Artist's impression of The Royal Amwaj Resort on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, which will offer an all-inclusive option. Artist's impression of The Royal Amwaj Resort on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, which will offer an all-inclusive option.

AK: If I was the cruise operator then I wouldn’t do all inclusive. Once you are on board, what are the options?!

AH: The whole point is they’re finding it profitable, I think that’s the key to all of this — there is no point doing all of this if it is not going to be profitable for you.

AK: I think if you are starting a destination and you build your hotels accordingly then [that’s okay], but to shift from what Dubai is offering today to an all-inclusive [offer] that will see in my opinion some damages in your business model — you might end up changing your food and beverage offering.

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YZ: There are certain destinations where you might have two or three hotels that are running the majority of the market. If they all decide to come together and choose to offer an exclusive, all-inclusive [option] because that is the demand and they protect their margin, I can understand it.

But this [Dubai] is a luxury destination today — the offerings are extraordinary, the products are extraordinary, the service compared to a lot of other places is extraordinary. . What I am saying is your all-inclusive clientele today is not in Dubai.

AH: Yes, but do you know where they are? They are in the Maldives and Mauritius. There are very successful all-inclusive resorts in these island destinations. All inclusive doesn’t mean ‘cheap Charlie’. It’s all about enjoying a hassle-free holiday experience.

BT: The fact that Dubai hasn’t got that at the moment means we’re missing a trick. I don’t think that suddenly all the hotels in Dubai need to jump on the band wagon.

YZ: But they will, that’s what I’m saying. This is exactly how it starts; in any place that I know this is how it starts.

AH: For the record Jebel Ali Hotel has had an all-inclusive concept for the past year and not every resort in Dubai has followed their lead. It has existed here.

BT: For a city hotel it definitely won’t work; for a beach hotel it depends on the surroundings. If you look at hotels that are more isolated like Jebel Ali, it works for that.

If you look at the Jumeirah Beach strip where there are a lot more dining options, possibly it wouldn’t work for those particular hotels, but we shouldn’t discount it altogether.

YZ: It is for sure an opportunity. There is a market segment there and it’s untouched. Somebody’s going to grab it and do it.

I don’t agree with the Jebel Ali issue. You need to have a strong global communication system and enough inventory in order to push that market that we’re actually talking about.

Normally this is sold by large tour operators that are landing charters into a destination and are able to put that into their brochures and programmes.

I’m saying that it’s an opportunity, but this is my opinion, if I was the ‘mayor’ of Dubai one thing that I would do for sure is I would never allow all-inclusive; it’s never going to happen!