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.

Air Arabia has expanded its international route network with a new service to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Starting 23 March 2017, the airline will operate four weekly flights from its primary Sharjah International Airport hub. On Thursdays and Sundays, the flight will depart Sharjah at 07:55 and arrive at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku at 10:50 local time, with the return flight scheduled from Baku at 11:30 destined to reach Sharjah at 14:10 local time. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the flight will depart from Sharjah at 14:55 to land in Baku at 17:50 local time, and make its return journey starting 18:50 at Baku and land at Sharjah International Airport at 21:30 local time. The launch of the new flights follows a joint cooperation between Air Arabia, Azerbajian Airlines and local authorities aimed at promoting the new route connecting Baku and Sharjah. Sitting on the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Azerbaijan’s largest city also serves as the country’s financial nerve centre. Baku invites business and leisure travellers to its unique urban setting where ancient stone mansions co-exist with newly developed skyscrapers and mosques that stand as architectural marvels.

The UAE’s first premium-experience travel website Musafir.com inaugurated a new flagship branch at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). With a specific focus on the corporate travel segment, the new branch located in the heart of Dubai’s financial district is expected to increase Musafir.com’s corporate travel bookings by 35 per cent over a period of next six months. With the recently upgraded online corporate tool that helps organisations manage their employees travel with ease, Musafir.com expects to see tremendous growth in their corporate clientele.  This follows 60 per cent growth in Musafir.com’s corporate travel bookings since January 2015. The new Musafir.com store was inaugurated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, Chairman of the Department of Statistics and Community Development and Co-founder of Musafir.com, in the presence of Sachin Gadoya, Managing Director and Co-founder of Musafir.com, and Saleh Al Akrabi, CEO of DIFC. The inauguration marks the 12th store opening for Musafir.com in the UAE – one of six new store openings lined up before the end of 2016 –and represents a key milestone in the travel provider’s ambitious regional expansion strategy.

A team from Golden Sands Hotel Apartments, part of A.A. Al Moosa Enterprises and pioneered the concept of hotel apartments in the region, has returned from a recent trip to Germany to meet with key tour operators in a bid to increase inbound tourists from Germany to the property. German guests are one of the top source markets for Golden Sands Hotel Apartments and the trip was organised to strengthen ties with their key partners who were recognised for their continuous promotion of Dubai and the property to this segment. The team of Mohammad Khoori, General Manager and Nives Deininger, Director of Sales shared vital information about industry developments including packages for the upcoming winter season. Trophies of appreciation were also handed to several key partners such as Thomas Cook, TUI Deutschland, Meier’s Weltreisen, Dertour and FTI Touristik during the visit. The German market has played a significant role in the UAE’s developing tourism industry and tourists are still flocking to the country in large numbers. Tourists from this segment have an average stay of five to six nights in the emirate.

Marriott International together with Sabre Hospitality Solutions has unveiled a new distribution and booking solution, www.MarriottWholesalers.com, that provides thousands of authorized wholesalers, destination marketing companies, and tour operators access to real‐time rates and inventory for more than 4,200 Marriott properties around the world. The solution is part of Marriott’s strategy to transform the wholesale and leisure segment with technology and shift to dynamic rates and automated reservations, replacing antiquated processes for contracting, accessing inventory and booking hotel rooms. Approved wholesalers can now search real time hotel net rates and inventory globally to create tailor‐made packages for their customers. All hotel bookings are confirmed instantly online. The solution provides significant value to smaller wholesalers by removing the need for them to make a technology investment to gain direct, dynamic access to rates and inventory. The solution will make it more efficient than ever to distribute Marriott’s inventory to the broader leisure package segment. Wholesalers can establish or renew access in seven languages at MarriottWholesalers.com and once authenticated, they immediately have access to the booking engine.

World Travel Services, based in Bahrain, is working to deliver a more personalised travel experience for its customers, using industry-leading technology from global travel technology company, Sabre Corporation.  The company, which signed a new multi-year agreement with the technology company, will use Sabre’s shopping, booking and travel management solutions to provide more choice to travelers, while also driving new revenue opportunities, operational efficiencies and productivity. The new agreement was marked by an official ceremony at World Travel Service offices, attended by senior management and Sabre executives from the region.  World Travel Services joins many other leading travel management companies in Bahrain and the region to use Sabre’s broad portfolio of technology to achieve business goals and revenue growth.

Action Hotels, the owner, developer and asset manager of branded three and four-star hotels in the Middle East and Australia, has announced that it has secured a long-term, 92-year lease on a plot of land at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for the development of a new four-star hotel.  The new hotel, which is expected to open in Q1 2018, will comprise 317 rooms and 14 apartments, making it the second largest hotel in Action’s portfolio. The hotel will be Action’s fourth property in Australia and third in Melbourne. The approximate total project cost is $69 million, which Action will fund partially through a new debt facility for the project and partially through existing resources. The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is the largest convention centre in the Southern hemisphere and currently accommodates over 5,500 delegates, last year hosting 1,030 events and attracting over 680,000 attendees.

Travelport has announced a new multi-year, global full content agreement (FCA) with Turkish carrier Atlasglobal Airlines. Under the agreement, Atlasglobal will now offer Travelport-connected agencies in over 180 countries, servicing hundreds of millions of consumers around the world, real-time access to its fares and inventory-through the Travel Commerce Platform. The airline also joins over 180 airlines now live on Travelport’s industry leading merchandising solution, Travelport Rich Content & Branding, which enables the airline’s fare families to appear on travel agency screens, on a fully integrated basis, in exactly the same way it displays fares and ancillaries on its own website. Operating in the region since 2001, and under the name Atlasglobal since 2015, the airline has a legacy of innovation in customer service and passenger quality and comfort, having introduced unique initiatives such as the “Flying Chef” and “Fly & Bus” services for its passengers. Atlasglobal operates a network across three continents and flies to almost 50 destinations. Travelport’s unsurpassed ability to provide detailed product descriptions- including images and related ancillary options- will support Atlasglobal in demonstrating its unique attributes to the 68,000 Travelport connected travel agents around the world. The merchandising solution also offers the airline the ability to send tailored offers to travel agents and corporates to help drive additional bookings and revenues per seat.

Qatar Airways will provide travellers with greater access to the idyllic white sand beaches and turquoise waters of the Seychelles with daily flights from Doha starting on December 12, 2016. Travellers wishing to explore Seychelles – one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations in the Indian Ocean – will enjoy convenient flights and award-winning service when travelling with Qatar Airways. Residents of the Seychelles will also benefit from the opportunity to connect to the airline’s network of more than 150 business and leisure destinations around the world via the airline’s hub in Doha. The airline’s expanding global reach and modern fleet will take travellers to exciting places across the globe including the airline’s latest destinations launched in 2016: Adelaide, Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Marrakech, Pisa, Ras Al Khaimah, Sydney, Windhoek and Yerevan.

Following the successful Las Vegas Customer Forum earlier this year, Sabre Hospitality Solutions last week (October 10-12) invited key hotel players from across the region to its EMEA Customer Forum in Abu Dhabi. The event brought together Sabre’s hospitality clients with industry experts and technology gurus to identify and discuss the most relevant trends impacting the industry and explore in-depth some of the most avant-garde innovations on the horizon. Keynote speaker Jonathan MacDonald, founder of Thought Expansion Network (TEN) gave insights on “Radical Disruption: How to turn risk into opportunity”. Sabre unveiled the latest innovative technology solutions developed to drive successful hotel strategies and increase business and asked participating hoteliers for feedback and comments.