More than 100 human resources experts from Dubai’s hospitality sector attended the 2nd Dubai College of Tourism HR Forum organised recently by the Dubai College of Tourism (DCT). The Forum was designed to provide recruitment and training specialists in hotels the opportunity to get a better understanding of UAE’s labour laws and find solutions to various work-related challenges. DCT, an institution established by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism),  plays a key role in human resources development in the emirate’s tourism industry and serves as a crucial link between Dubai Tourism and the trade to further enhance the quality of tourism services and the overall visitor experience. During the event held at The Address – Boulevard Hotel, speakers from government and private sector entities addressed the gathering of human resources professionals, covering topics such as Emiratisation, labour laws, and recruitment of staff. The participants were able to glean useful information and get advice from experts during the Q & A session that followed each presentation. Olivier R. Harnisch, CEO of Emaar Hospitality praised the work done by DCT and highlighted the fact that its Emiratisation objectives align with that of Emaar Hospitality. Major Majid AlZarouni, Head of Licensing Department, Security Industry Regulatory Agency (SIRA), a unit of Dubai Police that is responsible for the training of security guards, spoke on issues related to the hiring of security guards including their visas and salaries.

Effective August, Cebu Pacific Air guests who make booking changes within 24 hours from the time of ticket purchase will no longer be charged a rebooking or cancellation fee. Previously, passengers who made changes to their bookings such as flight dates and sequences were required to pay for the PHP1500 rebooking fee for domestic flights, or PHP2300 and PHP2800 for short haul and long haul international flights, respectively. Now, penalty fees are waived for booking corrections on flight sequence of city pairs, e.g., from Manila-Cebu to Cebu-Manila; and for changes on Sum of Sectors (SOS) bookings or connecting flights treated as one, e.g., Virac-Manila-Cebu to Cebu-Manila-Virac. Rebooking fees will also be waived for direct flights changed to SOS booking and vice-versa. While the rebooking and cancellation fees are waived, however, passengers who make such flight changes will still need to shoulder the fare difference. The waiver on the rebooking and cancellations fees is applicable across all booking channels of Cebu Pacific—whether through a travel agent, ticket office and call center. Ancillary services, such as seat selection, baggage allowance and pre-ordered meals, are also fully transferrable to other guests and flights at no extra cost.

After a record-breaking 2016, this year is looking just as promising for Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. Passenger volume to date has increased 6% over 2016. On the cargo front, volumes are up 30.2% on prior year as the long-term strategy for the sector, which included additional routes coming on stream, comes to fruition. This growth has also impacted overall aircraft movements which are up 17.6% year-on-year. Mohammed Qazi, CEO, RAK International Airport, who has been driving the strategy, noted, “Year 2017 started strongly as we continued our focus on promoting Ras Al Khaimah as the fastest-growing tourist destination regionally as well as the specialist cargo centre in the regional market, but summer was something we wanted to target this year as an indicator of our growing success. Even though the summer success has seen us breaking previous records, we have already finalised our winter charters schedules and are introducing further new scheduled routes, such as Romania, starting from December.” The continuing growth that’s been experienced means that all passenger, movements and cargo tonnage records since the airport’s original inauguration have now been surpassed. Charter flights have been running throughout the summer for the first time as Ras Al Khaimah moves towards being a year round destination for tourists. In addition the airport’s first scheduled direct service to Europe kicked off with a connection to Prague. “While the commercial performance has been at its strongest in our history, we have also invested in infrastructure with a new departures terminal and we’ll be completing our cargo expansion by the end of the year,” Qazi added. Technological innovation has also been at the heart of this year’s success. For smaller airports such as …

Emirates will be operating 45 additional flights to Jeddah and 12 additional flights to Medina from August 17 until September 11 to help serve 2 million pilgrims expected to travel to the Holy City of Mecca during Hajj this year. These services will run in parallel with Emirates’ regularly scheduled services to Jeddah. The airline will also be operating its A380 to Medina which will also support the increased demand during this period. The additional services are available to travellers holding a valid Hajj visa. This year, top inbound destinations Emirates is expecting Hajj pilgrims to come from are Yangon, Manchester, Mauritius, Jakarta, Karachi, Lagos and Nairobi. Adil Al Ghaith, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Gulf, Middle East and Iran, Emirates, said, “With a sizeable increase in demand for air travel during this period, Emirates is helping to make the journey more seamless for the scores of pilgrims making their way to the Holy City of Mecca. Whether it’s in the air or on the ground, Emirates aims to provide all its customers with the best experience in line with their faith, particularly at this significant time and important journey.” On the ground, Emirates has appointed a dedicated group of airport staff to seamlessly facilitate the passenger ground experience for Hajj. In addition, dedicated check-in counters have been set up for Hajj passengers in Dubai. In the air, several initiatives have been planned in keeping with the values and traditions that pilgrims uphold when travelling for Hajj. Extra provisions will be made to accommodate Hajj traveller needs such as performing ablutions, advising passengers about Al Miqat and Ihram (the phase when pilgrims enter a state of sanctity) and other arrangements …