Nestled in the heart of The Beach and Jumeirah Beach Residence, Address Beach Resort is a perfect escape for families and individuals from near and far. With unparalleled views of the Arabian Gulf, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina and the iconic Ain Dubai (Dubai Eye), Address Beach Resort is the Ultimate Beach Address.

In March 2021, this newly opened beach-front property has officially broken two Guinness World Records™ (GWR) titles for the ‘Highest outdoor infinity pool in a building in the world’ and the ‘Highest Occupiable Skybridge Floor in the world’.

Featuring two 77-storey towers connected with the record-breaking skybridge, this iconic destination resort features 217 guest rooms and suites. Presenting enticing dining concepts along with luxurious recreation facilities, Address Beach Resort offers guests direct access to the beach. The unique architectural design incorporates stylish and cultural elements as well as sustainable concepts. Every guest room is equipped with an iPad to monitor the daily newspaper and control the lighting and air conditioning functions.

Focusing on holistic wellness, the resort features state-of-the-art recreation facilities. The travellers can unwind at the signature The Spa at Address, a heaven situated on Level 75, or maintain their exercise routine at the 24/7 fitness centre fully equipped with a range of cutting-edge workout equipment.

Families can take advantage of the kid-friendly options throughout their stay. The Qix Club offers the littles ones a variety of creative craft sessions and educational games, under the thorough supervision of the childcare professionals.

Bringing together a leisurely refined experience, Address Beach Resort is a destination ‘where life happens’ and memories are created.

The hotel is comprised of the following features

• The award-winning building design featuring two 77-storey towers connected by sky bridge
• Located in Jumeirah Beach Residence walking distance from Dubai Marina, Bluewaters Island and Dubai Eye
• Direct access to The Beach
• Incredible views of the Arabian Gulf, Bluewaters Island, Dubai Eye, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) and Dubai Marina
• Rooftop infinity pool located almost 294 above the sea level

• 2 open-air swimming pools, landscaped terraces and Kids Splash Pad
• 217 luxury rooms (from 45 sq.m)  and suites (from 81 sq.m) – all of them feature a bathtub and a separate shower
• World-class dining venues including:
• ZETA Seventy Seven – sky-high venue adjacent to the record-breaking infinity pool, serving Asian fusion cuisine with panoramic rooftop views

• Li’Brasil – a perfect marriage between Lebanese & Brazilian cuisines with indoor and outdoor seating with spectacular views
• The Beach Grill – a laidback beachside venue serving tender grills
• The Restaurant – an award-winning restaurant concept by Address Hotels + Resorts

• The Lounge – warm and inviting lobby lounge serving carefully crafted light snacks and refreshment  
• Signature The Spa at Address (the highest spa in Dubai located on 75th floor)
• Sauna & steam rooms, Rhassoul rooms, Vichy showers
• 24-hour gym (the highest gym in Dubai located on 75th floor)
• Sophisticated event facilities including Olive Terrace and Event Lawn by the beachside

• The Qix Club – a unique space for children
• Exclusive artworks and sculptures by world famous artist Mattar bin Lahej
• Events Lawn for private functions just off the beach
• Prime view of Ain Dubai ferris wheel – Largest in the world
• External Artworks/Sculptures by world famous artist Mattar bin Lahej artist (Polished Stainless Steel with tallest being 9m high and longest at 12m long).
• All F&B facilities have terraces facing the beach and the best views.

The requirements will improve and unify Dubai hotels’ environmental practices and enhance the competitiveness of the city’s tourism-linked economy

A directive from Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) mandates that all hotels comply with the Sustainability Requirements for Hotel Establishments by the deadline of July 1, 2021, as set by Dubai Sustainable Tourism (DST), an initiative to further enhance Dubai’s position as one of the world’s leading sustainable tourism destinations.

Under the directive, hotels must also resume monthly submission of carbon emission drivers. The system has the long-term objective of advancing sustainability performance across the sector. Back in 2019 Dubai Tourism led by DST trained 528 hotels on the implementation of these sustainability standards and currently inviting hotels for a refresher webinar ahead of July 2021.

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline was extended for an additional 12 months, a decision that Dubai Tourism took to strengthen the foundations for recovery of the hospitality sector. The progress on implementation of the mandatory standards will be tracked by hotels and audited by DST.

Yousuf Lootah, Vice Chairman of Dubai Sustainable Tourism, said: “Over the past year, the strength of the city’s tourism industry is reflected in the safe and successful reopening of Dubai to domestic and international visitors. In alignment with the city’s wider carbon reduction strategy, we know that tourism can also be an area where Dubai truly sets the benchmark at a global level with forward-thinking sustainability and corporate social responsibility practices. We strongly encourage hotels to comply with the 19 Sustainability Requirements set by Dubai Tourism and provide Carbon Calculator submissions by July 1. We know that with the ongoing support of the relevant government bodies these hotel establishments can play a huge part in achieving the overall carbon emission reduction target over the next year and beyond.”

The 19 Sustainability Requirements include sustainable management approaches, performance metrics, energy, food and water management plans, guest education, employee training initiatives, the presence of sustainability committees within hotel establishments and corporate social responsibility programmes for local communities. Through improving internal sustainability operations, hotel establishments in turn will enhance the competitiveness of Dubai’s tourism-linked economy. These requirements support Dubai’s Carbon Abatement Strategy 2021 target to reduce the carbon emissions by 16% by 2021, overall.

Since its inception in January 2017, the Carbon Calculator – part of the Tourism Dirham Platform, is a tool that has been measuring the carbon footprint within Dubai’s hospitality sector. On a monthly basis, hotels submit their consumption of 11 carbon emission sources, including: electricity, district cooling, water, waste, fuel for transportation, fuel for generators, fire extinguishers, and liquefied petroleum gas for analysis. This information is aggregated and analysed to provide valuable industry insights on the sector’s collective carbon footprint. In addition, by formulating a baseline along with consistent tracking, this information enables hotels to understand their energy, water and waste consumption and further identify successful cost-saving opportunities.

Source: Hospitalitynet

Dutch national carrier–KLM has announced direct flights to Mombasa in what could destabilise national carrier Kenya Airways on the key Amsterdam route.

The airline which is part of the Air France-KLM Group, yesterday said the direct flights will commence in October, as its seeks to further strengthen its presence in East Africa.

It will operate two flights a week, on Thursday and Sunday, flying the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner between Amsterdam and Mombasa, starting October 31, with a loop to Nairobi from Mombasa.

In a statement, KLM General Manager for East Africa Arthur Dieffenthaler said the flights to Mombasa will mainly target leisure travellers to the coastal city by offering a direct flying experience.

“The rising number of tourists visiting Mombasa, not just from Europe but also the rest of the world, signifies the growing interest in the unique experiences the coastal city has to offer,” Dieffenthaler said, noting the Covid-19 pandemic has increased demand for direct flights.

A direct trip will cost $748 (about Sh80,000) with a round-trip costing $576 (Sh61,000) on the route, where Kenya Airways does not fly directly.

While KQ has been capitalising on its Nairobi-Mombasa route to fly passengers landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, direct flights by KLM will erode its dominance.

The addition of the Amsterdam-Mombasa route will see KLM expand its presence in the region on the back of increased tourism and trade between East African nations and the European Union, which has however been slowed down by the pandemic.

The carrier’s decision to launch flights to Mombasa, it said, also signals growing confidence in East Africa’s tourism market, one of the most competitive globally as the world is starting to slowly recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

KLM is capitalising on the Bilateral Air Services Agreement between Kenya and Netherlands which allows carriers from the two countries to fly to any international airport.

With the existence of the agreement, KLM does not need approval from Kenya’s aviation industry regulator–Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA).

“They just need to activate the Bilateral Air Services Agreement and seek traffic rights from the ministry. They need to inform the ministry that they wish to fly to Mombasa,” KCAA director general Gilbert Kibe told the Star.

The Transport Ministry yesterday however, said it has not received KLM’s request to fly directly from Amsterdam to Mombasa.

‘‘When we do, we will process as necessary. Those (bilateral air services agreement) are general provisions. Destinations and schedules (flights) requires specific approvals,’’ Transport PS Solomon Kitungu told the Star.

The move now raises questions on the Bilateral Air Services Agreement which seems to favour Netherlands, with KLM which has a network of 92 European cities and 70 intercontinental destinations expected to eat into Kenya Airways passenger traffic.

Pre-Covid, Kenya Airways only operated passenger flights to KLM’s hub of Amsterdam which currently remain suspended over the pandemic. KLM would then fly the passengers to other cities in the country and Europe.

KQ, as it is known by its international code, has had a long-standing joint-venture agreement with Air France-KLM which owns a 7.8 per cent stake in the national carrier.

The partnership however could be ending as the government, which owns a 48.9 per cent stake, pushes for nationalisation of KQ.

It plans to buy out local lenders who have a 38 per cent stake, and private investors in the Nairobi Securities Exchange listed airline.

KQ is currently also disadvantaged on the Ethiopian route where it only flies to Addis Ababa, while Ethiopian Airlines has direct flight to both Nairobi and Mombasa.

Kenya has a number of air service agreements with the latest entered in 2018 during the ICAO Air Service Negotiations (ICAN) held in Nairobi.

The deals with Cambodia,The Bahamas, Jamaica, Turkey, Seychelles, Greece, Finland and Burkina Faso were signed by Transport CS James Macharia on behalf of the Kenyan Government.

Source: The Star

Demand for air travel on the Western region has seen aviation firms increase their flights from Nairobi to Kisumu in a move set to heighten competition for air ticket on the route.

In a span of less than two months, a number of airlines have increased flight frequencies or launched operations to Kisumu International Airport, raising competition for air ticket with carriers such as Kenya Airways, Fly540 and Safarilink.

Aviation firm 748 Air Services last month started direct passenger flights to Kisumu from Nairobi stepping up competition for passengers on the route.

The company, that is currently on an aggressive expansion plan, says the new flight will be originating from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi two times per day.

Passenger on the route pays an average fare of Sh10,700 on a return air ticket – which is relatively lower compared to its competitors on the route.

In March, budget carrier Jambojet increased flights in nearly all its routes including Kisumu following high demand for passengers seeking air travel ahead of Easter holiday in April.

The airline increased frequencies on specific days from March 8 but kept the airfare unchanged.

The airline flies from Eldoret to Kisumu before proceeding to Mombasa.

“Say yes to unforgettable Easter this year. We have increased frequencies during the Easter season visit into your schedule,” said the airline in notice then.

Safarilink, that introduced an additional mid-morning flight to cash in on increased demand during the Madaraka Day fete is also set to increase frequency on its Nairobi-Kisumu route in the next two weeks.

The local airline will now fly three times per day from Nairobi to Kisumu, an increase from two due to increased demand from travellers.

“We have experienced immense growth along the Kisumu-Nairobi route due to our very affordable fares. We now have plans for an additional mid-morning flight on the route starting mid -June,” said the airline in an interview with Shipping and Logistics yesterday.

According to the Kenya Airports Authority reports, Kisumu International Airport handles about 500,000 passengers per year.

The airport is, however, undergoing an upgrade at Sh1.2 billion to improve customer experience and reposition it as a regional aviation hub.

The move will see the airport double the number of passengers it can handle to 1 million per year.

Most passengers using the Nairobi-Kisumu route are either on business trip, for conference, tourism or on visit to their rural homes.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority director-general Gilbert Kibe says the increase in passenger operations on Kisumu route is mainly pegged on rapid expansion of the lake town city.

“The middle class is growing, the county strategy is working, business and trade requires movement both ways. Kisumu is developing rapidly,” says Mr Kibe.

“Air transport is the single largest enabler of economic development in Kenya and globally. More counties will begin air transport.”

Kenya Airport Authority Wilson Airport and Northern region Airports manager Joseph Okumu said demand for air travel on the Kisumu route is set to fall as more players jostle for a slice on the route.

The route he says is also lucrative as it connects passengers working in the city but would want to retreat to the villages over the weekend.

“We expect to see more airlines launching operations on Kisumu route. This is good news as more passenger travels will open up the city and Western region,” said Mr Okumu.

Source: Business Daily

Region has learned lessons of previous pandemics, says African Travel and Tourism (ATTA) president Nigel Vere Nicoll

Ironically, it appears that the elephant in the room in global tourism will once again be Africa.

Remember 2014, when the Ebola epidemic in West Africa shut down tourism throughout the continent despite the outbreak being further away from most of Africa’s safari destinations than the UK?

So, its Groundhog Day as the ‘darkest Africa’ cloud gathers and the UK’s dreaded red brush remains firmly over most of the key African tourism destinations, preventing all international travel. A touch of red, and tourism’s dead.

The old chestnut put forward of limited testing capacity, poor health and under-reporting are pulled out of the hat again and again without detailed scrutiny. That narrative does not fit the reality.

The reality is the numbers of deaths from Covid-19 across the 13, or so, key safari destinations in sub–Saharan Africa are low.

There have been just 70,000 deaths in a total population across those 13 countries of around 400 million (and 80% are in one country, South Africa).

So why are these countries with the exception of Uganda, still on the UK’s red list?

A recent report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention Control and its African counterpart makes these points, in support of the reasons why Africa’s death rates in this pandemic are so low.

Resources and lessons learned throughout Africa, from widespread HIV and tuberculosis, were leveraged in the fight against Covid 19.

The political will of most African governments has been a key element in the response, with swift lockdowns restricting movement and taskforces organised to coordinate efforts.

Warm weather gives Africa a much-needed lifeline and moving forward safari is an open-air experience anyway.

Compared with Europe, Africa has a far lower importation risk of the virus based on the volume of air travel from say, China to Africa.

Probably the most important reason of all, is the low infection rate of Africa’s very young population, with a median age of 19.4 years compared with 40 in UK and 38 in USA. The average age for fatalities from Covid-19 in UK is 80.4 which underlines the data that the disease is far more severe in older populations.

Although it is true that Africa does not have the same testing capacity as other regions in the world, the low numbers are explained by the fact that Africa has a long experience of handling infectious diseases and that its youthful population is far less susceptible to the virus than other continents.

Our plea to UK’s Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) who hold the sword of Damocles is for a science-based approach combining the right balance between risk and protection.

Then, once the selections for each of the green, amber, and red lists are made at the next review, the Foreign Office (FCDO) must also review its travel advice so that outbound and inbound restrictions are aligned.

Only then can the elephant be let out of the room allowing safaris and business travel to Africa to resume once again.

Source: Travel Weekly

The Ethiopian government on Wednesday announced an updated travel advisory, which necessitates an African Union (AU) COVID-19 pass for entry and exit.

According to the updated travel advisory, all travelers exiting, entering or transiting via Ethiopia are required from June 7 to present a digital negative COVID-19 certificates at all ports of entry based on the AU’s Trusted Travel Platform and the UNDP-sponsored Global Haven Program.

In October 2020, the AU officially launched its Trusted Travel Platform as part of the overall Trusted Travel Initiative. The platform provides information on travel requirements at the departure and destination ports and access to a list of government-approved laboratories for COVID-19 testing in African countries.

It allows travelers to upload their COVID-19 test results online for easy verification by port health and travel officials and helps with the detection of forged certificates.

The ministry said paper certificates shall cease to be acceptable and only AU Trusted Travel (TT) or Global Haven COVID-19 test certificates shall be allowed for exit, transit and entry purposes starting from July 1.

The requirement for digital certificates has become necessary due to the alarming increase of fake health documents and rising incidents of forgery detected since the onset of the pandemic.

Travelers wishing to exit Ethiopia are also advised to visit an authorized laboratory to take a COVID-19 test and be issued with TT codes that can be verified by airlines and port health authorities across the continent, the ministry said.

The AU TT requirement applies to both categories of travelers — those traveling within Africa and those traveling from countries where there are labs integrated into the TT system.

The complementary Global Haven Platform supports travelers coming from outside Africa from places where labs have not currently integrated into the TT system, the ministry said.

The related enforcement will commence on June 7 and the deadline for full compliance is set for July 1.

As of Wednesday evening, Ethiopia registered a total of 272,036 COVID-19 cases and 4,178 deaths, according to the ministry.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, has so far reported the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the East Africa region. It is among the African countries the hardest hit by COVID-19, following South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Source: Xinhua

Ministers have moved to tighten Britain’s borders as new data suggests the Delta coronavirus variant is much more likely to cause serious illness and is circulating more rapidly within schools.

With England’s reopening on 21 June hanging in the balance, the government removed Portugal from the green list of countries and added seven more countries to the red list – moves that provoked fury within the travel industry and left many holidaymakers in limbo.

Portugal, including Madeira and the Azores, was the only mainstream tourist destination Britons could visit without having to quarantine. On Tuesday, these destinations will be moved to the amber list, requiring travellers to self-isolate for 10 days upon return.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said that as well as rising Covid test positivity rates in Portugal, a “difficult decision” hinged on worries about Covid variants, particularly a possible additional mutation of the Delta variant.

Data from Public Health England released on Thursday evening showed that the Delta variant, B.1.617.2, first detected in India, is dominant in the UK, now accounting for 75% of infections.

The data also indicated that the variant was significantly more likely to cause serious illness than the Alpha variant of Covid, which has been dominant across the UK since its detection in Kent in the autumn.

While the PHE team stressed that more research was needed, an analysis of 38,805 sequenced cases in England showed that the Delta variant carried 2.61 times the risk of hospitalisation within 14 days compared with the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) once demographic factors and vaccination status were taken into account.

Data from Scotland pointed to a more than twofold higher risk of hospitalisation for those infected with the Delta variant compared with the Alpha.

The new PHE data also revealed for the first time the spread of variants within schools and colleges in England. By the start of June, there had been 140 outbreaks of the Delta variant within educational settings, and since the end of April the figures showed 90 outbreaks of this variant within schools alone.

Responding to the PHE report, Prof Christina Pagel, director of UCL’s clinical operational research unit, said: “Every technical report seems to bring worse news. Added to increased transmissibility and some vaccine escape, we now have evidence that your chance of being hospitalised might be twice as high with the Delta variant than with the Alpha variant. This makes it harder for vaccines to weaken the link between cases and hospitalisations.

“The other new thing in this report is data on outbreak settings, and it is clear that schools are a major source of transmission and that outbreaks in primary and secondary schools have been growing a lot week on week.”

Shapps tied the decision about Portugal to fears that returning travellers could bring in more variants, further jeopardising the government’s timetable to end many of the remaining Covid social restrictions on 21 June. There is still no decision as to whether the planned reopening will happen then, or if restrictions might need to be extended allowing more people to be vaccinated. A decision is due by 14 June.

“We just don’t know the potential for that to be a vaccine-defeating mutation, and we don’t want to take the risk as we come up to 21 June and the review of the fourth stage of the unlock,” Shapps said in a TV interview.

He also highlighted what he called “a sort of Nepal mutation”. A mutation of the Delta variant, this is suspected of potentially being more resistant to vaccines, but is not under observation by PHE. It has been seen in numerous countries but only once in Nepal, which carries out very little genome sequencing for Covid.

As news leaked out about the green list decision hours before the official announcement, hundreds of millions of pounds were wiped off the value of tour operators and airlines, and there was significant anger.

Green-list destinations are in effect the only choice for holidays. The listing allows people to return to England without quarantining, although they must take a Covid-19 test before coming back and another within two days of arriving.

Aside from Portugal, Gibraltar and Israel, the initial 12-destination green list mainly comprised places – such as Australia, New Zealand, the Falkland Islands and Iceland – that did not allow entry to Britons.

Ahead of the three-weekly review of the list, there had been expectation that more tourism centres could be added, for example Spain’s Balearic islands and some Greek islands.

Johan Lundgren, EasyJet’s chief executive, said the decision “essentially cuts the UK off from the rest of the world”.

John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow airport, said: “Ministers spent last month hailing the restart of international travel only to close it down three weeks later, all but guaranteeing another lost summer for the travel sector.”

Henry Smith, the Conservative MP whose Crawley constituency includes Gatwick, said he was “very concerned that [the government was] not being more ambitious” on travel. “I think we should be going in the other direction and liberalising the amount of countries on the green travel list. This decision really puts a question mark over a significant number of travel and aviation sector jobs – going forward, if they can’t manage to have something of a summer season, I think it’s going to lead to increased unemployment.”

Source: The Guardian

Huge numbers of Kenyans and many Nigerians depend on India to treat heart and kidney diseases. With travel restrictions to India, some ill Africans have been left stranded.

Imelda Wambua has chronic kidney failure and cannot afford the high cost of treatment in Kenya. Under normal circumstances, Wambua would quickly hop in a budget airliner and jet to India or have her medications delivered via express couriers. Now, none of that is possible.

“I was put on dialysis for about 18 months because my antibodies were too high. They needed to bring them down,” Wambua told DW. “I was advised to get a transplant,” she said. “The procedure that I needed, which is plasma exchange, cannot be done locally. So, going to India, at least, there was hope.”

Wambua’s hopes were dashed when Kenya and many other countries banned travel to India because of the rapidly rising figures in the country’s second wave of the COVID pandemic.

‘Beyond their management’

At its peak, India recorded about 400,000 new infections and 4,000 deaths per day. Although new figures indicate that its second wave is slowing down, many countries still ban travelers from India.

Kenyans are aghast as the pandemic claims many lives in a neighboring country across the Indian Ocean. Nigerians are watching the situation closely too.

“The doctors here would diagnose you with a particular disease, but when you go abroad, they will tell you something else,” Aminu Bello, who lives in Nigeria, told DW. Like Wambua, Bello is also unable to fly to India for treatment for a medical condition he did not want to disclose.

“I am sure many people have lost their lives because of such negligence. We have lost confidence in the system,” Bello added.

Many Nigerians as well as Kenyans go to India to treat “heart diseases, cancer, diseases of the kidney and diseases related to orthopedics and spine,” according to Nigerian surgeon Dr. Mohammed Jamil.

“This COVID pandemic that is affecting the Indian system makes it very difficult for patients to travel to India. So, they must seek alternatives in other countries like in Turkey and Egypt. Others go to Europe to countries like Britain and Germany or The United States of America,” Dr. Jamil told DW.

A continent and a sub-continent

India is among Africa’s largest trading partners by gross national income and is Kenya’s number one destination for medical tourists.

The weather on the Indian sub-continent is similar to that on the African continent. It’s the same for living conditions, where people spend more time outdoors than indoors. Aerosol experts say transmission of the coronavirus occurs more frequently indoors than outdoors — the main reason why the Northern Hemisphere has been affected more so than the South.

When COVID cases began surging in India, many wondered if Africa would be next. The African continent is yet to see a mass outbreak of the pandemic. Afraid of the much-hyped Indian COVID variant, many African countries immediately suspended flights to and from India in early March, leaving the continent’s many medical tourists in limbo.

According to Kenya’s Health Ministry, the vast majority of Kenyans who travel for medical treatment chose India. Other top destinations for medical checkups in Africa include: South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia and Mauritius.

The wait “has really drained us financially,” Wambua said.

Moses Langat had been on his way to India to treat a hole in his eardrum. “The doctor indicated that it was too late. He could only refer me to another hospital,” Langat told DW.

“The doctor wrote a referral to India, and that is when I realized that my condition was now beyond their management,” Langat said. Unable to fly to India, he uses crutches to walk because his inner ear infection makes him feel dizzy and unsteady. He had hoped for specialist treatment in India.

Cheaper in India than in Kenya

Most cases referred to India require specialist treatment either not available in Kenya or too expensive for middle-income earners. “There are certain conditions that cannot be treated [in Kenya],” Kenyan doctor Eugene Omar told DW.

“When we want to send you to India is when we know there is something you can get in the Indian system that you cannot get here or that system offers you a cost advantage,” Omar said.

For most patients, the cost of specialist care is far lower in India.

Initially, there was uproar after Kenya and some other countries decided to keep their borders to India open while the COVID situation was being monitored. A few weeks after flights were suspended, reality sank in quickly when patients took to social media platforms to vent their frustrations.

Invest in local medical infrastructure  

Nigeria is Africa’s richest country by Gross Domestic Product and the continent’s most populous nation. But it lacks basic services such as electricity, health facilities and healthcare systems. Aminu Bello wants the Nigerian government to now focus more on healthcare.

“If government doesn’t do anything about this and you have the means, you should go abroad for medical care,” said Bello

“The best alternative is to invest more in the public systems, so that we would have good hospitals with equipment,” said the Nigerian doctor Jamil. “The private sector should also invest, so we have good and equipped private hospitals.”  

Source: DW

The successful face-to-face gathering of more than 370 delegates ahead of Expo 2020’s opening in October shows the next World Expo is set to become one of Dubai’s greatest success stories – a global experience that will demonstrate the emirate’s confidence, safety and openness to all visitors and further boost its thriving leisure and business tourism industries.

Speaking after the two-day International Participants Meeting (IPM), which welcomed delegates from 173 of Expo’s 190-plus participating countries, Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai and His Excellency Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Director General of Dubai World Trade Centre Authority and member of the Expo 2020 Dubai Higher Committee praised Dubai’s confidence and vision and its unwavering commitment to host the next World Expo, with Expo and DTCM working closely to create an Expo that would excite and inspire visitors from all around the world.

Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy, said: “Since the planning stages, we have worked hand-in-hand with DTCM to deliver an Expo that will attract visitors from across the planet and make Dubai and the UAE proud. As the world changed, we too have adapted, and thanks to our collaboration with DTCM, we have created an Expo that will delight and inspire explorers and entrepreneurs, children and grandparents, casual tourists and the curious who want to experience the future – now.”

His Excellency Al Marri said: “Since inception, Dubai has exemplified what it means to succeed against all odds, rising with dignity and determination to become an economic engine and a vibrant hub for travellers from all over the world. Setting new benchmarks is engrained in our ethos, and to this end, we see Expo 2020 Dubai as a global pivot given where we all are today.

“No one could have anticipated how COVID-19 would alter our realities so definitively, and yet, like the rest of the world, Dubai and Expo 2020 paused, reflected and persevered through unprecedented challenges, with our innate indomitable spirit, to re-emerge stronger and more optimistic for our collective future.”

Implementing a phased economic reopening, Dubai began welcoming tourists once again in July 2020 – when the city’s first in-person, post-lockdown event was held – and has since remained open to the world, reinforcing the renewed need for global business and leisure travel.

His Excellency added: “Dubai has successfully deployed its phased economic reopening that prioritised safety while minimising the impacts of the pandemic – an approach that sees us well-positioned to lead a post-pandemic recovery. As a thriving tourist destination and a global centre for the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector, we look forward to welcoming more of the world’s business and leisure travellers to Dubai over the coming months.

“The new Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC), Expo 2020 Dubai, which hosted its inaugural event at the recent meeting of Expo’s international participants, will be a signature venue during Expo 2020 and through its legacy, providing new-age connectivity and networking opportunities for a global audience, catalysing industry, business and markets and driving economic growth in our region and the world.”

Testament to Dubai’s future-focused strategies, Expo 2020 Dubai will galvanise the region’s thriving tourism and events industries, and DEC – a 45,000 sqm, state-of-the-art, multipurpose venue that is already 80 per cent booked for the duration of Expo – will play a fundamental role in attracting domestic, international and business travellers.

A significant symbol of Expo’s long-term business and tourism legacy, DEC is among the permanent buildings that will be retained after Expo 2020 closes its doors, forming part of District 2020, a new urban innovation ecosystem and model global community of the future.

Running from 1 October 2021 until 31 March 2022, Expo 2020 will coincide with the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the UAE, and highlight the country’s role as a global connecting hub for people, ideas and innovation. Visitors from across the globe are invited to join the making of a new world, as they discover life-changing innovations that will have a meaningful, positive impact on both people and planet.

Source: Focus on Travel News