Travel in Kuwait

The Al Humaidi Family of Kuwait, which is headed by Dr. Abdulla Al Humaidi, has launched (and is continuing to launch) a range of ambitious projects via Kuwaiti European Holdings Group.

The hotel is IHG’s fifth Vignette Collection signing in the MEA region, adding to the company’s growing luxury and lifestyle portfolio in the region

Gulf countries are forming a new “bloc” dedicated to furthering the region’s tourism sector. The much-anticipated ‘GCC zone’ unified visa should be announced by December to tie together the GCC states: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

As Future Hospitality Summit 2023 kicks off, Hilton has announced plans to increase its presence in the Middle East by more than 125% in the years ahead.

A partnership between Wego, the largest online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and VisitBritain, Britain’s national tourism agency, has seen a 25% boost in bookings to Great Britain.

Almost all travelers require a visa to enter Egypt, but fortunately, the process is pretty simple, and a little advance planning goes a long way.

Carried over 14 million passengers across six continents, with average seat loads of over 80%.

Students assist with online check-in of passengers; Up to 1000 passengers assisted per day.

Travel and tourism in the Middle East and Africa region, the focus of another recent region-specific research study by m1nd-set, is experiencing a robust revival, according to the Swiss travel and travel retail research agency.

In a bid to boost tourism’s contribution to the national gross domestic product to $122 billion a year by 2031, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched the UAE Tourism Strategy 2031 on Friday. Eyeing an annual increase of $7.4 billion, the tourism startegy aims to attract new investments of $27.2 billion to the tourism sector in the country, and attract 40 million hotel guests in 2031. The strategy includes 25 initiatives and policies to support the development of the tourism sector in the country, according to the government media office. With the return of tourists, the United Arab Emirates’ tourism revenues surpassed $5 billion in the first half of this year.

The Gulf region now has more than 170,000 hotel rooms under active development, which includes planning, final planning and under construction, according to research conducted at the end of September by STR, a hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company. This active hotel development pipeline now equals 40 percent of the Gulf region’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than the global average of 11 percent. The STR report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000 rooms. Similarly for the United Arab Emirates, the research currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030. “Interestingly, Ras Al Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5,076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Danielle Curtis, exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market. The research had been commissioned by Arabian Travel Market.

Italian corporate travel agency BizAway has launched a joint venture with Dubai investor Seed Group.

Event organizers in Abu Dhabi will no longer be required to pay tourism tax. Hosting an event in Abu Dhabi had incurred a 10 percent tax per ticket sold. “For further support to the investment environment in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, it has been decided to exempt event organizers from the tourism fee of 10 percent on tickets sold,” a circular from the Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi stated recently. The circular also said it is mandatory for event organizers to obtain event licenses in accordance with the regulations specified for this purpose. Event organizers are also required to declare the revenues generated from these events, submit supporting financial statements, and cooperate with revenue auditors or individuals designated by the department of culture and tourism to validate the accuracy of their declarations.

A debate over market access was rekindled at an aviation event in India as foreign carriers seeking additional capacity to serve more routes in India feared the Tata Group-owned Air India’s rebirth and record order of 470 jets might capture most of the market. Dubai’s Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera Airways have all called for sharp increases in air traffic rights to and from India to meet demand. Vietnam and Indonesia also want more flights, an Indian official said. However, speaking to Reuters India’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the country has no plans to increase air traffic rights for the United Arab Emirates. He instead urged domestic carriers to fly long haul and help establish new hubs. “We are going to see an explosion of air traffic in India in the years to come,” he said, adding he wanted domestic carriers to focus on international expansion. “We are not getting enough share from this market,” Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Bilal Eksi said. Dubai has requested an extra 50,000 seats a week on India routes while Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways said the current weekly allowance of 12,000 was inadequate and asked for the cap to be raised to 28,000 seats.  

The Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions are expected to account for 58 percent of the global air passenger demand in 2040. Aviation market intelligence CAPA — Centre for Aviation has region-wise listed the total numbers of the airport project and the volume of investment include 155 in Middle East worth $209 billion. Airports in the Middle East will need to invest $151 billion in capacity expansion as the global air passenger demand is expected to increase more than two-fold in 2040. With over 110 airports, the Middle East is already among the fastest growing in the world, accounting for 170 million of the global traffic. Close to 19.7 billion passengers are expected to traverse the world’s airports by 2040, according to the Airport Council International and the Middle East airports will handle 1.1 billion passengers by 2040 — a significant increase from 2019’s 405 million. In the United Arab Emirates, the New Sharjah International Airport expansion, with an approximate cost of $517 million, will get completed by the fourth quarter of 2024. Kuwait Airport is expanding its passenger terminal 2 to handle 13 million passengers, at an estimated cost of $4.36 billion. In Qatar, Hamad International Airport Phase 2B’s expansion work on the passenger terminal is expected to commence this year and will enhance passenger capacity to more than 60 million annually. Saudi Arabia is set to build one of the world’s largest airports which will have six parallel runways. The airport will help drive annual passenger traffic to 120 million by 2030 and 185 million by 2050.

Singapore Airlines has refuted a media report saying it may raise its stake in Tata Group-owned Air India from the 25.1 percent which it secured as part of the group’s Vistara merger to create a bigger full-service national carrier. “The Mint story dated 16 June 2023 is incorrect. There (is) no change in SIA’s position from the November 2022 announcement,” Singapore Airlines said. Singapore’s state carrier’s statement was in response to a report by Indian daily Mint, which said the carrier had expressed its desire to gradually raise its stake in the Indian airline to about 40 percent. The media report, citing three people familiar with the development, stated Singapore Airlines and the Tata Group have had initial talks regarding the potential increase in stake. 

Emirates has announced it will reduce service between Dubai and almost half its destinations in the U.S. Flights to Boston, Seattle, and Los Angeles will be reduced from two per day to one, and daily flights to Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale will be reduced to five per week each. The total number of weekly flights cut comes to 25.

Although the shocking passenger-bashing incidents at American and United have mostly upstaged the laptop ban story in recent weeks, another media-focus turnaround may be in the offing.

AirHelp, the online service that files complaints against airlines on behalf of passengers entitled to compensation for air delays or cancellations, knows a thing or two about air travel. Because it’s hard for the average person to understand air passenger rights and pursue a legal claim when they’ve been wronged, AirHelp is always going toe-to-toe with airlines and airports—and reveals once a year which ones that treat their passengers for the better (or worse).

If you like your holidays with a pinch — or even liberal lashings — of adrenalin, then you may want to check one of these life-changing experiences out. Taken from the pages of Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth, here's ten ultimate trips for thrill seekers.