The survey by Yahoo! Maktoob Research found 32 percent of respondents ranked Dubai as the number one shopping destination, beating out more established global cities such as London, Paris and New York.

Dubai’s retail sector has grown rapidly over the last decade on the back of the city’s economic boom, establishing it as a popular global shopping tourism destination.

The city’s stable of shopping centres includes Mall of the Emirates, which features an indoor ski slope, and Dubai Mall, one of the largest in the world that is located next to the 828-metre Burj Khalifa.

Paris was ranked the second best shopping destination with 13 percent of the vote, followed by Beijing, Istanbul and London in joint third with 5 percent, the survey found.

Originally published by http://www.yahoo.com

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Through the pioneering award programme, it wants the tourism industry stakeholders to demonstrate a firm commitment towards reducing the impact of their business on the environment.

Hotels and hotel apartments were invited to participate in the award programme and their business practices were assessed for a wide range of environmental, economic and social issues, including energy saving, nature conservation and community involvement.

Mr. Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman, DTCM Executive Director Media Relations and Business Development, who opened the judging session, said: “We are providing an opportunity to the tourism industry to keep pace with changing patterns and to demonstrate that tourism sector is acting and committed to green initiatives. Tourism sector fuels Dubai economy and the whole idea is to inspire and encourage tourism industry stakeholders.”

The response of the hospitality industry to the Dubai Green Tourism Award has been highly encouraging, reflecting the enthusiasm and commitment towards sustainable tourism. Introductory workshops were conducted for the hospitality industry to explain the green tourism concepts and the award programme.

A total of 79 applications were submitted for the debut edition of the award. About 200 hotels from three, four and five stars and deluxe hotel apartments were eligible to compete for the annual recognition programme.

Out of this, the award committee selected 33 hotel establishments for the site visits after the scrutiny and assessment of their submissions under the two-tier evaluation criteria.

A six-member judging panel comprising of experts from various organisations completed the evaluation of submissions and shortlisted 18 hotels and hotel apartments to select the winners.

The panel of judges included Ms. Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson of Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), Mr.Ali Bin Towaih, Executive Director of Sustainable Energy & Environment Division (SEED) and Environment Park at TECOM, Mr. Majid Al Marri, DTCM’s Director Classification, Ms.Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director, EWS – WWF, Mr.Satish Bhaskaran, DTCM Executive Director Administration, and Mr.Hamdan Al Shaer, Director of Environment at Dubai Municipality.

The panel held its meeting over two days at the DTCM Head Office recently.

Mr. Eyad said the main objectives of the award are to encourage the hotel establishments to use and implement environmental systems and tools to reduce the negative impact of CO2 the in the hospitality industry,, the award also reward hotels who introduce initiatives that highlight the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes and develop awareness/educational culture within hospitality sector about the sustainable tourism.

He praised the enthusiasm and commitment of Mr. Majid Al Marri, DTCM Director of Classification, and Ms. Shaikha Al Mutawa, DTCM Director of Business Development, towards making the award project a reality and a long-term programme of the department. They have been interacting with the tourism industry players and getting their feedback on the programme right from its conceptual stage.

Ms.Shaikha Al Mutawa, DTCM Director of Business Development and Chairperson of the Dubai Green Tourism Award, said the judges evaluated the submissions as per the judging criteria, set according to the international level, considering four main criteria- hotel environmental strategies and team involved, environmental issues that their initiatives and programmes addresses, The performance and impact of these initiatives; the stakeholders management and cooperation, and resources management.

Mr, Majid Al Marri, DTCM Director Classification and Deputy Chairman of the Dubai Green Tourism Award, gave a presentation on the judging process noting that all the process have been done electronically to save the environment by avoiding the use of papers.

The award sponsors are EcoVentures, M.Can, InterContinental Hotel Dubai Festival City, and Philips.

For more information, please visit http://green.dubaitourism.ae

Originally published by http://www.dubaitourism.ae

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Tahitian Princess, operated by Princess Cruises, arrived with 1151 passengers and crew members from Muscat and left for the Indian port city of Mumbai after a day’s stay on November 3, 2009.

On the same day, Ocean Village Two docked at the cruise terminal with 2236 passengers and crew members for a two-day tour. Operated by P&O Cruises, the vessel had mainly British and Irish tourists when it arrived from Muscat and left for the south Indian city of Cochin.

Legend of the Seas, belonging to the Royal Caribbean International, arrived in Dubai on November 4 with 1689 passengers and crew members from Egypt’s Safaga port and left for Mumbai, India, after a day’s stay. The tourists were mostly American, British, German, Canadian and Australian nationals.

There was passengers exchange programme on all the three vessels.

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), which operate Dubai Cruise Terminal at the Port Rashid complex, organized grand welcome ceremonies for the three cruise ships with traditional local band in attendance.

It also organized a falcon show, while Big Bus and Seawings sold tours directly to the passengers.

DTCM put up information counters inside the terminal to assist the visitors about visiting Dubai landmarks and tourist attractions. Brochures and Dubai maps were made available to the visitors free of cost.

In 2008, the number of cruise tourists which Dubai hosted was over 182,000 from 82 calls made by cruise liners. This year, it is expected to cross 250,000 tourists from 100 cruise calls.

Next year, Dubai is expected to host 120 ships with over 325,000 passengers after the new Dubai Cruise Terminal gets operational in January.

The new terminal spanning an area of 3,450 square metres will have the capacity to handle more than three to four ships simultaneously.

The terminal will have facilities like money exchange, ATM machine, post office outlet, duty free shop, souvenir shops, and business centre with free internet access, Wi-Fi and VIP Majlis.

Dubai has been selected by a number of high profile cruise providers as their regional hub.

Costa Cruises made Dubai its regional cruise hub in 2006 giving the growing cruise industry a major boost.

Costa Cruises continues to innovate and from winter 2009 holidaymakers can travel from Dubai on the new Costa Luminosa.

There will be two new Costa ships arriving next month and in February next year.

Costa Luminosa will make 18 Calls with a total of 118,314 passengers from December 10th and April 12, 2010. Costa Deliziosa will make 10 Calls with 65,730 passengers between February 23 and May 11 next year.

Originally published by http://www.dubaitourism.ae

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