Dubai Parks and Resorts officially opened its doors to the public, also commencing the region’s first LEGOLAND® Dubai theme park and Riverland™ Dubai, the multi-themed dining and retail destination located at the heart of Dubai Parks and Resorts. LEGOLAND® Dubai will be open daily from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, while Riverland™ Dubai will remain open from Sunday to Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 11 PM and from 10:00 AM to 12 AM from Thursday to Saturday. The ticket prices start from AED 430 (1 Day All Theme Parks hopper) and goes on to AED 6995 (Amazing VIP Annual Pass). The Bollywood Parks™ Dubai, LEGOLAND® Water Park and the Lapita™ Hotel will open on November 15, followed by MOTIONGATE™ Dubai on December 16. Raed Kajoor Al Nuaimi, CEO of DXB Entertainments PJSC, the owner of Dubai Parks and Resorts said: “I’m immensely proud that today we start to welcome guests to Experience Amazing at this incredible new destination.  Riverland™ Dubai and LEGOLAND® Dubai will be unveiled for the very first time and offer unique experiences and entertainments that I genuinely believe will set the bar in this region.  Nothing of this magnitude has ever been done before and after three years of hard work it is a great honour to start to show our guests what we have achieved.  As the largest entertainment destination in the region, Dubai Parks and Resorts will support the UAE’s tourism vision and grow the family leisure industry in the region.” The project is a joint venture between Meraas Holding and DXB Entertainments PJSC. Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al …

Etihad Airways’ latest Boeing 787 Dreamliner route was launched with the art aircraft touching down in Riyadh, capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aircraft operates on one of the twice-daily flights between Abu Dhabi International Airport and Khalid International Airport. The occasion was marked with an official welcome ceremony attended by the airline’s senior management led by Hareb Almuhairy, Etihad Airways Senior Vice President Corporate and International Affairs, together with Mohammad Al Bulooki, Etihad Airways Vice President UAE and GCC Commercial, Sultan AL Mansoori, GCC Country Manager, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Adel Al Ragadi, Terminal Operation Manager, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The Dreamliner offers more seats and features the airline’s award-winning interiors in a two-class configuration – 28 Business Studios, each providing aisle access and equipped with an in-seat massage and air cushion control system, and 271 Economy Smart Seats with unique ‘fixed wing’ headrests. Riyadh becomes Etihad Airways’ newest B787 destination this year following the induction of the aircraft on flights to Perth, Dusseldorf and Shanghai, with Abu Dhabi – Johannesburg set to become a Dreamliner route on 1 November. Etihad Airways’ current fleet of nine B787s also operates to Singapore, Washington DC, Brisbane and Zurich. The aircraft is equipped with full mobile and Wi-Fi services as well as the latest Panasonic eX3 in-flight entertainment system featuring seven satellite channels of live TV including BBC World News, Sport 24 and CNN to name a few.   Etihad Airways currently operates 14 weekly non-stop flights to and from Riyadh; 21 weekly services to Jeddah; 21 weekly flights to Dammam, in addition to a daily operation to Medina.

Air India Express and Jet Airways have both launched new Sharjah routes this year catering to business travellers and tourists, plus Indian expatriates working in the UAE. Jet Airways introduced a new daily route to Sharjah International Airport from Mangaluru (IXE) in India’s southern state of Karnataka in August and has just announced a new daily service from Kozhikode, or Calicut (CCJ) in Kerala, beginning 30 October 2016. Meanwhile, Kochi-headquartered Air India Express has, so far, added three new routes this year connecting Sharjah with Mumbai (SAHAR), Chandigarh (IXC) and Tiruchirapalli (TRZ) airports, bringing its total number of direct Sharjah services to seven. The low-cost airline also operates direct flights to Sharjah from Kochi (COK), Kozhikode (CCJ), Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) and Varanasi (VNS). Jet Airways also plans to launch a daily service from Hyderabad to Sharjah in December 2016. Jet Airways is India’s second largest airline operating flights to 67 destinations.

Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) and Hamriyah Free Zone both launched new marketing roadshows targeting India during the past few days, building on a busy year of promotion activities by Sharjah authorities. The SCTDA kicked off a four-city roadshow in Mumbai this week, which also visits New Delhi, Chandigarh and Bengaluru (Bangalore). The roadshow introduces seven Sharjah hotels, two destination management companies, plus leading budget carrier Air Arabia, to key Indian outbound tour operators and other industry contacts. Trade, investment and tourism from India have become a top priority for Sharjah, as its trade promotion organisations campaign widely to capitalise on growing interest in the emirate. Meanwhile, a delegation from Hamriyah Free Zone, headed by Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, Director of Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) and Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone), met with business leaders in Delhi a few days ago. Hamriyah Free Zone and SAIF Zone have both organised an extensive calendar of trade and investment promotion campaigns in India this year, visiting all major commercial centres in the country. Benefits such as 100 percent ownership, tax exemptions and allowing companies to repatriate 100 percent capital and profits have made the free zones very popular with Indian businesses. According to official estimates, about 7,000 of the 15,000 companies operating out of the two free zones are owned and controlled by Indian investors.

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) has announced its decision to implement International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) New Distribution Capability (NDC) in a modular approach. Saudia has appointed TPConnects, a leading technology solutions provider, as its NDC distribution partner to manage the NDC standard platform. At Saudia, implementation of NDC is seen as a major Transformation project focusing on revenue drivers, major cost reducing programs and implementing ONE Order initiatives, beyond opportunities in distribution. NDC standards enable Saudia to offer our guests the opportunity to have a consistent shopping experience, including access to rich content, ability to buy ancillary products and services and to be recognized and receive personalized offers, wherever they shop for Saudia products, especially from the travel agents and Online Travel Agency channels. The introduction of NDC could help travel agents to improve the offering to the customer, to upsell additional services including branded fares or fare families which are of value to both the traveler and the corporation and create business process improvements.

Following a successful 2015/2016 run, which saw passenger numbers grow by 19 per cent and ship calls increase by 24 per cent compared to the previous year, two new lines — Norwegian Cruise Line and Thomson Cruises — are making their debut in the region with their maiden call to Dubai Cruise Terminal this season. Thomson Cruises will be the first ever UK-based cruise line to home port in Dubai contributing over 12 calls and over 25,000 cruise tourists to Dubai this season. The new season is projected to record an 18 per cent increase in ship calls, leading to 157 ship calls and an estimated 600,000 cruise tourists arriving in the city. Dubai Cruise has experienced significant growth since 2014, after the implementation of the multiple-entry UAE visa, which opened up potential emerging source markets such as India, China, South America and Russia. With over 23 of the world’s leading cruise operators — including six home-porting lines — anchoring in Dubai for an overnight stay or passenger turn-around, and an estimated 10 maiden ship calls, the 2016/2017 season is expected to continue the  upward trajectory, contributing to Dubai’s strategic goal of achieving 20 million visitors per year by 2020.

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.

The first edition of the Tourism Innovation and Transformation Forum is organised by the UAE Ministry of Economy (MOE) in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is all set to be held in Dubai, UAE on November 23, 2016. The Forum organised by Ministry of Economy during UAE Innovation Week to discuss how tourism stakeholders can prepare for and attract next generation of visitors to the region.

The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) aims to showcase the Kingdom’s rich link to the sea tying it to several Bahraini sea-related traditions and cultural activities. Last week they witnessed more than 4,000 people attended the ‘Sea Festival’ held at Bahrain Bay as part of ‘Manama Capital of Gulf Tourism’ calendar of events.  The Sea Festival, running until Saturday 29th October, has attracted scores of residents and visitors of all ages who enjoyed a fun-filled family experience through the exciting sea-related activities like the jet ski and the modern virtual reality games.  The festival includes a series of activities including a multimedia photo gallery and video display that demonstrates the history of pearl diving in addition to several workshops that showcases the sea-related handicrafts which includes the making of fishing and diving equipment. As it also features a Dhow and Boat display that is lit-up with the use of decorative lighting.

The latest global study by Sabre reveals that travellers would spend $100 on airline ancillaries to personalize travel experience.  Sabre surveyed travellers from 20 countries about what they would spend and why. The results show that 80 percent of travellers purchased air extras on their last trip, spending an average of $62.  When asked if they would spend more to personalise their trip, the answer was “yes” – up to $99 if it improved their travel experience. The research was announced at the IATA World Passenger Symposium in Dubai, as part of a Sabre-hosted industry roundtable on how airlines and hotels can deliver more tailored offers and services to customers. More details in our December print version.