UPFRONT

GRAND HYATT OPENS FIRST PROPERTY IN KUWAIT

HYATT HOTELS HAS OPENED its rst Grand Hyatt property in Kuwait. e 302-room Grand Hyatt Kuwait is situated at 360 Mall, close to e Arena Kuwait as well as the Rafa Nadal Academy Kuwait. e overall design of the property is inspired by the country’s history of sailing, dhow building and pearl diving. ere are several culinary options including Liberté, a modern brasserie, Turkish lifestyle-dining venue ’Stambul, ne dining Pan-Asian restaurant Mei Li and Saheel Lounge in the lobby that features prominent artwork. is is the second Hyatt branded hotel in Kuwait, and the sixth hotel under the Grand Hyatt label within the Middle East.

Masterplan revealed for Rua Al Madinah project in Saudi Arabia

THE MASTERPLAN for Saudi Arabia’s Rua Al Madinah Project which will be constructed in the area east of the Prophet’s Mosque has been revealed. The project is being developed by Rua Al Madinah Holding Company, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) company. The Rua Al Madinah Project will facilitate the hosting of 30 million Umrah pilgrims by 2030. After rehabilitating 1.5 million sqm, the project is set to add over 47,000 hotel rooms by 2030. As much as 83,000 sqm will consist of green areas, with open and green spaces comprising 63 per cent of the project’s total land area.

Four Seasons to grow Egypt portfolio

FOUR SEASONS HOTELS AND

RESORTS will open two new luxury hotels in Egypt, as well as add more private residences to its existing property in Sharm El Sheikh. Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences New Cairo Capital at Madinaty will open in 2025. Designed by Pierre YvesRochon, it will feature 346 rooms and suites, along with 107 villas and 80 residences.

Four Seasons Hotel Luxor meanwhile will also open in 2025 and its 200 rooms and suites will o er views of the Nile River, the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Its property in Sharm El Sheikh will meanwhile double in size too following a multi-million refurbishment with the addition of 69 new private residences.

DUBAI DUTY FREE

US$1.06bn

Total sales from January-August 2022

TOP FIVE SELLING CATEGORIES:

Perfumes (US$186 million)

Liquor (US$168 million)

Gold (US$106 million)

Cigarettes and tobacco (US$98 million)

Electronics (US$81 million)

US$41m vs US$130m

The JanuaryAugust growth in sales of the fashion category between 2021 and 2022

2,000

The number of sta recalled

4,407

Number of employees

*All figures are for the months of JanuaryAugust 2022

EMIRATES TO ROLL OUT PREMIUM ECONOMY ON FIVE MORE DESTINATIONS

EMIRATES PLANS TO introduce its premium economy cabin to five more destinations over the next few months. It is currently available on its London Heathrow, Paris CDG and Sydney routes. Starting December 1, it will be introduced on its flights to New York JFK. Next year, beginning January 23, it will be available on its Auckland flights, and will be followed by its Melbourne service from February 1. From February 15 onwards, it will be bookable on flights to San Francisco, and to Singapore from March 1. Lastly, from March 26, the carrier’s premium economy cabin will be o ered on flights EK412 and EK413 to Christchurch.

RESIDENTS OF GCC countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE can now apply for an electronic tourist visa (eVisa) to enter Saudi Arabia. Also, residents of the UK, US, and EU who have a passport with at least six months of validity are eligible to receive a visa on arrival in the kingdom. The new visas which include single- as well as multipleentry options will be valid for both tourism and performing Umrah within Makkah. The cost of the visa starts at SAR300, with an additional component payable for health insurance.

Wizz Air to introduce 20 new routes between Saudi Arabia and Europe

LOW-COST CARRIER WIZZ AIR will launch 20 new routes to Saudi Arabia over the coming months. ese will be from Bucharest, Budapest, Catania, Larnaca, Milan, Naples, Rome, So a, Tirana, Venice and Vienna to Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Tickets for all the new routes have already gone on sale on the carrier’s website. Wizz Air recently signed an MoU with Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment. e kingdom’s Vision 2030 programme aims to triple the country’s passenger tra c by 2030.

New Saudi visa rules for GCC, EU, UK and US residents

CHEERS!

Emirates is the only airline with an exclusive agreement to o er Dom Pérignon on-board to its customers. It is currently o ering a Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 to its first class passengers. The exceptionally rare 2003 vintage is available on select routes until the end of October.

ROTANA TO OPEN TWO MORE PROPERTIES IN QATAR

ROTANA WILL OPEN two new properties in Doha ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Bin Al Sheikh Residences by Rotana will open in October 2022, while Riviera Rayhaan by Rotana will do so the following month. With these two new properties, Rotana will add 688 keys to its existing portfolio in Qatar of 1,108 keys. Bin Al Sheikh Residences by Rotana includes 158 studios, 278 one-bedroom, 62 two-bedroom apartments, and ve three-bedroom penthouses. Meanwhile, Riviera Rayhaan by Rotana will be a four-star property with185 rooms and suites. Hilton opens Waldorf Astoria in Kuwait

WALDORF ASTORIA HOTELS AND RESORTS

has opened a 200-key property in Kuwait City. Connected to The Avenues, the country’s largest retail destination, Waldorf Astoria Kuwait is located a 15-minute drive away from Kuwait International airport. It has several dining options including Japanese restaurant Roka, as well as its signature o ering, Ava, which serves Mediterranean cuisine. Launching later this year, is an expansive 1,260 sqm Waldorf Astoria Spa. The latest opening joins two Hilton properties currently operating in Kuwait, Hilton Kuwait Resort and Hilton Garden Inn Kuwait.

Etihad strengthens US operations

ETIHAD AIRWAYS will ramp up services to New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport (JFK) and expand its partnership with Jetblue too. Starting November 15, it will add four weekly ights on the Abu Dhabi-New York route, providing a total of 11 weekly nonstop services to JFK. e new ights will be operated with a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, while existing daily services will continue on its new Airbus A350 aircra . Meanwhile, Etihad and Jetblue currently codeshare across 46 destinations throughout the Americas and will expand that partnership too. Jetblue recently began code sharing on Etihad ights from Abu Dhabi to Chicago and New York, with Washington DC scheduled to be added soon.

CRYPTOCURRENCY PAYMENTS NOW ACCEPTED AT PALAZZO VERSACE DUBAI

PALAZZO VERSACE DUBAI has begun allowing guests to use cryptocurrencies to pay for dining, stays and spa experiences at the property. It has partnered with cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Binance to allow guests the option of paying using BNB, Bitcoin and Ethereum. These transactions will take place through the Binance payment gateway. The hotel added that cryptocurrency payments will also be entertained on its e-commerce platforms too, which include gift vouchers and its flower shop.

Breitling partners with Swiss Air on sustainable aviation fuel programme

Grenchen-headquartered luxury watchmaker Breitling has entered into an agreement with Swiss International Air Lines on a new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) initiative in Switzerland. Accordingly, Breitling will purchase SAF for all its business-related ights operated by the carrier, beginning retroactively for the calendar year of 2022. By way of the purchase, Breitling says that it will reduce its ight-related CO2 emissions by 80 per cent. It added that it will achieve carbon neutrality on its air travel by further investments in carbon o sets too.

“Achieving CO2 neutrality on our work-related Swiss ights is an important way for us to reduce our emissions and, through the purchase of SAF, make a small contribution to the sustainability transition of the aviation industry, which we’ve been closely linked to since the 1930s,” said Georges Kern, CEO at Breitling.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH Tourism has the power to foster inclusion, protect nature and promote cultural understanding. We must rethink and reinvent the sector to ensure its sustainability.

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations ETIHAD TO PLANT A MANGROVE FOR EVERY ECONOMY SPACE SEAT BOOKING

Etihad Airways has committed to adopting a mangrove tree on behalf of every guest who books an Economy Space seat – economy seats with extra legroom – thereby “ensuring every ‘space’ seat sold is eventually carbon neutral”. Each mangrove planted will absorb up to 250kg of CO2 in its lifetime – reportedly the same amount produced by an eighthour flight. Also, mangroves eliminate up to four times more carbon dioxide from the air compared to other tropical forests.

The Etihad Forest programme is part of the Abu Dhabi Mangrove Initiative and is a programme to plant trees in forests to absorb carbon within every continent that the airline operates. In Abu Dhabi, the Etihad Mangrove Forest was launched earlier this year in February and aims to plant 182,000 mangroves by the first quarter of 2023.

96%

The total percentage of recycled materials used in the new Air France amenity kits which are available for the airline’s long-haul business class and premium economy passengers. ATLANTIS, THE PALM COMMITS US$120,000 TO UAE SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm has said that it will contribute US$120,000 to diverse sustainability projects within the UAE. The amount was supported by way of its US$1 contribution initiative it launched in June 2021 – for every marine animal experience undertaken by a guest, Atlantis, The Palm collected US$1. The di erent projects that the funding will support include several programmes such as: a project to collect cigarette butts littering beaches and public areas; a Seafood Souq initiative to support the development of a digital platform to make the seafood trade more sustainable, traceable and transparent; a year of funding for the Dubai Dolphin Survey initiative by the Zayed University and researcher Dr Ada Natoli; funding for the United Arab Emirates University to support its research into the local shark and ray population and to study critically endangered species in local waters; and support for its own in-house dive teams who will assist Freestyle Divers in placing artificial reefs into the shallow coastal waters of Fujairah.