Tag Archives: Dubai

Tamarind Global has gone international by expanding its presence to Dubai, a huge source market for Indian weddings and events. The company already has a presence in Dubai for its tours vertical. It will now offer a bouquet of event and wedding services to support its domestic and international operations from the Dubai office. Weddings and events will be supported by destination selection, planning and budgeting, guest list and vendor management, hospitality, travel and logistics, décor, F&B, entertainment and fashion consultations for the bride and groom wear. Apart from this, MiCE events will also be supported. A team of two will start the base of operations at the Dubai office. Kunal Rai, Vice President – Events and Weddings, will head the Dubai vertical, “With the launch of our Dubai office, Tamarind now offers its services to a ‘global’ audience. We aim to lead the market by providing an all-inclusive bouquet of services to make each event unique, glamorous and memorable.” Elucidating on the reason for expanding to Dubai, he said, “With the progressive growth of the Middle East as a popular destination, Dubai is the best choice to set up a regional HQ. It will act as a start point that will drive maximum output to penetrate primarily the UAE and Middle East market.”

Rove Hotels has launched Rove Dubai Marina, the fifth hotel in Dubai that celebrates the inspired setting of its waterfront location. With its central location and tech-savvy environment for the socially connected new generation, Rove Dubai Marina brings a new hospitality choice to visitors to the city with its stylish marina-front setting. A joint venture between Meraas and Emaar Properties PJSC, Rove Hotels currently has four operational hotels in key locations in Dubai – Rove Downtown, Rove City Centre, Rove Healthcare City and Rove Trade Centre. Several Rove Hotels are being planned in other locations within the city. Rove Dubai Marina has 384 rooms that present a design-influenced lifestyle choice for value-conscious leisure and business travellers. Located centrally in one of the region’s largest waterfront developments, the hotel offers leisure guests the ease of accessing Dubai’s popular beaches as well as a vibrant marina. The Dubai Marina Mall, with a vivid array of retail and leisure choices, is located nearby as well as the Dubai Marina Yacht Club that serves as a prestigious address for marina enthusiasts and The Beach, an upbeat urban waterfront destination created by Meraas.

Emirates is set to add a second daily flight between Dubai and Prague from July 1, 2018, after steadily growing passenger numbers on the route since its launch of operations in July 2010. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER with a capacity of 360 seats, boosting inbound tourism through the additional 262,800 seats it will provide. The year-round flight will have a three class configuration offering eight Private Suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Business and 310 spacious seats in Economy. Emirates‘ flight EK137 will leave Dubai at 15:30 and arrive in Prague at 19:55. The return flight EK138 will depart Prague at 21:35 and arrive in Dubai at 05:30 on the following day, giving travellers a full day in Dubai. The second daily flight will improve Prague’s connectivity to and from a range of destinations in the Emirates network including Far East places like Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Phuket in Thailand, Yangon in Myanmar, Guangzhou in China and Phnom Penh in Cambodia. African destinations of Durban, Dar-Es-Salaam, Harare, Lusaka, Entebbe and Nairobi as well as Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand and Brisbane in Australia will be easily reached with improved connectivity with a convenient transit in Dubai’s world-class hub.

Nour Aridi, Country Manager, Visit Indonesia Tourist Office along with the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia hosted a brand new campaign to the travel fraternity in Dubai with an interesting presentation. Indonesia, with over 17,000 islands, has some of the best tourist spots in the world. This year, they are on a new venture to promote these picturesque destinations especially to the many travellers in the UAE. It was an exclusive event which discussed and showcased new areas of tourism as well as the infrastructure that will be developed alongside the same. The partners had an opportunity to meet the tourism board officials to discuss further about ways to promote their destination.

Highlighting Dubai’s position as a leading winter cruise destination, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) is on track to welcome 1 million cruise tourists by 2020-21. DTCM also emphasised on the city’s growing popularity as a global cruise destination viable for pre-cruise and post-cruise stopovers, and an apt homeport in the region at the Seatrade Cruise Global in Florida, USA, a leading event for the cruise industry. Exhibited under the Cruise Arabia banner, Dubai Tourism brought together the tourism authorities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain on a unified stand with the goal of promoting the region as a whole, and improving business sustainability and development. The three-day event also saw networking and business opportunities with leading brands in the global cruise industry, to discuss deployments and homeporting opportunities in Dubai to heighten the awareness of the destination’s cruise offerings to a global audience. Hamad Bin Mejren, Senior Vice President, Dubai Tourism, said, “Cruise Tourism is certainly a key industry for the Gulf and we are dedicated to educating consumers around the world about the region as a key winter cruising destination. We have been working to highlight Dubai’s ease of accessibility with the latest introduction of a multi-entry UAE visit visa exclusively for cruise tourists, as well as simplified immigration and cruise-specific visa procedures on our online portals.”

Cebu Pacific (CEB) offers 25 kilograms of additional free baggage allowance to UAE residents travelling from Dubai to Manila. Starting March 1 until November 30, 2018, all passengers originating from Dubai travelling to Manila with pre-purchased baggage allowance of 40 kilograms will receive additional 25 kilograms baggage allowance, free-of-charge. The offer will be given upon check-in of the guest at the airport. A 40-kilogram baggage allowance on Cebu Pacific costs between AED 320 and AED 340. Passengers, even those with connecting flights to other Philippine domestic destinations operated by Cebu Pacific, will get the advantage of the additional 25 kilograms being carried over up to their next flight, as long as their flight itinerary is booked under one reference number only. This promotion is not valid on return flights from the Philippines to the Middle East, and on bookings with Cebgo connecting flights.

According to Dubai tourism, Dubai will be the first city to embark on the journey of democratising travel through the use of emerging technologies as it adds an additional distribution channel for hotels in its first phase, as its recently announced 10X initiative. Launched at the World Government Summit by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai Government as one of the ‘Dubai 10X’ projects, Dubai Tourism (DTCM) is set to implement this ground-breaking programme within the next 24 months, enabling Dubai to enhance distribution of its tourism inventory through a future-proofed virtual B2B marketplace for the travel industry. Explaining the objective of 10X, Al Maktoum said, “Success of governments is determined by their ability and flexibility to re-invent themselves, and upgrade their services to cater to the evolving needs of the community.” Dubai Tourism aims to give global guests direct choice across the breadth and depth of the local tourism inventory within a highly safe, transparent and real-time environment. As the first mover in the facilitation of this type of technologically advanced, secure and scalable digital solution for the travel industry, it positions Dubai as a think-thank and innovation leader seeking to truly democratise travel.

Tourists can now expect to experience a one-of-a-kind shopping destination on their visit to Dubai during the latter part of the year as the emirate is building one of the most exclusive malls in the world with a 365 day miracle garden in the centre. According to Fahimuddin Sharfuddin, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member, Cityland Group, “With consistent progress on both the construction and leasing side, we look forward to launching Cityland Mall during the fourth quarter of this year and add a unique dimension in terms of retail to the UAE market. We are working to conclude the leasing activities by adding an additional 30 per cent of leased retail space by year-end.” In terms of construction, 60 per cent of the project has been completed as of February 2018. By the end of Q2, 2018 the site will be open for most of the mall tenants to come in and commence their fit-out works. The landscaping contract for Central Park has been awarded to Miracle Garden Landscaping, the company behind the world-class landscaped projects such as Dubai Miracle Garden and Dubai Butterfly Garden. The 200,000 sq.ft. Central Park will provide a unique experience for shoppers and has been designed to accommodate 7,000 shoppers at a time in its vast expanse.

SaudiGulf Airlines will launch its maiden international operations to Dubai as a double daily flight catering to the corporate and leisure travellers between the two nations from March 1, 2018. The flight will departure Riyadh at 07:50 and arrive Dubai at 10:55, and commence departure from Dubai at 12:10 with arrival at 13:05 in Riyadh. The other flight timings will be 16:00 departing Riyadh and reaching Dubai by 18:55, and departing Dubai at 20:55 and reaching Riyadh by 21:50 with a starting all inclusive fare of AED 999. It will be a two configuration A320 with 16 Business First class seats and 120 seats in economy, an in-flight entertainment system, Wi-Fi service onboard along with a dedicated chauffeur service in Riyadh. Samer Majali, President and Chief Executive Officer, SaudiGulf Airlines stated that after just one year and two months of domestic operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they found the niche in Dubai in the international market to serve a destination with the most amount of traffic. This strategic decision was taken by SaudiGulf Airlines considering the strong affairs between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, supported by Dubai Tourism to provide greater varieties to travellers from both countries.

Emirates will once again begin operations with its flagship A380 service between Houston (IAH) and Dubai (DXB) from June 1, 2018. Houston will join more than 40 destinations on Emirates’ extensive global network served by its popular A380 aircraft, including Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Kuwait. Emirates will deploy its three-class A380 on the Houston route, offering a total of  516 seats with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 flatbed seats in Business Class seats and 426 spacious seats in Economy Class, increasing capacity per flight by more than 160 passengers compared to the current Boeing 777-300ER. Services to Houston were upgraded to an A380 in December 2014, but as part of Emirates’ fleet optimisation, the decision was made in July 2016 to operate the route with a Boeing 777-300ER. Flight EK211 will depart Dubai at 09:35 and arrive in Houston at 16:50 daily. Return flight EK212 will depart Houston at 20:00 and arrive in Dubai at 20:00 the next day. Passengers from Houston can enjoy convenient connections in Dubai when travelling to destinations in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore or South Africa.