Dubai remains open and maintains its position as one of the world’s safest destinations with a positive outlook for the tourism and hospitality sectors. The statements came following a meeting of top industry executives from the public and private sectors.
Thanks to its position as a safe destination for global travellers, the emirate looks to carry strong momentum created in the second half of 2020 into 2021, they said.
The high-profile meeting of major stakeholders included Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of Dubai Tourism; Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports; Mohammad Al Hashmi, VP for commercial products Dubai at Emirates airline; José Silva, CEO of Jumeirah Group; Jochem-Jan Sleiffer, President for Middle East, Africa & Turkey at Hilton; Philippe Zuber, CEO of Kerzner International, Mark Willis CEO of Accor; and Mohamed Jassim Al Rais, deputy managing director of Al Rais.
The meeting highlighted the robust new safety measures deployed across sectors and new initiatives taken to further enhance the city’s position as a safe destination for global travellers.
The stakeholders were unanimous that there was positive sentiment surrounding Dubai as a key destination and reaffirmed their commitment to support the industry, including the strict implementation of health and safety protocols in collaboration with Dubai Tourism.
They observed that the pace of the global industry revival in 2021 will be highly dependent on the evolving Covid-19 situation, particularly noting the recent travel restrictions in several countries, as well as the speed of economic recovery in key source markets.
“While we are encouraged by the success of the strong safety procedures deployed across all tourism touchpoints, we will continue to proactively update safety protocols in the hospitality, tourism and travel sectors in accordance with the changing situation. We are deeply appreciative of the latest precautionary measures established by Dubai’s Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management, allowing us to further intensify efforts to ensure Dubai remains open and maintains its position as one of the world’s safest destinations,” said Almarri.
The UAE has one of the world’s most effective test and trace programmes and is currently ranked among the top five nations globally in terms of overall vaccine rollout.
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