Qatar eyes 1.5m tourist arrivals
QATAR expects to attract 1.5 million tourists a year by 2010, a report said.
Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) chairman Akbar Al Baker was quoted by Gulf Times as saying the country will have enough hotel and guest rooms to meet tourists’ needs by then. He was speaking at a meeting of the UK-based Guild of Travel Management Companies in Doha. Al Baker said about 900,000 tourists had visited Qatar in 2006. The number of hotel rooms in Qatar will go up from 3,706 in 2004 to 7,398 in 2007.
Bahrain water park to open in August
BAHRAIN’S $50 million Lost Paradise of Dilmun Water Park is set to open in August at the Al Areen development. It hopes to attract 300,000 visitors a year. The project's finance and administration manager Derek Walsh said that the park was ‘virtually constructed and complete’ and would create 150 jobs at the height of the tourist season. The park has a capacity of 5,000 visitors per day and hopes to attract 300,000 visitors a year.
Ten new e-gates for Dubai
DUBAI Airport now offers 16 e-gates for quicker arrivals and departures at Terminal 1. Installed at an investment of Dh3.5 million ($953,160), the electronic gates take 30 seconds to process one passenger. More reliable and advanced than the machines installed in the first phase, the new machines will be a major convenience for passengers and reduce congestion at the manual immigration counters. There are some 450,000 UAE Gate card holders in Dubai, and an estimated 9,000 use the facility at Dubai airport daily.
Oman Travel Market hosts 30 countries
THE Oman Travel Market 2007, which ran last month at the Oman International Exhibition Centre under the patronage of Engineer Abdullah bin Abbas bin Ahmed, chairman of Muscat Municipality, played host to delegates from 30 countries including Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Oman, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE. The show has been a popular event since 2003 as it provides the real information about the latest trends in the field of tourism under one roof.
New HQ for Travco
TRAVCO is set to inaugurate new headquarters by mid 2007. The offices will be sited in a new four-storey non-smoking building located three kilometres outside Cairo, on an area of 20,000 sqm in Sheikh Zayed City. The building encompasses state-of-the-art equipment and machinery, modern interiors, and an attractive yet chic exterior to reflect the soul of the company. A wireless internet network will cover all of the outdoor and indoor areas of the building as well as VOIP (Voice-over IP) phone systems. All Travco Group companies, which are currently in various locations around Cairo, are to move under one roof at the new headquarters.