Business

Beijing selected as 2022 Winter Olympics host

03 Aug 2015

The International Olympics Committee selected Beijing as the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, lured by the guarantee of financial and organizational reliability of China.

Beijing won the secret paper ballot of the IOC members 44-40, with one abstention, after the electronic voting system suffered a string of technical faults with the writing tablets halfway through the afternoon.

The Chinese capital was long-considered the favourite in the two horse... Read More

Etihad Airways new B787-9 Dreamliner raises bar on Singapore route

03 Aug 2015

Etihad Airways has set a new benchmark for luxury travel on the UAE-Singapore route with the start of daily Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner services this weekend.

Flight EY470 departed Abu Dhabi at 10pm last night and touched down at Singapore’s Changi Airport at 10.15am today. The return flight EY473 will depart Changi Airport for Abu Dhabi at 8.10pm this evening and arrive in the UAE capital at 11.45pm local time.

Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan,... Read More

The UAE has become the first Gulf country to liberalize the price of fuel

03 Aug 2015

The UAE has become the first Gulf country to liberalize the price of fuel. As of August 1, petrol prices will increase by an average of 24%. The government has decided to remove subsidies on fuel and make the price of petrol and diesel variable in line with average global prices.

Until now both have been subsidized by the government, and fuel in the UAE has been paid for at a flat rate despite the fluctuations in oil prices worldwide.

Starting this week, the Fuel Price... Read More

Global property developer Emaar Properties records 12% growth in first half

03 Aug 2015

Global property developer Emaar Properties PJSC recorded a net profit of AED 2.205 billion (US$ 600 million) during the first six months of 2015 (January to June).

This 12 per cent is higher than the first half 2014 net profit of AED 1.977 billion (US$ 538 million). Revenue for H1 2015 is AED 6.497 billion (US$ 1.769 billion), 13 per cent higher than the H1 2014 revenue of AED 5.730 billion (US$ 1.560 billion).

The positive growth of Emaar was underlined by the robust... Read More

Theme parks are pegged to contribute more than AED 5 billion to the Dubai economy

02 Aug 2015

Theme parks in the UAE and GCC have an edge over their counterparts across the globe since they have adopted the latest technology and are far more innovative and creative. Theme parks are pegged to contribute more than Dh5 billion to the Dubai economy by 2020. This is good news for amusement park operators.

Lennard Otto, General Manager of IMG Worlds of Adventure, said: "Looking at Dubai, the opportunity is clear. One third of the world's population is within four hours' flying time... Read More

Emirates celebrates five years in Spain with new A380 service to Madrid

02 Aug 2015

Emirates’ A380 route network has been extended even further with the launch of a daily A380 flight to Madrid yesterday, the 35th international A380 destination on the airline’s network.

Emirates is the first airline to offer a scheduled A380 service to Madrid which coincides with the five year anniversary of the airline’s Spanish operations. The new A380 flight will add 2,900 seats per week between Dubai and Madrid, bringing the total number of weekly seats to and from Spain to over... Read More

Emirates bids farewell to its last Boeing 777-200

02 Aug 2015

Emirates, a global connector of people, places and economies is pursuing an aggressive fleet renewal programme that ensures it operates one of the world’s most modern and efficient fleet of aircraft, with an average age of less than 75 months.

With Emirates taking delivery of 24 new aircraft in 2014/15 and 26 new aircraft planned to enter service this year, retiring older aircraft helps Emirates operate one of the youngest fleets in the skies today. Emirates currently operates 234 all... Read More

20% increase in hotel stays and over 5,000 rooms in the pipeline for Abu Dhabi

02 Aug 2015

A new report published by JLL for The Hotel Show Dubai 2015 reveals that the Abu Dhabi hotel industry is experiencing positive growth with 5,200 rooms in the pipeline for 2017. 2,300 rooms are set to enter the market by the end of 2015 alone.

 The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (ADTCA) also report a 20% increase in hotel guests in the first quarter of 2015 compared to Q1 figures from 2014.

 JLL reveal exclusively in The Hotel Show Dubai report that 45% of current... Read More

More families to visit Dubai as tourism is set to soar

30 Jul 2015

Leading luxury hotel and resort marketing specialist SweetBeam has today revealed its latest hotel industry intelligence. The  results demonstrate the likely revenue increase due to the expected surge in family visitors to Dubai in the run up to 2020.

The research was conducted over a random sample of luxury Dubai hotels across a two year period.  It showed that on average there was almost an equal number of business vs leisure guest nights (49% vs 51%). Of the leisure guests, while... Read More

Dubai Trade records impressive growth in first half of 2015

30 Jul 2015

In line with the rapid growth of Dubai’s economy, recent statistics released by Dubai Trade, the online gateway for trade and logistics services in Dubai, show promising growth figures in the first half of 2015, as compared to the same period last year.

The first half of 2015 witnessed 12.5% growth in new companies registered with Dubai Trade with 9,317 new companies on board. This led to an 8.7% growth in the number of transactions to 9.7 million. The increase in the number of new... Read More

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