Dubai tourism police handle 1,623 complaints in 2017

The National -- As the peak holiday season gets under way and New Year’s Eve approaches tourism police are urging holiday makers to pay heed to the UAE’s culture and rules.

“Most problems facing tourists are related to misunderstandings, lack of knowledge about the country’s culture and rules and linguistic barriers,” said Maj Mousa Mubarak, acting director of the Tourism Security Department at Dubai Police.

From January to September 2017, 11.58 million tourists visited Dubai and police are preparing for more than 1.5 million to converge for New Year's celebrations in Downtown Dubai.

Maj Mubarak said incidents involving tourists are often not serious and involve problems with shop holders, hotel workers or taxi drivers. “Those issues are considered minor and solved on the spot,” said Maj Mubarak, adding that the 53 police officers on the tourism force speak at least seven languages, including German, Italian and Chinese.

Over the last eleven months, Dubai’s tourism police have dealt with 1,623 complaints including some high-profile cases.

If tourists do experience problems, the work does not stop for Dubai Police once visitors return home. A total of 418 problems related to tourists were solved after tourists returned back to their home countries this year.

Maj Mubarak stressed that the majority of cases lodged to tourism police involved “solving hotel booking problems, financial disputes and misunderstandings.”