Northern Capital Gateway, the operator of Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport, hosted its annual LED Together Awards on January 25, 2019. The ceremony celebrates the success of carriers, who are awarded for their contribution to increase in passenger traffic, development of the route network and transfer service at Pulkovo Airport. The award for the best developing newcomer went to Qatar Airways, which served 66,000 passengers at Pulkovo.

Etihad Guest, the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, and SBI Card, one of India’s largest credit card issuers, have launched a unique travel specific Visa credit card for members and the Indian community in the UAE. The card, which will be available in two variants, Etihad Guest SBI Card and Etihad Guest SBI Premier Card, will offer more rewarding experiences and bring an unmatched value proposition to Etihad Guest members and international travellers from India. On an annual spend of INR1 million ($14,074.20), the Etihad Guest SBI Premier Card offers a value back of up to INR 234,000, which is the highest of any travel cobrand card in India.

Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa in Kuwait competed in the recent HORECA exhibition and a won a total of 31 awards. Touted to be the biggest hospitality and food industries’ event in Kuwait, the competition involved a variety of categories related to cuisine and housekeeping, in order to display the vast variety of talent in Kuwait. “In iconic competitions such as HORECA, we seek to ensure displaying the best form of talent and hard work in what we do. It truly excites us to know that our hard work and talent has paid off in winning at HORECA,” said director of sales & marketing, Georges Akar.

Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) and Al Ansari Exchange, a leading UAE-based foreign exchange and worldwide money transfer company, have signed an agreement to facilitate payments for a range of tourism and travel-related services. Under the agreement, partners of Dubai Tourism including hotels, event organisers, tour operators and tourism companies will be able to make payments for services through 183 branches of Al Ansari Exchange across the UAE.

Al Mouj Muscat, Oman’s leading Integrated Tourism Complex and lifestyle destination, hosted the biggest ever Al Mouj Muscat Marathon on January 18 and 19 with almost 8,000 runners taking part, a 25 per cent increase compared to the 2018 edition. The two-day festival of running attracted a record numbers of visitors.

Festival Bay, Dubai Festival City Mall’s outdoor waterfront, has transformed into ‘Pirates of the Bay’, complete with a captain’s ship, bridges and archways, treasure and a newly launched Imagine show, ‘A Pirate’s Tale’. The festivities will continue until the end of April 2019.