World Conference on Desalination and Water Re-Use (2019) and Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (2022). DBE has also ramped up efforts to highlight the city’s business events offering to international audiences. DBE representatives have attended over 50 trade events in the first half of the year, interacting with over 4500 business event buyers and planners. The bureau has also facilitated a total of 16 site inspections with 38 clients and hosted 144 buyers from around the world as part of four in-depth Dubai study missions. Steen Jakobsen, Director, DBE, said, “We’ve had a stellar start to the year, and are well on our way to achieving our targets set for 2017. As we continue to work towards further strengthening Dubai’s reputation of being a premier host destination for business events, we have a steady pipeline of initiatives planned for the year ahead. We are also focusing on expanding our network and reach globally, enabling businesses, event buyers and planners to benefit from our expertise.”

Careem, the UAE-based ride hailing app, brings its unique “Kids” service to Abu Dhabi. Launched in Dubai in 2014, Careem Kids is a dedicated car type for passengers travelling with young children. Each car in the Kids fleet comes with an extremely safe and comfortable car seat that can carry a child of upto 30 kg in weight. Further, the Captains of this service are trained by the distributors of the world’s most renowned child car seat brand, Maxi Cosi, to safely install the seat, alter the size of the seat and maintain the seat. Pertaining to the new regulations, Careem issued statements earlier this month to its customers and Captains, informing them that no child under the age of four years would be able to travel without a seat in the future. Also, parents have been advised that Careem Kids can cater for only one child under four years and any additional seats needed would have to be provided by the passenger. The Captains have been asked to enforce the new regulations with immediate effect.

Alibaba Group and Marriott International announced the launch of a joint venture to redefine the travel experience of Chinese consumers traveling both abroad and domestic. This venture entails drawing on both Marriott’s and Alibaba’s resources in a way that Marriott’s storefront will be managed and marketed to Alibaba’s customer base on Fliggy, Alibaba’s travel service platform. It will also provide a link between Marriott’s and Alibaba’s loyalty programmes and support Marriott hotels with content, programmes and promotions customised for Chinese travellers. China’s travellers are expected to take an estimated 700 million trips over the next five years. Marriott’s owners and franchisees globally will benefit from the joint venture by capturing a greater share of this growing Chinese travel market and having lower distribution costs.

Address Marassi Beach Resort, the second hotel project by Emaar Hospitality Group in Egypt, is redefining standards of world-class hospitality with its idyllic waterfront location by the Mediterranean Sea, overlooking the turquoise waters of the Sidi Abdel Rahman Bay. An integral part of Marassi, the master-planned touristic and residential development by Emaar Misr, Address Marassi Beach Resort was unveiled earlier this year at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. Featuring 140 luxury rooms and suites, along the North Coast of El Alamein, the hotel is one of the 14 upcoming projects under Address Hotels + Resorts, the premium luxury hotel and serviced residences brand of Emaar Hospitality Group. Olivier Harnisch, Chief Executive Officer, Emaar Hospitality Group, said, “Address Marassi Beach Resort is one of our prestigious international developments set along the Mediterranean coast and is integrating the assorted lifestyle amenities of a central marina. The hotel is developed as per high standards of design and quality and focuses on providing memorable holiday and leisure experiences to our guests. Bringing the brand values of gracious hospitality, exceptional service and unique value for guests, Address Marassi Beach Resort will further energise tourism in Egypt and contribute to its national economy, supporting the development vision of the government.”

Emirates will increase the capacity of its services to Egypt from October 29, 2017, with the launch of four additional scheduled flights from Dubai to Cairo every week. The four new flights will increase the number of frequencies between the two cities to three each day, and take the total number of weekly Emirates flights serving Cairo to 21. The carrier for the new services will be Emirates’ 360-seat Boeing 777-300ER, in a three-class configuration, with 8 private suites, 42 Business Class seats and 310 Economy Class seats. These services will add 1440 seats each way per week on the route as well as 23 tonnes of additional capacity for cargo per flight. Orhan Abbas, Emirates’ Senior Vice President Commercial Operations for Africa, says, “We will continue to invest in Egypt, empowering the local economy and helping it expand its business and tourism presence.” This addition is also a part of Emirates’ commitment to offer its customers numerous choices on all the routes, so that they are seamlessly connected to any point in the Middle East, Asia, Americas, Africa and Australia as per their convenience. The additional Dubai-Cairo flight, EK 925, will leave Dubai at 2050 hours and arrive in Cairo at 2305 hours. The return flight, EK 926, will take off from Cairo at 0045 hours and arrive at Dubai at 0615 hours.

Abu Dhabi Airports has been awarded the UAE’s first Aerodrome Flight Information Services (AFIS) certification from the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), for its Sir Bani Yas Airport. AFIS is provided at airfields where flight information is required but where the aircraft traffic does not warrant having a full Air Traffic Control service. AFIS can provide information to pilots about other known traffic that is landing, taking off, or flying in the vicinity of the airfield, as well as relevant meteorological information and status of the runway. To get the certification, Aerodrome Flight Information Service Officers (AFISOs) had to be trained as per the GCAA standards, new AFIS procedures were introduced, a watch tower was built and technical equipment, including communication and recording systems, were installed. H.E. Saif Al Suwaidi – Director General GCAA, commented, “The Aerodrome Flight Information Service Regulations are the first in this region, and in fact amongst the first in the world. Thus, the issue of a certificate for this service is a new concept, and it has taken a great deal of preparation in order to achieve the high standards necessary to attain the certification and the approval. Abu Dhabi Airports and GAL Air Navigation Services are congratulated for their accomplishment as the first unit in the region to receive this ground-breaking certification.”

Tourism Authority of Thailand recently held the Amazing Thailand Health and Wellness Showcase 2017 at Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld to encourage Thailand’s health tourism business, by demonstrating the potentiality and readiness of its health service products at international level. With the theme ‘Thailand a Paradise for Longevity’, the event saw about 44 sellers of Thai health and wellness products meeting around 80 buyers and health tourism business representatives from around 22 different countries, to showcase their items. Some of the health innovative services showcased at this event were regenerative medicine, anti-aging medicine, cosmetic dentistry for beauty, cosmetic surgery and cell therapy. There was strong presence of members from the Middle East, Scandinavian countries, South East Asia, UK and USA.

As part of the Dubai Maritime City Authority’s (DMCA) efforts to promote Dubai’s marine and leisure tourism, RASEINA Maritime Domestic & Leisure Working Group (one of DMCA initiatives) recently held a workshop for its members at the Address Dubai Marina hotel. The attendees discussed DMCA’s services to promote local marine and leisure tourism, including yacht registration, and also current and potential locations for marine entertainment activities. They also looked into the implementation of best practices to address the current and future challenges facing Dubai’s marine and leisure tourism sector. Amer Ali, Executive Director of DMCA, said, “We are constantly developing and regulating Dubai’s maritime sector in line with globally recognised standards. We are particularly committed to showcasing the role of the local marine and leisure tourism sector in boosting Dubai’s reputation as a global tourist destination. The workshop aimed to discuss industry-related issues and highlight the services provided by DMCA, while exploring all aspects of marine and leisure activities and improving the offered services to overcome the challenges and obstacles.”

Swiss-Belhotel International recently opened its second property in Aqaba, Jordan, named Marina Plaza Hotel. Located along the coast of Tala Bay, Marina Plaza Hotel is an exotic 4-star resort, offering breathtaking views of the golden mountains and the Red Sea. It has 260 well-appointed rooms and each room boasts a private balcony with relaxing views of the mountains or the Marina. Included in the hotel’s superb facilities are an international all-day-dining restaurant, a pool bar, an outdoor swimming pool, a separate kids’ pool and a full-service spa offering an array of health and beauty treatments. Guests can also enjoy daily recreation activities such as aqua aerobics and yoga or take advantage of a free shuttle service to the centre of Aqaba. Petra just a one-day trip from the resort while Wadi Rum is only an hour away from it. Swiss-Belhotel International currently has more than 3500 rooms under development in key destinations across the Middle East. Gavin M. Faull, Chairman and President of Swiss-Belhotel International, said, “Middle East is a strategic growth market for us where we have a robust development pipeline corresponding to 17% of our global portfolio. We are eager to expand in the region with the right partners such as Jordan Projects for Tourism Development and are pleased to flag Marina Plaza Hotel by Swiss-Belhotel as our latest property.”

Travelport announced a new agreement with First Diana Travel which will get the leading Lebanese travel agency access to Travelport’s unrivalled choice of travel content. By connecting to the Travelport platform, First Diana will now have intelligent, fast and accurate searching and booking tools to offer to its customers. It would be able to provide content from more than 400 airlines, including low cost and network carriers, more than 650,000 hotel properties and more than 37,000 car rental locations around the world. Bookers at the leisure and full service corporate agencies can use Travelport Smartpoint as their desktop tool to search beyond rate and availability while purchasing personalised travel packages, to drive performance and to increase revenues. Elcheikh Mohamed Ghouzayel, President and Owner of First Diana Travel, commented, “This is an exciting time for First Diana Travel and we’re thrilled to sign our debut deal with Travelport. Having recently extended our operation outside the Lebanese borders, into the Gulf region and Asia, we look forward to differentiating our offerings by utilising Travelport’s technology to provide our customers with a more personalised booking experience.”