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LAUNCHING TRAVEL TRADE EUROPE THIS NOVEMBER! Let's TRADE with Europe! www.traveltradeeurope.travel 01 NOVEMBER 2014 ISSUE 260 AGENTS!... ...A new hotel booking system has arrived! traveltradebookings.com REGISTER NOW FOR FREE! traveltradebookings.com is a B2B booking system for travel agents to be able to have access into our web based booking engine, to search and book accommodation travel services. traveltradebookings.com connects travel wholesalers, retail and online travel agents, tour operators worldwide, to global trade content. It provides personalised service and customer support. The booking system offers a large scope of inventory through our chain of global partners and suppliers and effectively offering high competitive pricing for agents. traveltradebookings.com is the only B2B booking system for travel agents which offers them the opportunity to benefit enormous complimentary marketing exposure through its worldwide publications and newspapers. AGENT INCENTIVES traveltradebookings.com 1. Register your agency and get a free quarter-page advert in Travel Trade Weekly newspaper 10 adverts will be given every week on first-come, first-served basis All agents registering will receive the complimentary advert regardless of the time of registration 2. Book your hotel nights through www. traveltradebookings.com and receive the equivalent amount in advertising in any of the publications of the Travel Trade Publications franchise 3. Book your hotel nights through www. traveltradebookings.com and become a member of the Travel Trade Publications Elite Agents Club to enjoy: Accreditation for hosted buyers programmes Complimentary fam trips Complimentary upgrades for your earned adverts Listings on the Travel Trade Publications top 10 agents’ of the week Listings on the Travel Trade Publications top 10 agents’ of the month Priority service for the www.traveltradebookings.com offline offers Complimentary room nights at selected hotels from the Travel Trade Publications directory AGENTS REGISTER NOW FOR FREE! LAUNCHING TRAVEL TRADE EUROPE THIS MONTH! Let's TRADE with Europe! www.traveltradeeurope.travel 01 NOVEMBER 2014 ISSUE 260 TDIC MOUNTS THE LOUVRE ABU DHABI DOME GABRIEL ESCARRER, VICE CHAIRMAN, MELIÁ HOTEL INTERNATIONAL, ANNOUNCED A LUXURY HOTEL IN QATAR, IN COOPERATION WITH TAMNIYAT QATAR REAL ESTATE, THE PROPERTY OWNER AND DEVELOPER. 09 ASCOTT ADDS SECOND DUBAI SERVICED RESIDENCE 12 IN THIS ISSUE MARKET UPDATE 02 TECHNOLOGY 04 GENERAL 05 ACCOMMODATION 10 AIR 13 RENDEZVOUS 17 INTERNATIONAL 18 AGENT CORNER 19 TRAVEL TALK 20 TRAVEL CHANNELS 21 WHO’S MOVED 22 MELIÁ FORAYS INTO THE PHOTO ALBUM 23 NEWS & EVENTS 24 QATARI CAPITAL 10 AGENTS REGISTER NOW FOR FREE! MARKET UPDATE TRAVEL TRADE PUBLICATIONS Emaar Approves Dividend Emaar Properties has approved a special cash dividend of AED9 billion MANAGING EDITOR Mary Kammitsi (USD2.5 billion) to be allocated to the company’s shareholders taking the total [email protected] value of dividends distributed this year to over AED17.1 billion (USD4.7 billion). ASSISTANT EDITOR Maria Kazeli SENIOR JOURNALIST Rita Kasziba CONTRIBUTORS Dominique Christou Ana Mladenovic he newly announced cash dividend follows investor response from regional and interna- PRESS Maria Demetriadou tional investors to the initial public offering of Pauline Shahabian Emaar Malls Group. Mohamed Alabbar, chairman, Emaar DESIGN & LAYOUT Elena Stylianou TProperties, said, “We will continue to focus on creating long-term value by further strengthening our core busi- WEB DEVELOPER / IT Soteris Constantinou nesses in prime real estate assets, shopping malls, retail and hospitality.” DIRECTORS Andreas Constantinides Mary Kammitsi HEADQUARTERS Did you know... T.T.W. Travel Trade Weekly LTD P.O. Box 25255, Nicosia 1308 Cyprus The company also Tel: +357 22 021607, Fax: +357 22 103670 owns 12 hotels and resorts? WEBSITE www.traveltradeweekly.travel EMAILS [email protected] Downtown Dubai by Emaar Properties [email protected] [email protected] MENA EXCHANGE RATES Passenger Traffic As of 31/10/2014 Numbers on a High Currencies shown in blue are fixed against the US Dollar Passenger movements maintained a COUNTRY CURRENCY 1USD= moderate growth rate for August, with Bahrain (BHD) Dinar 0.37 Asia Pacific airports having recorded Jordan (JOD) Dinar 0.71 a year-on-year increase of 3.3 per- Oman (OMR) Rial 0.39 cent, while airports in the Middle East n August, Beijing was the Qatar (QAR) Rial 3.64 busiest airport despite an Saudi Arabia (SAR) Riyal 3.75 posted a surge of nine percent. almost flat growth of 0.7 per- UAE (AED) Dirham 3.67 cent, whereas Dubai Interna- Algeria (DZD) Dinar 83.73 tional, the busiest airport in Egypt (EGP) Pound 7.14 Ithe region for international passen- Iran (IRR) Rial 26,727.06 gers, rebounded by 10.8 percent as Iraq (IQD) Dinar 1,162.99 its runways resumed operation in late July after an 80-day closure. Kuwait (KWD) Dinar 0.29 For the first eight months of the Lebanon (LBP) Pound 1,527.43 year, passenger traffic in the Middle Libya (LYD) Dinar 1.30 East continued to lead in Asia Pacific Morocco (MAD) Dirham 8.79 with a strong increase of 8.5 per- Syria (SYP) Pound 164.95 cent, while the wider region posted Tunisia (TND) Dinar 1.81 an increase of 4.6 percent. Yemen (YER) Rial 214.85 2 1 NOVEMBER 2014 WEEKLY NEWS TECHNOLOGY Travelport Universal API Launches in India Travelport launched its Travelport Universal API to developers and customers in India. Did you know... ow available in 100 countries, the interface aggregates content from its Travelport recently Travel Commerce Platform, including airfares, airline merchandising and completed its initial public offering and N ancillary content, hotels, car and rail content, making it available to devel- now trades on the opers creating their own travel applications through a single connection. New York Stock Exchange? The tool also enables developers to access and integrate multiple content sourc- es by writing code to only one solution, thereby allowing travel agencies to quickly and efficiently develop and differentiate their offering and enabling independent software developers to efficiently build their own travel applications. Indian Carrier to Adopt Amadeus Solutions istara has partnered with Amadeus to apply the Amadeus Altéa Suite of technology solutions, in a bid to provide a personalised V service. Amadeus technology will power Vistara’s travel reservations, inven- tory management, airport departure control systems, as well as reve- nue accounting and management. It is the first airline in India to adopt the Amadeus Altéa Suite, which is already used by more than 120 airlines worldwide. ResNet World Celebrates Fifth Anniversary n October, the e-distribution and online marketing company for the hospitality industry, ResNet World celebrated five years in the industry. I The company was conceived with a vision to maximise revenue and profitability for its hotel partners and over its five years in business, it has gained on average 100 hotels per year of service. Saahil Mehta, founder, ResNet World, said, “We have graduated from a small start up company to a global service provider, with offices in the UAE, India and Germany. Our next steps are to put an even stronger focus on data analysis, being able to then guide our hotel partners into a more specific, more profitable direction.” 4 1 NOVEMBER 2014 WEEKLY NEWS Plans for First GDRFA Centre Opens LEGOLAND in at Dubai International ohammed Abdulla Ahli, di- Middle East rector general, Dubai Civil M Aviation Authority (DCAA), and Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, director general, general directorate of residency and foreigners affairs, Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai), have officially opened a GDRFA customer service centre at Terminal 3 at Dubai Interna- tional, providing a 24/7 service. Merlin Entertainments has announced new plans for LEGOLAND Al Marri said the centre offers all Dubai, the seventh park of the brand to open worldwide. the services provided by the emir- ate’s directorate, which include re- et to launch in 2016, LEGOLAND Dubai is being developed in conjunction with Dubai Parks and Resorts, newal of passports of UAE citizens, a Meraas holding company, and will be operated by Merlin Entertainments. entry permits, residency visas of all S The park will feature over 15,000 LEGO model structures, made from more than 60 million LEGO kinds, cancellation, renewal and ex- bricks, and will include over 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions. tension of the residence permits and “We are delighted to be opening in Dubai and to be working with a partner as innovative and supportive as issuance and renewal of Smart Gate Dubai Parks and Resorts on this exciting new project. Indeed, we have no doubt that LEGOLAND Dubai will add cards. a whole new dimension to Dubai’s leisure scene,” said Nick Varney, CEO, Merlin Entertainments. 1 NOVEMBER 2014 5 WEEKLY NEWS Bahrain to Welcome USD22 Billion Infrastructure Events Are Integral for Dubai’s Tourism ubai welcomed more than 2.3 million international business D tourists in 2012 and that fig- E. Kamal bin Ahmed, acting CEO, Bahrain ure is expected to rise to four million Economic Development Board (EDB), by the end of the decade. H.announced that USD22 billion worth of Hamad Bin Mejren, executive di- infrastructure projects are currently planned in the rector, Dubai Convention and Events Kingdom, and will cover the industrial, infrastructure Bureau, said, “We will increase visitor and tourism sectors. The projects will help boost the numbers significantly by improving national economy, providing opportunities for Bah- the emirate’s already world-class of- rain’s citizens and strengthen the country’s regional fering across events, attractions, infra- competitiveness. structure, services and packages, en- Bin Ahmed affirmed that such projects, which hancing the overall visitor experience include Bahrain International Airport’s modernisa- as a result. [...] We want to pioneer tion and the development of Al Jazair Beach, will remarkable experiences that make the have an overall positive impact and will increase world want to visit and revisit Dubai, Bahrain’s competitive advantage.