Tag Archives: Dubai

His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, has inaugurated Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2018 today, marking the start of the 25th edition of the show. He was joined by Nick Pilbream, Divisional Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions, and other VIPs who embarked on a tour of the exhibition as the four-day industry showcase got underway. This year’s show, held at Dubai World Trade Centre from April 22-25, 2018, has more than 400 main stand holders with representation from over 150 countries. With more than 40,000 visitors expected to attend, ATM 2018 will showcase over 2,500 exhibiting companies and 65 national pavilions. ATM 2018 has adopted Responsible Tourism – including sustainable travel trends – as its main theme and this will be integrated across all show verticals and activities. Arabian Travel Market celebrated its silver jubilee with over 2,500 exhibitors and 40,000 industry professionals from 150 countries. Travel trade professionals from across the world’s hospitality industry will showcase the largest exhibition of regional and global hotel brands, with hotels comprising 20% of the total show area. ATM 2018 will welcome over 2,500 confirmed exhibitors including 65 national pavilions. More than 100 new exhibitors are set to make their ATM debut this year, including Visit Finland, Guizhou Province of China, Hungarian Tourism Agency, Polish Tourist Organisation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dubai Municipality Leisure Facilities Department, Yas Experiences, Indigo Airlines, Kurdistan Tourism, Jakarta City Government Tourism and Culture Office and Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, to name a few.

At the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Wego revealed the ‘MENA Traveller Destination Leaderboards’ that showcases the relative popularity of global destinations amongst travellers based in the MENA region. As the largest online travel marketplace across the MENA region, Wego users shop for tens of millions of trips each quarter and it’s this flight and hotel search data that has been analysed to determine the destination rankings. The leaderboard announced today is for Q1 2018 and subsequent updates will be released shortly after the close of each quarter. Egypt retains its top ranking in Q1 2018 as the most popular destination for travellers, from across the MENA region. “MENA travellers are lured by the culture, scenic attractions, and incredible food that can be experienced in Egypt”, said Mamoun Hmedan, Managing Director – MENA and India, Wego. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia retains its second ranking and received a steady mix of business, expatriate and religious travel. India at the third position and Turkey at the fourth slot stepped up one rung each in the destination leaderboard for Q1 2018 vs Q1 2017, while UAE fell from the third to the fifth position. Despite the overall drop, Dubai remains a popular destination for MENA travellers. The biggest gainer in Q1 2018 was Oman which jumped a massive 9 places to #15, an improvement likely related to the opening of a new airport in Muscat and a host of new hotels and other facilities opening in the Sultanate.

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.