25 April 2017

17:30

New research has found that travelers from the United Arab Emirates are willing to spend an average of $107 on extras to personalise their trips. The survey by global travel technology company Sabre Corporation found that 29 percent of respondents said they would pay more than $136 on air ancillaries, while 25 percent would spend at least this amount on extras at their hotels. The figure for the UAE is considerably higher in the UAE than in many other regions, where the global average is $98 and in Europe it is just $85. Read the full report here.

14:30

A new hotel in Dubai will be run by a team made up mostly of women, while some of the floors will be reserved for female guests only, it was announced on Tuesday.

“We will do our best to run the hotel with 80 percent female (staff),” Mohamed Awadalla, CEO of operator TIME Hotels Management, told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

Two floors of the hotel, which will be located in Dubai’s Al Barsha area and is scheduled to open in Q4, 2017, will be reserved exclusively for female guests only.

"It's quite difficult to get the full team to run the hotel with ladies (employees)," Awadalla said during the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. "We have few challenges in certain departments like engineering, kitchen and maybe some of the housekeeping areas where you need to carry furniture.”

14:00

Flydubai, the Dubai-based low cost carrier, showcased its latest destinations for the upcoming summer season at Arabian Travel Market. Flights to Batumi in Georgia, Qabala in Azerbaijan and Tivat in Montenegro will operate from June to September 2017, boosting the airline's network to 93 destinations in 44 countries.

13:00

Toni Jo Portmann CEO of DHISCO, a global leading processor of electronic hotel transactions, has released some interesting data on global trends in the e-hospitality market.

"66 percent of young travellers are comfortable planning an entire trip on a smartphone, 73 percent of travellers use smartphones to shop and book their trip, 35 percent of online bookings will be made on a mobile by 2018 and 45 percent of hotels globally accept mobile bookings," she said, adding that "4 in 10 people that book a hotel room online do it from their cars, online is not really online anymore, it is on the phones in cars".

12:00

Passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB), the world's top airport for international passenger numbers, rose by 7.4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, operator Dubai Airports said on Tuesday, Reuters News reported.

About 22.5 million passengers used the airport, up from about 21 million, it said. Dubai Airports forecasts a total of 89 million passengers in 2017.

11:30

It was announced on Monday that tourists visiting Oman will have to pay 20 Omani riyals ($51.96) for a short stay visa, up from the previous cost of 5 Omani riyals. Oman has been hard hit by the drop in oil prices and is looking to tourism to boost revenues and diversify its economy away from a dependence on hydrocarbons. Read the full report here.

10:30

Our colleagues at Salaam Gateway on Monday interviewed halal hospitality rating system Salam Standard, which has launched a fourth tier Platinum rating for Muslim-friendly accommodation, adding to its original three levels of Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Properties and hotel groups will be subject to checks to ensure they meet the required criteria, with audits conducted by a committee of Islamic tourism experts.

“There will be a formal auditing process of the hotels, so that you have a proper verification of what is available at a specific establishment,” Malaysia-based Salam Standard co-founder and CEO Faeez Fadhlillah told Salaam Gateway.

To qualify to be platinum-rated, properties must offer basic Muslim-friendly facilities, such as shower and toilet, or bathtub and toilet, a prayer mat and the qibla, or the prayer direction towards the Kaaba, as well as halal food certified by a recognised body. The entire premises must also be alcohol-free.

Salam Standard was first launched in October 2015 and more than 55,000 hotels are currently indexed on the platform.

09:30

The US electronics ban, experiential travel, and mid-market hotels were some of the key trends in focus at the 24th Arabian Travel Market (ATM), an annual hospitality and aviation event, which kicked off on Monday in Dubai.

The event saw industry professionals and decision makers gather to discuss growing their presence in the region and ways to mitigate challenges in the market.

At a press conference on the sidelines of ATM, Qatar Airways, for example, announced plans to start direct flights to San Francisco and 11 other new destinations in 2018 as the airline aims to expand its global presence.

Other exhibitors at the event announced new hotels and serviced residences in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Egypt. The focus on more affordable hotel accommodation comes amid softening demand for hotels in the UAE on the back of lower consumer spending.

The decline in demand comes as more operators launch four- and five-star hotels in the UAE, leaving the supply of mid-market accommodation scarce in the country.

In March 2017, average room rates in Dubai fell around 10 per cent as increased supply of hotel rooms put pressure on hoteliers, according to a recent report from research firm STR. Click here for more details.

Our reporters will be at ATM and the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference – which also starts today at the Madinat Jumeirah – so we will bring you all the top news, interviews and analysis as it happens.

For insights into all the news and events at ATM yesterday click here.

Further reading on ATM:

© Express 2017