DUBAI has been flagged as a must-visit destination for the coming year by the UK’s leading travel agents’ organisation.
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), which represents more than 5,000 travel agencies and around 900 tour operators in the UK, recently published its ‘Travel Trends Report 2010’ and included the emirate among its list of places it expects to become ‘hot’ in 2010.
Though Dubai has experienced more than its fair share of financial woe over the past months, the report said this could prove a boon for travellers.
It stated that ‘the Dubai World debt announcement at the end of November,
has triggered a price war in hotel room rates to stimulate demand and a currency which is losing its value’.
In fact figures from bookings website Hotels.com recorded a 570 per cent increase in online searches for hotels in Dubai in the days after Dubai World’s announcement.
The ABTA report added that Dubai will also earn its ‘hotspot’ status with the opening of the world’s tallest tower, Burj Dubai, at the beginning of this month.