| Kippreport.com

A glass half full…for now

March 27, 2011 5:09 by p.deleon

“There is also some evidence of shifting demand resulting from regional issues, with hotel guests from Saudi Arabia rising by 90 per cent, while there has been a tailing off of hotel guests from Qatar and Oman,” Lawrence Franklin, strategy and policy director for Abu Dhabi tourism Authority, was quoted as saying.

Dubai, on the other hand, is also seeing business from bookings for meetings and conferences being shifted for safety and security reasons.

March looks just as promising for interregional travel, even though the impact of a reduced global influx of tourists remains unclear.

Always one for making sure they’ve got it in the bag, Dubai is stepping up its events and entertainment, ready to fill up its calendar with an extravaganza of activities designed to secure the city’s title as a shopping and entertainment destination.

The government has assigned the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment’s (DEPE) to develop a year-long structure of tourist and retail attractions.

To do this, 24 government bodies are coming together with 12 “strategic” partners from the private sector have come together to fill in the calendar, with what Kipp suspects will look clones of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF).

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Tags: Abu Dhabi, business, DSF, DSS, Dubai, Dubai Shopping festival, Dubai summer surprises, Entertainment, Events, gcc, Gulf, Hospitality, malls, Middle East, Retail, shopping, tourism, UAE