24 April 2017

19:00

Dubai master developer Nakheel, famous as the company behind the famous Palm Jumeirah, on Monday broke ground on a new, 375-room $65 million hotel at Ibn Battuta Mall. Set for delivery in 2019, the AVANI is the second Nakheel hotel at Ibn Battuta Mall and one of 18 in the company’s growing hospitality project portfolio. Nakheel is investing 5 billion dirham ($1.36 billion) in the sector, developing over 5,800 rooms and serviced apartments in Dubai. Read more here.

18:00

InterContinental Hotels Group announced four new hotel signings, as well as six new hotel openings across the GCC at ATM on Monday. Read the full report here.

16:30

Our reporter Yasmine Saleh has interviewed Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), where he said it was important for Arab countries to have a "clear political will to promote tourism because without that, whatever we do doesn't lead anywhere".

"A very strong political will that believes that tourism is a transformative force, that can reflect good in people and the planet is essential," he added, "without that, it is useless... We see an example, here in Dubai, this an example of a political will. There is a vision that tourism is important so tourism became important".

15:35

Swiss-Belhotel International plans to triple its inventory of rooms in Bahrain this year, with the opening of two new hotels already under development. Grand Swiss-Belresort Seef, a 189-key 5-star luxury resort will be ready by the last quarter of the year and there is a new residences property in Juffair in the final stages of being branded as Swiss-Bel residences and is due to open doors in December 2017. Read the full details here.

15:20

Dubai reported strong tourism results for the first quarter of the year, with the number of overnight stays up 11 percent year-on-year. During the first three months of 2017, 4.57 million travelers visited the city, more than double the growth achieved in the first quarter of last year. The top markets were China and Russia, which reported 64 percent and 106 percent increases over Q1 2016. Read the full report here.

15:00

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has appointed Robin Kamark as chief executive officer, Airline Equity Partners, Reuters News reported. Kamark will be responsible for leading and developing the Group’s minority equity investment strategy, which includes stakes in airberlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Etihad Regional and Virgin Australia. Read more here.

14:45

Kuwait Airways is to add two new routes – Vienna in Austria and Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh – to its international portfolio, the national carrier announced in a press release on Monday. This takes the number of destinations served by the airline to 38.

14:35

Update: Qatar Airways will sign a deal to buy a stake in Italian carrier Meridiana in the "next couple of days", according to Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, Reuters News reported. Read the full report here.

14:30

Update: Olivier Harnisch, CEO of Emaar Hospitality, said the group is currently not considering a public listing, despite speculation since 2015 it was planning to do so. “An IPO is not on [the] table currently,” he told reporters at a press conference.

14:10

Megha Merani from Thomson Reuters Projects is currently at the at Emaar Hospitality Group press conference, where it was confirmed The Address Downtown hotel, which was struck by a fire on New Year’s Eve 2015, has been totally renovated and will reopen later this year.

Executives also announced plans to launch six new projects, including two hotels in Egypt and one in Abu Dhabi in partnership with developer Aldar. Emaar also announced plans to expand to India and China and other international cities, including Europe.

14:00

Abu Dhabi-based Cristal Group is to open two new hotels this summer. Masaya Hotel & Residences by Emerald will open in Erbil in the third quarter of 2017, while the group will be among the first hospitality brands to enter the Abha region in Saudi Arabia with the launch of Bayat Hotel by Cristal in a few weeks’ time. Read the full details here.

13:45

Update: Qatar Airways has announced 12 new destinations for 2017-18, including San Francisco, Cardiff, Malaga, Mykonos, Accra, Kiev, Prague, Mombasa and Abidjan, according to a report by Reuters News. The launch of flights to Las Vegas had been delayed until the second quarter of 2018, from the first quarter of that year.

13:30

Marriott International, which last year completed its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, is set to open 15 new luxury properties across the region before the end of 2018, adding around 3,500 new rooms.
 
Scheduled openings in 2017 include the 200-room Bulgari Resort and Residences Dubai, 257-room Edition Abu Dhabi, 280-room W Amman Hotel in Jordan, and The St. Regis Cairo, all set to open by the fourth quarter of this year. Read all full details here.

13:10 

 Qatar Airways is to announce 12 new destinations for 2017/18, including San Francisco, according to a report by Reuters News. More details to follow.

12:55

Carlos Khneisser from Hilton outlines the group's big plans in the region: “Our active pipeline of 16,000 rooms under construction in the GCC is more than double the number of our nearest competitor." Read more here.

12:35

Travel and tourism is big business in the GCC, with 1,153 hospitality projects, worth in excess of $148.4 billion built in the first quarter of 2017, according to a new report by project research and intelligence provider BNC Network.  Click full for more details.

12:30

You can follow our full coverage at Zawya's Special Coverage on Arabian Travel Market, which will be running all week. Our reporters are on site and are already carrying out interviews with some of biggest names in the industry.

Word has reached us that Dubai's Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has arrived at the venue, marking the start of Arabian Travel Market 2017.

09:30

The 24th annual Arabian Travel Market (ATM) opens its doors to visitors and exhibitors on Monday at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). The event comes at a time when the Gulf Arab states are showing a growing interest in the travel and tourism sector, in a bid to expand their revenues away from a dependence on hydrocarbons.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of oil, and Oman, which has limited economic resources, were badly affected by the oil price decline that hit the region in mid-2014. The two Gulf Arab states are expected to lead the region’s investments in cultural tourism this year, according to a report by The Saudi Gazette newspaper.

The oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi also plans to have “the largest delegation it has ever taken to the ATM in a bid to capitalise and increase on record numbers of guest arrivals into the emirate”, it was reported.

More than 40,000 industry professionals, including 30,000 trade visitors, made $2.5 billion worth of deals at ATM last year, according to a statement by the organisers of ATM. This year’s exhibition is expected to host over 2,600 exhibitors, including 100 first-time exhibitors.

“The growth and scale of ATM 2017 is testament to the buoyant travel and tourism industry here in the Mena region. It is no secret the growth we observe in the regional industry is spurred by visionary national agendas and a favourable and thriving business environment. With a series of mega-events scheduled for the coming years,” Simon Press, ATM’s senior exhibition director said in a press release.

In the United Arab Emirates, the tourism sector contributes around 8.7 percent to the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP), a figure expected to rise to 11.2 percent by 2026, according to a Gulf News report.

Further reading on ATM:

© Express 2017