Tourism contributed 11.1% of the United Arab Emirates’ economy last year. The statistic was revealed in the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) annual review of the sector’s social importance and economic impact. In 2018, tourism contributed as much as AED164.7bn to the local economy. The sector now accounts for as much as 11.1% of the total economy of the UAE. This means that tourism generates one out of every nine dirhams in the country.…

A recruitment drive has been launched by Emirates Airline in order to try to increase the number of Emiratis in its workforce. Emirates is represented by as many as 20,000 cabin crew, but the citizens of the United Arab Emirates among them number just 50. In order to attract more Emirati citizens to cabin crew jobs, Emirates Group’s executive vice president of human resources Abdulaziz Ali says that it intends to introduce new uniforms that…

Arabian Travel Market 2020 is to adopt Events for Tourism Growth as its official show theme. The event will take place between 19th and 22nd April at Dubai World Trade Centre. World Travel and Tourism Centre data suggests that travel and tourism in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, is directly contributing to the region’s GDP. The GDP is expected to increase by as much as 4.2% per year to $133.6bn in nine…

The collapse of Thomas Cook UK has had no impact on the operations of Thomas Cook UAE. Thomas Cook UK was once represented by Al Rostamani Travels but later became entangled with Thomas Cook India, which is not connected to Thomas Cook UK and is actually owned by Fairfax Financial Holdings in Canada. The UAE operations have not been under the UK firm since 2012, according to a spokesperson for Al Rostamani Travels. It continues…

Emirates will become the very first airline to make use of biometric boarding outside the US after receiving approval from US Customs and Border Protection. Customers who fly from Dubai to any of the 12 Emirates destinations within the US will soon have the option of choosing facial recognition technology when they get to the departure gates. The move can cut down the time needed for identity checks to be carried out to as little…

A growing number of residents and nationals in the United Arab Emirates are choosing ‘staycations’, even during the months of summer, according to internal data from Airbnb. According to the online platform, between 22nd May and 22nd August, which is the peak travel season, there was a dramatic increase in the number of domestic travels and staycations for UAE nationals. Earlier in 2019, the Airbnb website was launched in Arabic, with data showing the increasing…

Hotel occupancy in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, by Omani tourists has increased by almost 15% in the first seven months of this year in comparison to the same time period last year. The information was revealed on Wednesday when Oman travel trade and Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi (DCT) representatives met in Muscat. The representatives were there for the DCT Annual Oman Roadshow to promote the wide array…

Residents of the United Arab Emirates and travellers to the country want deals of value when they book a stay in a hotel, according to experts at The Hotel Show Dubai’s 20th edition on Tuesday. The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority president Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who is the chairman of Dubai Airports and the chief executive and chairman of Emirates Airline & Group, inaugurated the event. This event is aimed at professionals in…

Travellers in the United Arab Emirates are taking shorter holidays and planning more trips at the last minute, according to the online global travel business Cleartrip. Travellers all across the GCC are now more likely to take more frequent but shorter trips, and there is a decline in the number of people who spend months planning to take holidays of two to three weeks in the summer. More travellers went to Egypt than anywhere else,…

Attempts have been made to help the Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021. This project aims to persuade over 10 million tourists to come to the emirate within the next two years. The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) has announced the organising of roadshows in three cities in China – Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu – this month. The campaign will run from 16th to 20th September and is intended to stimulate the outbound Chinese travel…