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  • News: Dubai World Central to open in October

    Dubai Airports has announced Dubai World Central will open its doors to passengers on October 27th, 2013 when launch carriers nasair and Wizz Air commence operations into the emirate’s second airport.

    nasair plans to function over 50 flights every week between Dubai and numerous destinations in Saudi Arabia.

    The Saudi-based carrier already operates 950 weekly flights to twenty-eight destinations with a fleet of 21 aircraft constituted of Airbus A320s and Embraer E190s.

    Wizz Air, which gives low-cost air transport across 30 countries with 16 bases across Europe, will provide non-stop services linking Dubai World Central to Central and Eastern Europe.

    Wizz Air has a fleet of 40 Airbus A320 aircraft operating over 1,500 weekly flights to 93 destinations.

    Construction of Dubai World Central’s passenger terminal building was completed in 2012.

    Upon opening, the brand new facility will offer full retail in addition food and beverage amenities.

    It is serviced by one A380 capable runway, 64 remote aircraft stands and has capacity for as much as seven million passengers per year.

    The terminal will undergo a whole testing and trial programme over the arriving months to verify a unbroken opening.

    “A new era in Dubai’s already proud aviation story is determined to start out,” said Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths.

    “The introduction of passenger services from Dubai World Central is step one within the long run development of the airport and should provide an exquisite alternative to travellers.

    “We are equally thrilled to welcome our launch airlines Wizz Air and nasair.

    “We sit up for announcing additional airlines and services within the months to return.”

    Dubai World Central first opened for cargo operations in June 2010 and has quickly established itself as an emerging cargo airport within the region with 36 airlines (scheduled and chartered) handling 219,092 tonnes of air freight on 16,317 aircraft movements during 2012. 

    Dubai Airports launched general aviation operations at DWC on April 28th, 2011 following the overall Civil Aviation Authority’s regulatory acclaim for flights carrying as much as 50 passengers and crew on February 24th, 2011.

    Upon completion, Dubai World Central turns into the world’s largest airport with five runways and an ultimate capacity of 160 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo each year.

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  • Dubai seventh optimal destination in World

    Dubai continues to climb the ranks as a world travel destination, per MasterCard’s third annual Global Destination Cities Index. The UAE’s travel hub has consistently advanced its position because the inception of the Index in 2011, ranking ninth in its launch year, eighth in 2012 and seventh within the 2013 edition.

    Dubai is determined to be the seventh finest city globally when it comes to inbound international visitors in 2013, outranking cities equivalent to Hong Kong, Barcelona, Milan and Rome. At 10.9 percent, Dubai (in conjunction with Bangkok) shows the strongest growth in arrival numbers a number of the top ten global markets, with 9.89 million overnight visitors expected this year.

    Dubai also ranks eighth globally by international overnight visitor spend, with an estimated US$10.4 billion to be spent within the city during 2013. The Index indicates that if all top 10 destination cities maintainside their current rates of growth in the following couple of years, Dubai will surpass Singapore and Long island in 2016 and Paris in 2017 on the subject of international visitor arrivals.

    The top five origin cities for Dubai are London, Kuwait, Paris, Frankfurt and Doha, and all of those are expected to grow strongly in visitor numbers in 2013. London visitors are expected to extend by 26.3 percent in 2013, followed by those from Paris (16.9 percent), Kuwait (12.4 percent), Doha (9.5 percent) and Frankfurt (9.4 percent).

    “While the center East and Africa’s top ten cities lineup is precisely similar to in 2012, there’s a striking difference in how far Dubai is earlier than the alternative cities. Its international arrival number is nearly twice that of Riyadh in second rank, and about four times as high because the third-ranked Johannesburg,” said Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, Global Economic Advisor for MasterCard and the writer of the report.

    The Middle East and Africa’s top five destination cities by international overnights visitors are Dubai (9.9 million), Riyadh (5.0 million), Johannesburg (2.5 million), Amman (2.4 million) and Lagos (2.2 million).

    Among the center East and Africa’s top ten, Abu Dhabi (ranked seventh with 1.7 million visitors) showed the strongest growth rate, with an anticipated 16.1 percent increase in arrivals. The Index highlights that, if these rates are maintained within the coming years, Abu Dhabi will overtake Lagos in 2016 and match Johannesburg by 2017. The UAE’s capital also ranked sixth a few of the global top 20 with reference to growth rates of international visitor arrivals between 2009 and 2013, with growth of 96.8 percent in this period.

    Within the center East and Africa, Dubai ranks first by international overnight visitor spend, followed by Riyadh and Beirut. Beirut’s position on this ranking is remarkable, seeing that Lebanon’s capital seriously is not one of several top ten cities inside the region by visitor arrivals. The US$2.8 billion expected to be spent inside the capital this year reflects the attraction that the town holds for more affluent consumers.

    “The inauguration of the Index in 2011 has helped us record Dubai’s remarkable growth story, and the Index has proven to be a trusted barometer of the market’s performance within the global landscape. Home to the world’s second busiest airport, Dubai has gone from strength to strength, and continues to develop its offerings because it plans to attract much more visitors within the coming years,” shared Raghu Malhotra, Division President, Middle East and North Africa, MasterCard.

    “The global travel sector have been supported by the numerous developments within the electronic payments sphere, and we see more consumers profiting from programs and provides that make international travel more achievable and bother free. At MasterCard, we’re going to continue to work with our partners to bring travelers safe and meaningful payment options to fit their lifestyle needs as we continue to contribute towards the expansion of worldwide economy,” Malhotra concluded.

    Globally, Bangkok outranked London as 2013’s no 1 destination city with only about 25,000 visitors separating the 2 – a difference of about one percent. The Index predicts that Bangkok will draw the best international visitor numbers in 2013, previous to London, Paris, Singapore, and Long island.

    The MasterCard Index of worldwide Destination Cities ranks cities with regards to the selection of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors within the destination cities, and offers visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2013.

    This Index and the accompanying reports aren’t in line with MasterCard volumes or transactional data.

  • News: Hamad International Airport opening delayed again

    The opening of the hot $15.5 billion Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar have been delayed again.

    The new airport, originally scheduled to open last year, was set to open on April 1st but remains closed after failing a final minute safety inspection.

    Abdulaziz Al Noaimi, chairman, General Authority for Civil Aviation, Qatar explained the airport’s opening have been delayed for not meeting the recent safety standards set by the dept of civil defence.

    In an announcement he explained: “The NDIA Steering Committee commends the efforts of the ministry of interior represented by the dept of civil defence for his or her commitment to raising standards of security and safety in Qatar.

    “The Hamad International Airport project was completed by a variety of international contractors who’ve supervised the system readiness of the airport and feature already issued international certificates within the domain of security and safety.”

    Operated by Qatar Airways, Hamad International Airport might be capable of accommodate 28 million passengers annually, increasing to 50 million after 2015.

    Construction at the project started eight years ago in 2005, and the outlet has experienced a sequence of delays to date.

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  • Ascott moves into Nanjing, China

    The Ascott has secured a freelance to regulate its first serviced residence in Nanjing.

    The contract was awarded by Nanjing Lek Yuen Property Development Company, a massive property developer in Nanjing, China.

    Citadines Baijia Lake Nanjing, in order to have approximately 290 apartment units, is slated to open inside the second 1/2 2014.

    The latest addition has reinforced Ascott’s leadership position because the largest international serviced residence owner-operator in China with greater than 8,300 apartment units in 46 properties across 18 cities.

    Chong Kee Hiong, Ascott’s chief executive, said: “China is Ascott’s fastest growing market.

    “It also is our strongest market where our revenue per available unit in 2012 increased by 15 per cent over 2011.

    “Besides building on our presence in tier one cities in China, we’ve got been expanding into high growth cities where strong foreign investment has generated a big demand for serviced residences.

    “Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, is this kind of high growth cities, with an economy that expanded by a regular of 17 per cent per year during the last five years.

    “We see strong potential for Ascott to expand into Nanjing and grow our presence within the East China region.”

    Citadines Baijia Lake Nanjing has a chief location near the well-known Baijia Lake.

    It is quite with regards to the Baijia Lake 1912 commercial area, Shengtai Road retail street, British School of Nanjing, Jiangning Hospital, and a college zone with 15 universities.

    There are convenient amenities consisting of restaurants, pubs, shopping centres, supermarkets, banks and clinics nearby.

    The property could also be next to the metro stations of Lines 1 and three, and a fifteen-minute and 25-minute drive from the Nanjing high-speed railway station and airport respectively.

  • Qatar Tourism Authority launches new website

    Qatar Tourism Authority Chairman, Mr. Issa Al Muhanadi has announced the launch of QTA’s new and enhanced website. The announcement was during an event held at QTA’s offices and in presence of the entire employees. The positioning have been designed to be an easy and informative, and aims to be a functional and interactive resource for Qatar’s residents, in addition to for your complete tourists.

    The website, www.qatartourism.gov.qa, provides a structured and visible journey in the course of the different activities which might be done in Qatar in addition to the authority’s roles, responsibilities and services.

    With updated corporate news and QTA-owned and partnered events, the portal integrates and presents tourism, culture and knowledge, in a dynamic way, to boot key highlights of places and sections with the virtue of finding and booking a flight for a vacation, checking the elements, and reserving a hotel to boot. It also highlights the restaurants in Doha, thus mentioning the entertainments, shopping, parks and natural landmarks.

    The new website is aligned with QTA’s vision to offer essentially the most up-to-date services and to advertise Qatar because the world’s entertainment hub.
    QTA’s mission is to offer quite a lot of events, as well as positioning Qatar as a global class tourism hub for business, leisure, culture, education and sport. Ideal for tourism, Doha offers a novel combination of worldwide class services and sumptuous hospitality in addition superb international award winning leisure provision to entice the traveler from round the world

    The website’s front-end and back-end technology provides secure login for all viewers and allows the portal to be fully customized on all mobile devices. It serves as a primary point of contact for current and potential partners and stakeholders, media, students and general audiences, who would like to discover more in regards to the State of Qatar in addition to the activities and events occurring within the country.