Dubai Travel and Tourism News June 96

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• Dubai strikes gold as top destination at World Travel Awards 1996
  Dubai was named the gold award winner as Top Middle East Destination, at the 1996 World Travel Awards presentation ceremony held in Las Vegas on 6 June. This honour tops two successive silver awards in this category in 1994 and 1995 and underlines the destination's growing reputation in international tourism. For the third year running, the Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board (DCTPB) took the silver award as Top Middle East Tourist & Convention Bureau. The World Travel Awards, organised by Tour & Travel News USA and Travel Trade Gazette Worldwide, are based on a survey of some 200,000 travel professionals in 50 countries around the world. We are delighted to win these prestigious awards, which are among the highest accolades in tourism, said Mr. Khalid A. bin Sulayem, Chief Executive of the DCTPB. This type of recognition from the international travel trade is an important yardstick for measuring our performance. He noted that the World Travel Awards successes were the latest in a line of other important honours. These included the naming of Dubai as Best Conference Venue Worldwide at the recent Business Travel World Awards and the Lawson International survey findings that the emirate is the favourite destination of the UK travel trade. Most recently, the DCTPB won the British Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group's 1996 award for exhibition stand design.

• Dubai named world's best conference venue at `96 Business Travel World Awards
  Dubai has been named as the world's best conference venue in the 1996 Business Travel World Awards announced in London in March. This honour reflects the fact that Dubai combines the facilities and services of a major international business centre with the attractions of a top tourist destination, said Mr bin Sulayem, Chief Executive of the Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board (DCTPB), which received the award. He noted that the growing international recognition of Dubai among business travel professionals complemented the emirate's success in leisure tourism.
  We extend our warmest congratulations to the many local organisations which have contributed to this latest international success, said Mr. bin Sulayem. Apart from being named as top conference venue, Dubai took four other honours. For the second consecutive year, Hatta Fort Hotel was named as the best incentive venue in Europe and the Middle East. The other awards were for best international airport, best Middle East business airline (Emirates) and best Middle East hotels group (Hilton International). Describing Dubai's attractions as a conference venue, Mr bin Sulayem said, As major aviation hub served by more than 70 airlines, Dubai is a natural meeting place, attracting business visitors from around the world. He noted that building a reputation as a conference location was made easier by the fact that Dubai is already well established as the top exhibition venue in the region. This means the city is known as a business contact point in a wide range of industries and services, he said. Dubai offers a comprehensive range of facilities catering to all types of meetings, up to and including major international conventions. These include the newly opened Dubai International Congress Centre, with its 1,650-seat multi-purpose auditorium, and the fully equipped conference facilities of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the leading Dubai hotels, all of which also offer first class banqueting arrangements.

• Aviation developments in the emirate
  Emirates launched a twice-weekly service to Athens with effect from 1 June. Starting on 25 June, Emirates will introduce flights to Melbourne, initially on a twice weekly basis, increasing in frequency to three flights per week from 11 July. The Dubai-Melbourne service, to be operated by the new Boeing 777. will be the first direct connection between the two cities. Other developments in Dubai's rapidly developing aviation sector follow: Air Malta added a third weekly flight between Dubai and the Mediterranean island. All seven of Lufthansa's weekly flights between Dubai and Frankfurt are operating non-stop since 31 March. Iran Air has secured traffic rights to operate a weekly flight between Dubai and Dhaka. Air Malawi has started a weekly service on the Lilongwe-Dar Es Salaam-Dubai route in conjunction with Air Tanzania. Egyptair has introduced a regular weekly flight between Dubai and Luxor.

• Magic World theme park for Dubai
  Early details of Dubai's planned Magic World theme park have been revealed by the project's designers, International Bechtel of the USA. The themes of the park, which is to be constructed at the landward end of the Dubai Creek, will be based on a mix of Arabian mythology and folklore. It will incorporate vignettes from classic Arabian tales such as Sinbad and Ali Baba. The park will feature Legend Lagoon, Ancient Village, Dino Canyon and Techtown. It is planned to build a hotel as an integral part of the Magic World project.

• Dubai airport to have new terminal
  The Department of Civil Aviation has announced that a new terminal dedicated to charter and other non-scheduled flights will go into operation in February 1997.

• Four Points Sheraton to open soon
  The new Four Points Sheraton Dubai is scheduled to open shortly. The hotel is located in the refurbished and modernised former Excelsior Hotel building, which was converted at a cost of Dh160 million. It will have 245 rooms and 36 junior suites, banqueting facilities for 500 and a full range of food and beverage outlets.

• Taj Group to set up 3-star hotel
  India's Taj Group has announced plans to set up a 3-star hotel in Dubai within this year.

• German tourist board plans Dubai Office
  The German National Tourist Board has announced plans to open a representative office in Dubai to serve the Middle East market.

• Hilton establishes reservation office
  Hilton Reservations Worldwide (HRW) has established a new central reservations office in Dubai to serve customers from the Middle East.
  The new facility offers a toll-free reservations service throughout the AGCC.

• 101-room hotel opened
  The new 101-room Hotel Quality Inn Horizon has opened in Dubai's Deira district. Its facilities include a conference room, Indian restaurant and 24-hour coffee shop.

• Avari hotel opens in emirate
  The new Avari Dubai Hotel has opened in Dubai's Deira district. The 191-room, 26-suite property, which is part of the Pakistan-based Avari chain, has a Mediterranean coffee shop, atrium lounge and a bar/restaurant/ disco.

• Dubai rated favourite tourist destination by Germans
  The Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board's (DCTPB) Frankfurt office has reported that German tourists have voted the UAE as one of their favourite destinations in the world. The finding came in a survey by Globo, the country's second largest consumer travel magazine, and is understood to be largely based on the positive experiences of the large number of German visitors to Dubai in recent years. The poll covered the comments of 7,500 respondents on 77 international locations, ranking the UAE ahead of any destination in Europe or the Middle East and second only to Indonesia in Asia. Worldwide, only well established destinations in North America, Australasia and South Africa were placed above the UAE. We are delighted to have further evidence of the success of our overseas marketing efforts, especially as it comes so soon after the survey naming Dubai as the favourite destination of the UK travel trade, said DCTPB Chief Executive, Khalid A bin Sulayem. One of the most striking results from this latest survey was the fact that no fewer than 84% of the respondents expressed a wish to come back here for repeat vacations, Mr bin Sulayem said. Among the key findings in the Globo poll were that the UAE ranked first in the Near and Middle East in eight of the twelve categories: hospitality, shopping, value for money, quality of food, range of sports facilities, quality of sports facilities, beaches and lack of pollution. In addition, in the other four categories, which related to cultural events and restaurants, the UAE ranked within the top four destinations in the Near and Middle East. Our highest individual ranking was in shopping, where the German tourists placed us second worldwide after New York, said Mr bin Sulayem.

• Radisson hotel to open in Sep `96
  The opening date for the Radisson SAS Hotel Jumeira Beach has been set for September 1996. Located close to the Emirates Golf Club and Jebel Ali Free Zone, the new property will set in a landscaped garden on a stretch of private sandy beach. It will have 255 luxury rooms and its food and beverage outlets, including a coffee shop and Northern Italian, Chinese and Indian restaurants. The Radisson SAS will have extensive meeting facilities and will be able to accommodate conferences of up to 350 people and banquets for 250. The new hotel will also offer a full range of sporting facilities.

• 325-room Rotana hotel for Dubai
  Rotana Hotels has announced plans to open its 325-room Al Bustan Hotel in February 1997. To be built at a cost of Dh135 million, it will have a full range of luxury facilities, including an executive floor, business centre, sports and recreation activities and eight food and beverage outlets. A feature of the hotel will be its extensive conference and banqueting facilities, catering for up to 1,500 people.

• Heritage and diving villages to become permanent
  Two special attractions set up for the Dubai Shopping Festival are to become permanent features of the emirate's tourist infrastructure. The Heritage Village and Diving Village, located near the restored Sheikh Saeed's Palace at the mouth of the Creek, provide an interesting insight into the way of life in Dubai in days gone by.

• DCTPB wins UK'S prestigious CIMTIG award
  The DCTPB has won another award for its high professional standards and effectiveness in promoting Dubai as a tourist destination from Britain's Chartered Institute of Marketing, which presented the CIMTIG award for the second year running, to the Board at a ceremony in the London Hilton on June 5. The award, for the best stand at any UK travel fair in the 12 months leading up to March 1996, was given for the DCTPB's spectacular exhibit at last year's World Travel market (WTM ,95) in London.

• Dubai Duty Free sales cross $172 mn in '95
  Dubai Duty Free has announced record sales in 1995 with a turnover of $172 million (Dh622 million), a 19.3% rise over 1994. The average spending per passenger also reached a new high of $26. Gold continued to be the top selling item, accounting for 17.6% of total sales. Perfume was the second largest sales category. Among the departments showing strong sales growth in 1995 were the sports shop (up 37%), tapes and CDs (34%), the bookshop (33%), Food Plus (26%) and perfumes (22%). Ticket sales for the DDF Finest Surprise car raffle increased, with an average of two cars being given away every five to six days. A total of 134 cars were won during the year.

• Dh170 million Metropolitan City Palace Hotel to open in 1997
  The Al Habtoor Group has announced that the third member of the Metropolitan Hotels Group will open in July 1997. The Dh170 million Metropolitan City Palace Hotel, located in Maktoum Street, Deira, will be a nine-storey property with 236 rooms. It will have an executive floor with full business facilities, health club, conference and meetings facilities and seven food and beverage outlets. A feature of the hotel will be the distinctive decor of the rooms. There will be three styles - Arabic, Far Eastern and European.

• Creek Golf Club rated best by players
  Dubai has received another major accolade for its world class golf facilities, with Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club being named as Host Venue of the Year by players on the Omega Asian PGA Tour. Last October, Dubai Creek played host to the Gadgil Western Dubai Creek Open, the first of four majors on the 20-event Asian tour circuit. Dubai Creek's success follows earlier acclaim for the Emirates Golf Club, the host venue of the Dubai Desert Classic, which was previously voted Best Course on the Tour by players on the European PGA Tour.

• Howard Johnson opened
  The 108-room Howard Johnson Hotel, the US-based chain's first in the Middle East, has been officially opened in Al Riqqa Street at the heart of Dubai's Deira business district. The 4-star property will be followed by a 5-star Howard Johnson Plaza, which is due to open before the year-end.

• DCTPB-Municipality promote environment-friendly guidelines
  The Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board (DCTPB) has joined hands with the Dubai Municipality to raise awareness of the need to safeguard Dubai's environment. The DCTPB is publicising the guidelines put forward by the Municipality which lay emphasis on observing cleanliness of Dubai city and desert, preserving desert vegetation, refraining from disturbing sea and land creatures, safety and protection of the coastal environment and public health. Guidelines have also been set covering diving off the coast of Dubai and the hunting of birds and animals.

• New Dubai-Abu Dhabi air link
  A new air service has been launched to cater to travellers between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Named CityLink, the hourly service using amphibious Cessna Caravan seaplanes, operates between the jetties at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club and Al Ain Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi. The flight time is 30 minutes and fares are Dh350 return or Dh195 single. A free limousine transfer service is offered on arrival.