Top Stories
-
What it’s like to run a travel agency specializing in visits to Iraq
DestinationsMichigan travel agency owner Ihab Zaki just returned from taking a group of American tourists on vacation to Iraq. Yep. Iraq. And he plans to offer two more trips there in November and next March. Zaki, owner of Spiekermann Travel in Eastpointe, specializes in unusual trips to the Middle East and North Africa. Last year, [...]
-
Dubai’s Atlantis hotel is in the market for loan to refinance its debt
DestinationsAtlantis the Palm, the hotel owned by Dubai World Corp. unit Istithmar World PJSC, is seeking an $850 million loan to refinance debt due in 2017, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The resort, which spent $20 million on its launch party in 2008, has hired Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Barclays [...]
-
U.S. airlines trade group blasts customs agency on Abu Dhabi Airport program
TransportArlines for America, the U.S. airline trade group, lashed out at the way U.S. Customs and Border Protection allocates resources considering its goal of speeding the clearance of 90 million passengers who arrive on international flights annually. In the A4A’s crosshairs is the recent CBP agreement with Abu Dhabi Airport to establish a preclearance facility [...]
-
Egypt’s economy in a tailspin as tourism & investment dries up
DestinationsEgypt is suffering its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a former finance minister of the country and one of its leading economists have warned. In terms of its devastating effect on Egypt’s poorest, the country’s current economic predicament is at its most dire since the 1930s, Galal Amin, professor of economics at the [...]
-
Viceroy Hotels takes first step into Dubai with management of $1 billion resort
DestinationsSKAI Holdings – the Dubai-based, family-owned real estate investment company – yesterday announced plans for a US $1 billion hotel with refurbished residences, which will be operated by Viceroy Hotels and Resorts marking the company’s first venture into Dubai; its second in the UAE alongside sister-property Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi. The company says construction on [...]
-
Dubai’s latest flashy hotel opening looks to Hollywood for star power
DestinationsParamount Hotels & Resorts CEO Thomas van Vliet says merging Hollywood and hotels is rather like making a movie, and reveals the concept and cast behind the operator’s first big release, the US $1 billion Damac Towers by Paramount in Dubai. Like a film production, the concept behind Paramount Hotels & Resorts is the result [...]
-
Dubai’s newest contribution to tourism excess: an ice lounge
DestinationsHoneymooners and other tourists from the Gulf are heading to the throbbing heart of Dubai to beat the summer heat by cooling off at the first “ice lounge” in the Middle East. The interior decor of Dubai’s Chillout cafe is made entirely of carved ice, with frozen picture frames, ice curtains and frosty seats covered [...]
-
Saudi Arabia to relax visa rules for religious pilgrims, allow additional tourism
DestinationsSaudi Arabia will relax visa rules to allow foreigners to visit certain Islamic and historical sites as tourists, the country’s most senior tourism official said. Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, said that from this year Saudi would issue ‘Umrah-Plus’ visas, which would permit supervised tours [...]
-
Egypt’s private commandos are doing well during current instability
DestinationsAs angry protesters rampaged through Cairo in early 2011 and fought with police, Hesham Samy was dispatched with fellow naval commandos to guard upscale residential compounds. In what he saw as “awful” security, Samy spotted an opportunity. The officer, who had spent more than a year training with U.S. Navy SEALs, quit last year to [...]
-
Iraq lays out plans to rebuild its devastated rail network
DestinationsIn a shabby, rusty train that had just left Baghdad for the southern city of Basra, Riyadh Saleh moved restlessly from carriage to carriage, searching for a comfortable, air-conditioned seat. Saleh was one of about 200 passengers taking a 25-year-old diesel train to Basra last week; he was enticed by fares as low as 7,500 [...]
