Dubai hoteliers have revealed that road and traffic infrastructure is the area of the city most in need of investment ahead of the upcoming Expo 2020.
The investment wish list of the city’s hotelier’s was revealed in an exclusive survey conducted by Hotelier Middle East. We asked the region’s hoteliers, following Dubai’s successful Expo 2020 bid, which area is most in need of extra investment, with almost half (49.3%) of all respondents choosing road and traffic management.
After road and traffic management, the next most popular area of investment was lesiure and entertainment facilities at 20.9%, more hotels at 14.9% and public transportation with 13.4% of respondents.
| Advertisement |
Commenting on Hotelier’s survey results Richard Pavitt, exhibition director of the Gulf Traffic exhibition and conference said: “Transport networks are really the heartbeat of any city. If the relevant infrastructure is not in place, it has a profound effect on its economic performance. Main arterial roads, public transport and sound road safety systems have to match the demand of any city’s population. Dubai has made huge investments in to transport infrastructure and you can see this with the metro, parallel roads projects, increased bus routes, water taxi’s and the new airport. The issue is that Dubai is growing at such a rapid pace and with the Expo 2020 win, the transport links have to be able to keep up with the pace of the demand.”
“One of Dubai’s key economic drivers is the hospitality industry. So it is essential to continue with transport infrastructure investment so that the city and the hospitality industry grow together in tandem,” he added.
It has been suggested that Dubai’s successful bid to host Expo 2020, announced last month, will attract more than 25 million visitors to Dubai between October 2020 and April 2021.
To meet the needs of this tourist boom — 70% of which will come from outside of the UAE — Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing(DTCM) expects to have to double Dubai’s hotel inventory to around 164,000 hotel and hotel apartment rooms within the next seven years.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
