R Hotels has announced that its 253-key property at the Palm Jumeirah, scheduled to open next year, will be the first holistic health and wellness resort in the UAE. The group is expected to sign a partnership with a renowned global brand in developing the concept and providing the services. Sumair Tariq, Managing Director, R Hotels, commented, “People are more health-conscious than before and we have witnessed an increased demand for products which are designed for healthy lifestyle including leisure activities, food, and even gadgets. With this trend, our group is keen to introduce the region’s first health and wellness resort, by partnering with trusted brands.” The pre-opening of the property will be headed by Samir Arora, who is currently the General Manager of Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham JBR. The property, which is the first four star-rated hotel at The Palm, will offer not just spa and beauty treatments, but various wellbeing and lifestyle packages – from proper diet and nutrition, fitness classes and health treatments. The hotel will hire certified nutritionist and wellness coach for the programs such weight loss, both for kids and adult. Some of the fitness classes planned includes yoga, tai chi, Pilates and aerobics. The overall design concept of the property will be organic, with the use of earth colours and materials like wood, to imbibe a fresh, calm and soothing atmosphere. It will offer an Executive Lounge on the seventh floor, and Executive and Presidential Suites on the sixth and seventh floor, all boasting private terrace with exquisite views. In addition to trendy sun loungers, the pool area and private beach will have cabanas for families and groups to enjoy. There will also be …

India Tourism in Dubai and Indian Embassy in Cairo organised a ‘Know India’ seminar for the travel trade at Tagore Hall, Embassy of India, in Cairo recently. I.R.V. Rao, Assistant Director, India Tourism in Dubai, Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Ambassador of India to Arab Republic of Egypt, Melwin D’ Silva, Regional Manager-Gulf, Middle East and Africa, Air India, attended the event with 45 travel agents, representatives from Egypt Air and Qatar Airways. The delegation from the Government of Egypt included Mahmoud Abdel Wahab, General Manager-Tourism Relations, Ministry of Tourism, Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Mohamed Salama, Egyptian Tourism Authority (ITA), Ministry of Tourism, Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The event was held on July 14, 2016.

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (TDA) gathered close to 100 tourism stakeholders for a destination workshop designed to increase collaboration and alignment of the emirate’s promotional activities. Hosted at the Rixos Bab Al Bahr, a five-star property on Ras Al Khaimah’s Marjan Island, the event attracted industry partners, hoteliers, destination management companies (DMCs) and government entities from across Ras Al Khaimah and the UAE. The workshop provided attendees with updates on RAKTDA’s marketing and communications activities at home and abroad, including recent partnerships with travel trade entities in key European and Asian source markets. Additional details were shared on the strategy to attract one million visitors to the emirate by the end of 2018.

In a bid to increase capacity between Dubai and Milan, Emirates will deploy a second daily A380 on the route from October 1, 2016. The shift from a Boeing 777-300ER to the double decker represents a capacity increase of 1,834 seats per week between the two cities; enabling more A380 to A380 connections to and from key destinations in Australia, China, South Korea and South East Asia with just one stop in Dubai. Emirates flights EK91/92 will be operated by an Airbus A380 aircraft in a 3-class configuration with 14 Private Suites in First Class, 76 flat-bed seats in Business Class and 401 seats in Economy Class. Passengers in all classes will enjoy access to free Wi-Fi. Emirates’ flight EK91 departs from Dubai at 15:45hrs and arrives in Milan at 20:30hrs. The outbound flight EK92 departs from Milan at 22:20hrs and arrives in Dubai at 06:25hrs the following day. The airline currently operates three daily services between Dubai and Milan, as well as a daily flight from Milan to New York JFK.

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United States is the top source market for inbound travel in the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany, India and France, according to a recent Q2 Report by Sojern. As per the report, except for India all other destinations which topped last year dropped due to various reasons. Outbound travel ranking of popular destinations for MEA travellers had changed in Q2 as well. This time Bahrain shows the highest growth percentage of 188 per cent in travel between June 30 and July 1, followed by Qatar with 164 per cent, Iraq 148 per cent, Kuwait 132 per cent and the UAE with 131 per cent in comparison to the week before. There has been a regional travel increase from 15 per cent to 25 per cent post Ramadan.

Starting 1st August 2016, Qatar Airways will increase the number of flights from Doha to Muscat to enable more passenger traffic between the two destinations. Now with 35 flights a week from Hamad International Airport travellers can easily explore the popular Omani capital city. Passengers travelling from Muscat will now also have increased access to the rest of the world, with the ability to connect through Hamad International Airport and enjoy award-winning facilities, such as Qatar Airways’ Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge while connecting to more than 150 destinations. Qatar Airways’ new flight to Muscat will depart from Doha at 2.20 am, arriving in Muscat at 5am, with the return flight departing from Muscat at 6.45am and landing in Doha at 7:25am. The airline operates services to Muscat with its A320 aircraft, offering both its award-winning Business and Economy Class options to passengers. Qatar Airways was announced as the World’s Best Business Class in the 2016 World Airline Awards this week, as voted for by global travellers. The Skytrax awards recognised the airline for its commitment to offering passengers an unrivalled travelling experience announcing Qatar Airways as also offering the Best Business Class Airline Lounge and the Best Airline Staff Service in the Middle East.  

Jordan has been announced as the official host for the 6th edition of the Arab Aviation Summit which will take place at the Dead Sea in Jordan on 5th and 6th December 2016. The theme of the forthcoming summit will be ‘Linking Cultures, Driving Economies’ to draw attention to the interdependent roles the Aviation and Tourism sectors play in contributing to the greater economic development of the region. It is the most prominent aviation and tourism event within the region focusing on trends, insights and opportunities driving the continuous growth and development of the avia-tourism industry in the Arab world. Described as the ‘voice of the industry,’ the summit is an industry initiative launched in 2011 and is organised on an annual basis in collaboration with aviation and tourism leaders, government entities, media heavy-weights and other well-entrenched organisations, to lead the discussion on a variety of topics relevant to key stakeholders and aviation commentators.

Turkish Airlines media relations office has announced that FAA has removed the recent order of all airline carriers, regardless of the country of registry, prohibited from flying into the United States from Turkey either directly or via third country. Accordingly, all scheduled Turkish Airlines flights to the US will resume starting as of 19th July 2016 with Turkish Airlines Istanbul – NYC flight at 06:45 am. İlker Aycı, Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, Turkish Airlines, stated: “Earlier today I had stated that we saw no reason for the ban as all precautions were in line with the norms. Following our recent report and dense meetings, FAA removed the ban as expected.” Following the illegal failed coup attempt in Turkey, on July 16th 2016 at noon hours FAA had issued a ban of “All airline carriers, regardless of country of registry, are prohibited from flying into the United States from Turkey either directly or via third country.” Furthermore, they extended their gratitude to their passengers for their understanding for the inconvenience. Due to this situation, for individual and group reservations, provided that flights operated by Turkish Airlines (including AnadoluJet trademark), departing/arriving to Turkey (including domestic flights) and/or transit flights via Turkey, flights operated between 15 July 2016 – 17 July 2016 (inclusive), ticketed on/before 15 July 2016 and tickets are revalidated untıl 15 August 2016 (ınclusive) will disregard related fare rules as mentioned below. 1) All Rebooking/ReRouting: will be made without any charge provided that new destination is same IATA region & same cabin class 2) Refund requests: a) Unused tickets: refund will be made without any charge; or b) For partially used tickets, when planned trip is …

In order to improve its transparent communication with its stakeholders, Turkish Airlines has released a mobile Investor Relations App compatible with iPad, iPhone and Android devices. With this application, all Turkish Airlines stakeholders, including shareholders, analysts and investors will be able to access the latest news and developments regarding Turkish Airlines with three different digital platforms and in two languages. With this application, users will  have online and offline access to various information and documents about Turkish Airlines including public disclosures, operational and financial disclosures, investor presentations and annual reports both in Turkish and in English and they will be updated with instant notifications. The application is accessible via Apple Store and Google Play with the searching word “Turkish Airlines”.