Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide signed an agreement with Saudi Real Estate Company (Al-Akaria) to open two new hotels in Riyadh. Scheduled to open in 2022, The Westin Riyadh and Element Riyadh will feature a combined 632 rooms. These signings mark the return of the Westin flag to Saudi Arabia and the first Element in the country. The properties will be a part of a mix-use development in the vicinity of the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), in the heart of Riyadh. Michael Wale, President, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Europe, Africa and Middle East stated that Saudi Arabia remains one of their strongest growth markets in the region and they were thrilled to be strengthening their presence in the country with two new hotels together with Al-Akaria.  As one of the Middle East’s key business hubs, Riyadh is an increasingly popular destination for regional and international travellers and a great choice for the expansion of their Westin and Element brands. Starwood operates 53 hotels and resorts across the Middle East under eight of the company’s ten distinct lifestyle brands including: The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, Le Méridien, Four Points by Sheraton and Aloft. With a pipeline of over 40 hotels, the company is on target to operate 100 hotels in the Middle East by 2020.  Saudi Arabia remains Starwood’s second largest market in the region with 10 operational hotels and 13 properties in the pipeline.

Corinthia and Meydan Group have entered into a strategic relationship to support the design development and operate the iconic resort property being built on the site of the former Meydan Beach Club. The Corinthia at Meydan Beach will comprise 300 bedrooms and 60 high-end serviced apartments when it opens for business in 2019. Its grand architecture features a stepped podium wrapping around lavish, landscaped pools and gardens cascading onto the beach, and offers extensive indoor and outdoor leisure and dining facilities, a luxury Spa, a club and banqueting amenities. A 55-storey tower comprising residential apartments, bedrooms, suites and entertainment zones will sit atop one side of the podium, commanding views of some of the most spectacular sights in Dubai, including the Palm Island and the Dubai Eye under development across the waters.

Dusit Hotels and Resorts announces the signing of a technical design agreement with ACES Property Development to bring a new hotel apartment project under the DusitPrincess brand to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement was formalised at a signing ceremony recently held at the Dusit Thani Bangkok presided over by executives from both companies, including Dusit’s Group Chief Executive Officer Suphajee Suthumpun and Founding Director of ACES, Kashif Shahzad.  The DusitPrincess ACES Dubai will be located in the Jumeirah Village Circle, in close proximity to the new Al Makhtoum International Airport, the Palm Jumeirah, and other exciting shopping and entertainment venues. Full details will be released at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony to be held soon.

Qatar Airways and SriLankan Airlines, both members of the oneworld alliance, have strengthened their cooperation with a bilateral code-share relationship.The airlines will code-share on flights between their respective hubs – Qatar Airways’ thrice daily Airbus A340-600 operations to Colombo and SriLankan Airlines’ daily Airbus A330-300 flight to Doha. The combination of four daily flights between Doha and Colombo will offer customers additional convenience and flexibility. Passengers travelling to Colombo on Qatar Airways now have additional connectivity to the popular holiday hotspot Male, in the Maldives. SriLankan Airlines passengers can also now transit through Doha’s Hamad International Airport and travel onwards, subject to government approvals, to 20 leisure and business destinations, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Rome, Frankfurt, Geneva, Manchester, Milan, Oslo, Sofia, Stockholm, Vienna, Zurich, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Bahrain and Cape Town. Travellers will also benefit from accruing frequent flyer miles, together with other oneworld privileges such as access to spacious lounges, extra baggage allowances, priority check-in and boarding, fast track security lanes and special fares across both carriers’ networks.

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) hosted its largest ever group of travel trade professionals from Africa, during a six-day familiarisation trip aimed at positioning Dubai as a leading destination of choice. The familiarisation trip, which ends today, has given over 300 senior management executives from 12 African countries – South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius, Uganda, Tanzania and Cote D’Ivoire – first-hand insights into the array of unique experiences, attractions and activities that Dubai offers, with the spotlight falling on the city’s upcoming summer calendar, starting with the cultural activities during the holy month of Ramadan, followed by the Eid in Dubai celebrations and the Dubai Summer Surprises. In addition to visiting a number of key attractions across the city, the delegation also attended the  Dubai Tourism Conference and Workshop on 3 June, which provided an overview of Dubai’s tourism offerings and the kind of support that is being offered to the African travel trade to promote Dubai in their continent. Presentations were also made by officials from the different agencies and divisions of Dubai Tourism such as Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE),  the organiser of major festivals in Dubai, digital and marketing communications and Dubai Calendar.

Rotana has announced that 16 of its hotels in the United Arab Emirates, representing nearly 50 per cent of the company’s portfolio in the country, have obtained the ISO 14001 environmental management certification. ISO 14001 is an international standard that provides a set of standardised requirements for environmental management systems. The independent, third-party certification audit was conducted by Bureau Veritas, a global leader in conformity assessment and certification services. Commenting on the achievement, Rotana’s Chief Operating Officer, Guy Hutchinson said that the social, economic and legal arguments for taking action on environmental issues are becoming more persuasive and more widely requested by different stakeholders. Rotana hotels around the world are taking various initiatives for the sake of the environment under our global sustainability platform Rotana Earth. Now, they have gone one step further by adopting the internationally-recognised ISO 14001 environmental management standard in their hotels, and are extremely proud that as many as 16 Rotana hotels in the UAE have successfully implemented and achieved this certification.

With 40 multilingual staff that operates 24 hours a day with the aim of serving customers as an outlet, Omeir Travel Agency, the flagship company of the Omeir Bin Youssef Group, has invested AED 4 million for upgrading its high tech call center in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The upgraded call center in Abu Dhabi has extending support to all the services, and guarantee easy accessibility and better overall customer experience. The call center is equipped with the state of the art Cisco Call Center solutions with professionally trained customer care agents to work seamlessly and round-the-clock with customer demands and business needs, ranging from general queries related to visa, travel insurance, ticketing to hotels and holidays and more. Customers can choose to visit the call center directly to discuss or can call the call center.

Hilton Worldwide has announced signing of a management agreement with United Tower Real Estate to open DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Bahrain Dilmunia Island.This will be located at the Dilmunia Island project, currently under development off the coast of Bahrain. Featuring 237 serviced apartments, DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Bahrain Dilmunia Island will offer a mix of studio, one and two bedroom apartments. Carlos Khneisser, vice president of development, Middle East & North Africa, said: “With more than 70% of our Middle East pipeline currently under construction, Hilton’s presence is growing rapidly across the region. The project at Dilmunia Island will be an addition to the Hilton portfolio in the Middle East.” Guests will be able to choose from three dining outlets including an all-day dining restaurant, a lobby café and a pool café. Leisure facilities include an outdoor swimming pool, a spa, health club and salon. For business guests, the hotel will offer four meeting rooms, a boardroom and a business center. Hilton now features three properties across its Bahraini development pipeline, in its Hilton Hotels & Resorts and DoubleTree by Hilton portfolio. There are more than 67 properties currently under development in the Middle East, which will more than double the existing portfolio size over the next few years.

Qatar-based Al Sawari Holding, with interests across hospitality, real estate and education sectors has signed an MoU and management agreements to mark its entry into India. The collaborations were formalised on the occasion of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Qatar. The MoU was been signed by H.E. Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman of Al Sawari Holding and Al Faisal Holding and Vivek Nair, CMD, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts. Under this agreement, the Al Sawari Group will purchase a 6 acre site from The Leela Group in Agra to develop a hotel complex. This will include two hotels – a-100 room Leela Palace Hotel and a 150-room Aiana Hotel on the same plot. Al Sawari Holding has also entered into management agreements with both the Leela Group as well as Aiana Hotels and Resorts to operate the respective hotels. The land is located less than one kilometre from the Taj Mahal. “Qatar has a long history of bilateral relations with India and there is a lot of synergy between the two cultures. We are delighted to enter into these landmark agreements with The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts and Aiana Hotels and Resorts during the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Qatar. We are confident that Al Sawari Holding’s foray into the Indian hospitality industry will further enhance the economic and culture relations between the two countries”, said Thani. The two new hotels will offer a host of signature restaurants and lounges along with spacious banquet halls and state of the art health centres and spas. Both hotels will cater to the upmarket leisure tourists and the MICE segment. Construction is expected to …

Etihad Airways’ much-anticipated A380 touched down in Melbourne on June 3, beginning a new era of luxury travel on the Melbourne-Abu Dhabi and Melbourne-London routes. The A380 features The Residence, the world’s first three-room private suite on a commercial aircraft, as well as ground-breaking innovations in all cabins. The inaugural Abu Dhabi-Melbourne A380 flight – EY460 – departed Abu Dhabi Airport at 10.15pm last night and arrived at Melbourne Airport at 5.45pm. The aircraft, in the airline’s ‘Facets of Abu Dhabi livery, will be welcomed to the Victorian capital by a traditional water cannon salute. The return Melbourne-Abu Dhabi flight – EY461 –departed Melbourne at 10.10pm tonight. From today, the flagship superjumbo will operate one of the airline’s double daily flights between Melbourne and Abu Dhabi. It will replace one of the three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft currently deployed on the route. Etihad Airways Senior Vice President of Marketing, Shane O’Hare, said: “Today marks another major milestone for Etihad Airways in Australia. With Melbourne joining our A380 network, Australia is the only country in our global network with daily A380 services to two cities – Melbourne and Sydney. “Deploying our latest technology aircraft and class-leading product and service to Australia recognises its importance to our business and the strong demand from Australian travellers for premium travel experiences. The A380 will increase the total number of two-way seats on the Melbourne-Abu Dhabi route by 26 per cent to more than 11,500 seats per week. Mr O’Hare said this would ease the capacity constraints on the Melbourne-Abu Dhabi, particularly for business and premium leisure travel.