On December 02, 2010, FIFA announced that Qatar had been awarded the opportunity to host the 2022 World Cup, beating out the United States in the fourth and final round of voting by the organization’s 22-member executive committee. As the first World Cup event ever to be held in the Middle East, eyebrows began to […]
New winter wonderland planned within Saudi’s Neom mega-project on the Red Sea
In yet another seemingly reality-defying ambition, Saudi Arabia has announced plans for a sprawling ski resort and luxurious mountain village village within its futuristic, half-trillion-dollar Neom development along the Red Sea coast. This newly announced project, dubbed Trojena, aims to out-defy all of the region’s other double-take-inducing development concepts by creating a luxury winter wonderland […]
Egypt’s ambitious plans to build dozens of modern new cities from scratch
It’s not often that you hear of a country constructing brand new cities from the ground up, but Egypt plans to do precisely this in 45 different locations over the next several years. Such a project might sound overly ambitious, but the Egyptian government contends that such a bold initiative is necessary due to the […]
Diriyah: The Past and Future of Saudi Arabia
Anyone with even a basic knowledge of Middle Eastern history, geography, and culture knows of Saudi Arabia’s powerhouse capital city, Riyadh; its namesake royal family, the Al Sauds; and its predominant sect of Islam, Wahabism. However, not nearly as many have heard of the place that connects all three of these in a very historically […]
Dubai tourism arrivals are bouncing back big in 2021 following pandemic-defying numbers in 2020
The tiny Gulf emirate that packs a big punch continues to defy expectations as it reported welcoming 1.67 million international visitors in the first third of 2021, according to the Dubai Tourism Annual Visitor Report 2020. While Indians made up nearly 30% of those arrival numbers, visitors from Russia and Eastern Europe made up just […]
Egypt tourism showing initial signs of recovery after 73% drop in 2020 due to Covid
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has reported that the country welcomed 500,000 tourists during the first quarter of 2021 despite the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic. Egypt has strict testing requirements in place for international arrivals and has largely been spared the severe impacts of the pandemic that other countries have suffered. The heavily […]
Arabian Travel Market takes 2020 show virtual, moves live event to 2021
Organizers of the annual Arabian Travel Market (ATM) have announced that the planned 2020 exhibition and conference will now become a virtual event to be held online June 1-3, 2020 while the next live in-person event will take place May 16-19, 2021 at the Dubai World Trade Center. Founded 1995 and originally hosted at the […]
Millions of tourism sector jobs in jeopardy as COVID-19 proliferates globally
The annual global summit of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) had been planned for 21-23 April in Cancun, Mexico, but that too has now been postponed amid worldwide travel bans, border closures, and mass flight cancellations due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The council’s 20th anniversary event will now be rescheduled for […]
Saudi Arabia has 350,000 reasons to celebrate the success of its tourism decision
Saudi Arabia is experiencing a relative tourism boom in response to opening its borders to secular international visitors in September of 2019. A little more than three months later, the chairman of the the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, Ahmed Al Khatib, said that the country had issued 350,000 tourist visas in Q4 […]
Khalaf Al-Habtoor, Chairman of Al-Habtoor Group
Khalaf Al-Habtoor is the founder and chairman of Al-Habtoor Group, an Emirati holding company for businesses and investmetns in construction, real estate, vehicle sales and rentals, and education. Khalaf Al-Habtoor sat down for a revealing exclusive interview with Arab News to talk about his company’s plans to join in on the expected upcoming Saudi tourism […]
