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UAE's Dubai regulates desert excursions, camping tourism

Xinhua, May 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

UAE's Dubai Tourism unveiled on Monday new regulations for desert tours and camps, in a bid to further elevate the desert experience to higher standards for visitors to the Gulf Arab emirate.

As part of the initiative, Dubai Tourism has established quality benchmarks for all desert tour operators, the travel and tourism body said in a statement.

About 20 percent of tourists who visit Dubai include a desert experience as part of their travel plans, Khaled Bin Touq, executive director for tourism activities and classification sector, said, adding that desert-based activities have consistently ranked among the top 10 must-do activities in Dubai.

"Encouraging operators to scale up their investment and focus in these areas will feed into the overall aim to move desert adventures to the top five adventure activities in Dubai, which in turn will have a knock-on effect of bolstering Dubai's overall reputation as an adventure hub with a distinct and diverse offering," he added.

Dubai welcomed in 2015 over 14.2 million visitors, up 7.5 percent year on year. In 2020, when Dubai will host the six-month World Expo as the first city in the region, the emirate aims to lure 25 million tourists. Endit