HERE TO STAY
dubai — The hospitality industry is gearing up to cash in on business from transit passengers who may extend their stay in the UAE once new regulations are in place later this year.
Hotels are now busy preparing special packages to attract some of the 50 million transit passengers who pass through Dubai airports annually. Latest data indicates that more than 90 per cent of these do not explore the city due to lack of an entry permit or visa. However, the recent decision by the UAE government may reverse the trend and bring more business for the UAE’s hotels, leisure centres and entertainment venues.
Some of the leading hospitality players are considering to absorb transit visa fees, offer special packages
HOW HOTELS CAN ATTRACT TRANSIT TOURISTS
Absorb short-stay visa fee
Create customised packages for quick city tours Offer deals on short stays for city tours and give discounts on short and extended stays for transit passengers. These packages offer discounted rates with carefully selected entertainment and tour offerings, restaurant selections and use of hotel facilities.
Olivier Harnisch, chief executive officer of Emaar Hospitality Group, said he is looking forward to the growing number of visitors that will now opt for
The challenge now is for hotels to create packages for transit visitors Olivier Harnisch, CEO of Emaar Hospitality Group
The updated visa system could help millions of travellers save close to Dh370 in transit fees Mamoun Hmedan, MD for Middle East and India at Wego
paris — It sounds like something Q, the tech guy in James bond movies, would create: A plane that lands on a runway, shrugs its wings off, turns into a train and rolls on to rails to drop you off at your local station.
That’s what a French entrepreneur, who’s made millions by connecting engineers with industrial groups, is pitching to Boeing Co. and others. “Link & Fly” is Akka Technologies’s new flagship aircraft design, with wings that come off to hasten turnover at airports and make boarding easier and closer to passengers’ homes.
“After cars go electric and autonomous, the next big disruption will
be in airplanes,” Akka’s chief executive officer, Maurice Ricci, said in an interview in Paris. Boeing is among prime customer targets for Akka, as it seeks to limit its dependence on the likes of Airbus SE and Renault SA in Europe. With Akka’s futuristic concept, passengers would board a
train-like tube at a neighborhood station and have their retinas scanned for security during the ride to the airport. Wings would then be attached to the pod for take-off. The company has showcased the idea in a 3D mock-up video, gathering interest from potential customers in
Asia, Ricci said, without naming any company. Plane makers have begun to react as technology companies come up with disruptive ideas — from Uber’s investments in flying taxis to Kitty Hawk, a startup backed by Google’s co-founder Larry Page that’s creating a battery-powered single-person plane. Airbus took the offensive with a new division to oversee transport of the future, while Boeing has made a noisy foray into jetpacks.
While Akka’s not banking on convincing a plane maker to necessarily build the entire “Link & Fly” concept, it’s betting on the design to be an attention grabber and a showcase, parts of which are likely to end up in customers’ commercial aircrafts down the line. Akka, which has a market value of €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) and whose biggest shareholder is Ricci, employs engineers that customers can hire on a project basis as consultants. The company developed an autonomous car concept in 2008 and in 2014 partnered with Dassault Systemes to offer services to carmakers.
The stock has risen about 23 per cent this year, multiple times the 1.8 per cent increase in the benchmark CAC 40 Index and a matching jump in the broader SBF120 Index.