Author: houseman (Page 3 of 5)

21 May 2008

Dubai has gained a reputation as a luxury holiday destination, a travel industry expert has stated.

Frances Tuke from the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said the region is a “four or five star” location which appeals to affluent visitors. This, she said, has led to tourism generating considerable sums of money for the Dubai economy, which are being pumped into the sector to improve it further.

Ms Tuke believes its emergence as a leading holiday destination has had a profound impact on Dubai and its economic performance in recent years.

She commented: “Dubai, quite a while ago, was really just a desert state; [now] it’s one of the fastest growing cities in the world.”

According to official government figures, Dubai attracted more than six million holidaymakers in 2007. Tourism was said to account for about 18 per cent of its gross domestic product during this period.

15 May 2008

The overall number of people travelling to Dubai is set to go up this year, experts have predicted.

A report by Globalysis revealed that visitor numbers in 2008 are likely to be eight per cent up on those recorded 12 months earlier. The organisation said this would be due to a number of factors, including improvements to the accessibility of Dubai from overseas and successful marketing initiatives.

Furthermore, it stated that its “high-quality tourism offerings” are becoming increasingly attractive to “globally-minded” holidaymakers.

Commenting on the findings, Jason Pereira of Globalysis observed: “The performance of Dubai’s travel and leisure sector in 2008 has been favourable and the outlook moving forward remains bright.”

Meanwhile, Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing has revealed about seven million people booked accommodation in the region during 2007. The organisation has predicted that in two years time, this number could possibly increase to ten million.

09 May 2008

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been flagged up as a good location for overseas property buyers to consider.

According to ShelterOffshore.com, the country currently offers a number of attractions for foreign investors. The website highlighted the recent increase in visitor numbers, as well as the revenues generated by its tourism industry. In addition, the country’s economy was said to have a strong economy which is experiencing a sustainable rate of growth.

This has prompted the website to recommend that overseas property buyers consider possible investment opportunities in the UAE.

ShelterOffshore.com said: “Each emirate is worth closer inspection by would-be property investors.”

The online portal added that the country’s real estate is currently “thriving”, despite ongoing financial problems across the world, such as the credit crunch. This was largely attributed to the fact that these issues have put investors from the UAE off investing abroad and are therefore putting money into the domestic market.

06 May 2008

The ProLeads database, which monitors construction contracts across the Gulf, identifies more than 100 individual projects worth USD 70 billion in hotels and related leisure and tourism facilities under construction or committed in the UAE. The survey identifies Dubai, in particular, as the star performer, with the region’s highest hotel room occupancy rate (84.2 per cent), the highest average room rate (USD 282) and the highest revenue per available room (USD 237).

“We know the Middle East is a fast-developing hotel and tourism market but survey after survey reveals that the UAE hospitality sector is growing on a grand scale, unmatched elsewhere in the world,” said Maggie Moore, exhibition director of The Hotel Show 2008. The premier hotel supplies exhibition takes place at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre from June 8-10.

The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is also optimistic about tourism in the Middle East. “UNWTO identifies the Middle East as the tourism success story of the decade with the region emerging as a strong destination and visitor numbers climbing much faster than the world total,” said Moore as reported by Arabian Business online.

07 April 2008

Burj Dubai, the icon skyscraper of Dubai which is still under construction, has already won the record of the tallest building in the world (its final height, still top secret, should be about 900m). But Dubai is now welcoming the announcement of a new 1,200 metre-tall building, which will establish the new record. The news was reported by the website of the economic magazine Arabian Business, which quoted Australian architect Wood Bagot, winner of the consultancy contract.

The skyscraper, with an investment of over USD61 billion, will be built in the south of the Dubai Emirate, in the heart of the Arabian Canal, a huge project which, cutting deeply through the desert, will carry the sea water along a 75 km-long channel between Jebel Ali and Palm Jumerirah Island. Nakheel, which will carry out the construction works stated that the skyscraper project is still in the designing stage and added that it is still “early to reveal all the details”, including the name of the building itself, temporarily known as the High Tower.

27 March 2008

Creek, the bay around which Dubai was founded and developed, will be transformed into an international art and culture centre. This is the goal of Khor Dubai, an ambitious project which will line along 20 kilometres of coasts museums, theatres, libraries and galleries.

“The initiative is inspired by our historical-cultural heritage and prepares our present to build the future in order to advance the country towards new horizons of development,” commented young Sheikh Majdi, son of Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid and director of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority.

There will be ten theme museums, starting with the already announced museum on the Prophet of Islam Muhammad, 13 theatres, as well as an opera theatre, galleries and institutes of arts and culture. The libraries dedicated to literature, poetry and music will be nine while 72 statues and monuments will rise between the Shindagha area and the Business Bay.

18 March 2008

The ProLeads database, which monitors construction contracts across the Gulf, identifies more than 100 individual projects worth USD 70 billion in hotels and related leisure and tourism facilities under construction or committed in the UAE. The survey identifies Dubai, in particular, as the star performer, with the region’s highest hotel room occupancy rate (84.2 per cent), the highest average room rate (USD 282) and the highest revenue per available room (USD 237).

“We know the Middle East is a fast-developing hotel and tourism market but survey after survey reveals that the UAE hospitality sector is growing on a grand scale, unmatched elsewhere in the world,” said Maggie Moore, exhibition director of The Hotel Show 2008. The premier hotel supplies exhibition takes place at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre from June 8-10.

The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is also optimistic about tourism in the Middle East. “UNWTO identifies the Middle East as the tourism success story of the decade with the region emerging as a strong destination and visitor numbers climbing much faster than the world total,” said Moore as reported by Arabian Business online.

14 March 2008

“Waterfront City”, the latest development presented by United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate development giant Nakheel will be the world’s biggest urban project. The project will feature a central island and four districts around it, and it will host at least 92,000 residents and 300,000 people who will work there. One-third of the entire surface area (330ha) will be developed in offices, the hotel sector will have 11% of the available space while trade and culture will have 6% and 5% respectively of the entire area.

“It will have a density similar to the one of Manhattan therefore the residential, commercial and cultural spaces will overlap in order to make a compact centre,” Matt Joyce, Waterfront’s managing director, said adding that the city will have a big central park, a mosque and exclusive attractions that will allow the residents and visitors to enjoy a vibrant cosmopolite city round the clock.

The island will be divided by a grid of five roads which will guarantee that the distances will be easily covered while walking and that the course of the traffic will be fluid. On the Island, as well as in the four other districts – the Boulevard, the Madinat Al Sur, the Resort, and the Marina – each block will have porches and tree-lined roads still preserving their design character, the architects explain. In order to optimise the climate control, to use the local winds and to assure as much shadow as possible, the designers concentrated the biggest buildings (144 skyscrapers over 100 metres high) on the southern side of the complex.

“The infrastructure works will begin in June and the City will be completed by 2018,” project director Frank Konings said, adding that the subcontracts has not been awarded yet and the sales have not been launched. The City will pulse in the centre of the Waterfront mega project, an impressive piece of land divided in five islands that will lie in the water south of the emirate forming a crescent around the Palm Island of Jebel Ali. Once completed, the ambitious project of coastal engineering, the Waterfront, will extend the coasts of the emirate by 820km (12 times the length of the natural coastline) and will develop a surface bigger than the territory of Beirut.

In January, Nakheel announced the creation of ‘Universe’, an archipelago of artificial islands inspired by the solar system, which will be located between the Palm Islands of Jumeirah and Deira, also created by Nakheel.

10 March 2008

People who have bought holiday homes abroad only tend to spend about a month in their overseas property, new figures have revealed.

According to a study by HolidayLettings.co.uk, second home owners from the UK occupy their foreign residence for an average of four weeks. This has prompted the organisation to suggest that they make the best use of their property during the remaining 48 weeks of the year.

Specifically, it has informed people of the financial gains they could make if they rent out their holiday home when it would otherwise be sitting empty.

Ross Elder, managing director of HolidayLettings.co.uk, commented: “There is a fantastic opportunity for owners of holiday homes to reap the rewards of the healthy rental market.”

He added that mixed-use investors could earn an annual sum between £7,000 and £18,000 in rent per annum.

26 February 2008

Turning Dubai into the centre of global pearl trade: this is the objective of ‘Pearls of Arabia’, the latest project presented in the emirate which, reviving the recent past of UAE, is looking into the immediate future. Until a century ago 95% of the economy of the emirates, not yet related into a federation, was based on pearls. Now, six square kilometres of structures dedicated to pearls will be built on Antarctica, one of the 300 islands forming the archipelago ‘The World’. A cultural centre, a theatre, an exhibition gallery, thematic parks and restaurants will be built, but most of all boutiques for the sale of lines pearls created especially for Dubai will be opened. The world’s best selections and the most exclusive jewellery will be available for visitors in a historical and cultural route in the end of 2010.