By holding the forum at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Dubai Tourism sought to highlight the enormous significance of Expo 2020 to Dubai’s tourism industry and the gathering pace of recovery in the events sector, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
Dubai Tourism held its first bi-annual ‘City Briefing’ for 2021 at the newly built Dubai Exhibition Centre, highlighting the sector’s promising performance since the reopening of the city to international tourists a year ago.
As efforts intensified across the tourism ecosystem to accelerate momentum in this year, the forum featured a detailed presentation on Expo 2020, the multi-faceted mega event which runs from 1 October, 2021 to 31 March 2022.
Presided by Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism, the forum hosted over 1,000 key executives from leading establishments in the hospitality, travel, and tourism sectors.
In the forum, Dubai Tourism held regular dialogues with key industry leaders to exchange insights and work with them to ensure the industry is seamlessly aligned with tourism growth initiatives and strategies.
By holding the forum at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Dubai Tourism sought to highlight the enormous significance of Expo 2020 to Dubai’s tourism industry and the gathering pace of recovery in the events sector.
“Dubai has continued to lead global tourism recovery and has constantly set new precedents in how to safely yet effectively open internationally and critically stay open,” Helal Almarri commented.
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“Dubai has placed us in prime position to drive growth, especially since we see Expo 2020 as a global pivot to pioneer the future of international tourism and business. The emirate’s tourism rebound in the second half of 2020, leading to industry stabilisation in 2021, is also a reflection of the crucial support extended by our stakeholders and partners.”
“As the city prepares to host the region’s first world expo, as well as play a leading role in the UAE’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, we look forward to making significant progress in 2021 and beyond,” he added.
Incremental increase in tourist arrivals month on month from markets that are open delivered 3.7 million international overnight visitors in the July 2020 – May 2021 period. Dubai Tourism’s partners and stakeholders expressed their appreciation for the multi-pronged strategy to combat the pandemic, leading to the reopening of the city to global travellers in July 2020.
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, said: “Dubai’s leadership understood the critical importance of providing a road map for the safe return and revitalisation of the economy through meticulous planning, a coordinated public-private approach and strong partnerships across the travel and tourism sectors.”
Paul Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Airports, said: “Despite the challenges during a period that was the most turbulent time in the history of international air travel, Dubai Airports retained its position as the world’s busiest international airport for the seventh consecutive year with 25.9 million passengers in 2020. After having welcomed nearly six million passengers in Q1 2021, DXB now looks set for a stable second quarter and the outlook for the second half of the year looks positive thanks to the seasonal travel rush and upcoming major international events including the Dubai Expo 2020 and the Dubai Airshow 2021.”
Dubai Airports has taken significant steps to minimise the impact of new travel requirements on customer journeys through the airport. The operator along with the Dubai Health Authority and Pure Health recently opened a 20,000 square-feet in-house lab that can process up to 100,000 PCR samples collected from passengers at DXB daily, providing reports within a few hours.
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