For the better part of four months of this year, the world was largely put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the travel industry.
The UAE closed its borders in March, with only repatriation flights and cargo flights allowed to come in and out of the country.
Following the long pause of travel, Dubai reopened its borders for international tourism on July 7, and a month on the tourism and hospitality sectors in the emirate are now “benefitting from a rapid rebound”, according to .
The Director-General of Dubai Tourism, Helal Saeed Almarri, has said that since the reopening of the borders they have “been greatly encouraged by the market’s response in the second phase of our recovery strategy”.
“People are much more optimistic and well-informed now and are ready to go on holidays to destinations that are safe and have put in place strong health and safety protocols,” he added.
Green shoots of revival bloom as #Dubai accelerates tourism rebound #WamNews
Read More: https://t.co/3DC1NctOhu pic.twitter.com/Gzmzu7bDFU— WAM English (@WAMNEWS_ENG) August 10, 2020
With Emirates now flying to over 70 destinations and flydubai covering 66 desintations this summer, bookings for both local airlines are reportedly increasing.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel and tourism industry was brought to a complete standstill and according to the World Tourism Organisation, this could be losses of between US$1.2 and US$3.3 trillion globally for the industry, which is dependent on the recovery time.
But for Dubai the “pause phase” – as Almarri refers to it – gave the travel hub time to rethink strategies in order to build a framework that would work in the current climate.
“We rethought business strategies and plans working closely with stakeholders and partners to develop innovative initiatives to manage the ‘new normal’,” he explained. “In cooperation with key authorities, we mapped out stringent health protocols and precautionary measures that would reassure even the most demanding safety-conscious tourists.”
As we head into the final quarter of the year, the Director-General of Dubai Tourism remains optimistic about regrowth for the industry given the obstacles and challenges 2020 has posed.
“We expect to see good progress in the last quarter of 2020 based on growth strategies we have adopted to accelerate momentum ahead of the full reopening,” he said.
