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Ljubljana among world's most bike-friendly

LJUBLJANA has been named as one of the top ten world’s bike-friendly cities in terms of cycling infrastructures, number of cycling enthusiasts and modern guidelines and good practice of cycling system out of 136 cities evaluated, according to Copenhagenize Bicycle Friendly Cities Index 2017.

Ljubljana has 230 kilometres of dedicated cycling trails. Since 2011, Ljubljana’s citizens and visitors have been able to hire bikes through the very popular self-service bike-sharing system BicikeLj. Bikes are particularly suitable for shorter rides, as there is no charge once the bicycle was returned to the nearest docking station within an hour. There are currently 51 stations and 510 bikes, and they have seen more than 4 million journeys since it started operating.

A total of 76,163 visitors from the GCC visited the Slovenia in 2016, resulting in a 10 per cent increase compared to 2015 figures. Amongst those, the number from Saudi Arabia was the highest at 43,483 travellers, which was an increase of 11.5 per cent compared to the year before. Visitors from the United Arab Emirates were the next highest, followed by visitors from Kuwait.

 

Two million hotel guests in Abu Dhabi 

IN the period from January to May 2017, the emirate of Abu Dhabi recorded nearly 2 million hotel guest arrivals (1,965,436), a 4 per cent growth compared to the same period in 2016, figures released by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) show.

Of this figure, domestic visitors account for more than 600,000 hotel guests across the emirate’s 167 hotels and hotel apartments in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain Region and Al Dhafra Region. Internationally, China is the largest source market with 160,902 hotel guests so far this year. India stays as the second largest international source market with 136,000 hotel guests, followed by the UK with 104,000, US with over 67,000 and Saudi Arabia with more than 62,000 arrivals.

 

Oman Convention and Exhibition on track

THE fully integrated Oman Exhibition and Convention Centre (OCEC) precinct takes strides towards completion – the Convention Center completion delivery is at advance stage with all the structural, civil and MEP works nearing completion with the focus now shifting to the finishing and fit out works. The announcement comes following a site visit by His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, minister of Commerce and Industry, chairman of board of directors, OCEC.

Developed by Omran within Madinat Al Irfan – a world-class, urban mixed-use development, OCEC is located only four kilometres from Muscat International Airport. Phase one of the purpose-built Exhibition Centre opened its doors to visitors in October 2016. Since, the OCEC has hosted over 55 regional and international events, and has recently won the bid to host the upcoming World Cancer Congress in 2020 against global competitors.

Phase two of the project is the ionic Convention Centre which include the multi-purpose impressive state-of-the-art built-in auditorium with a capacity of 3,200 which is planned to be operational by June 2018. The Banquet Building which includes two large ballrooms, a theatre of 450 seats, a serious of meeting rooms and the central food-court are currently at the final finishing stage and will be available for booking for events ahead of completion.

 

Dubai concludes successful cruise season

DUBAI cruise season officially concluded with the departure of the season’s final ship, the C.S. Sea Princess, from Port Rashid recently. After a stopover in Dubai, the luxury ship’s only port of call in the GCC, the C.S. Sea Princess continued her voyage to Aqaba as part of a 104-nights round trip around the world.

This marked the end of a successful season for Dubai Cruise Tourism, which saw over 625,000 cruise tourists visit the city via a total of 157 ship calls, reflecting an increase of 15 per cent and 18 per cent respectively when compared to the 2015/2016 season. The season also saw Thomson Cruises, the first UK-based cruise line home porting in the region, in addition to inaugural visits from TUI’s Mein Schiff 1 Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Star and MSC’s MSC Fantasia among the eight other maiden ship calls.

The Dubai Cruise 2017/2018 season is set to commence on 25th October.

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