A shortage of tourists was discovered in the UAE after Turkey. Rather, in one particular emirate – we are talking about Abu Dhabi, where tourist taxes were urgently reduced. Thus, the capital emirate of the UAE, disappointed by the small number of tourists, decided to reduce the accommodation tax from September 1, as well as other taxes related to the accommodation of tourists.
We will remind you that tourists have been taxed in the emirate since 2016. Hotels were charged an accommodation tax of 15 dirhams (approximately €3.75) per person per night.
The local press cited a statement from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the emirate, which said that on the authority of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, the tourist tax will be reduced from 6% to 4%.
The reason is unpleasant statistics. Of the 18 million tourists who were formally counted in Abu Dhabi upon arrival at the airport, the majority were transit passengers. The emirate itself received incomparably less – only 4.1 million tourists. “The decision to lower the tax is aimed at increasing the number of overnight stays,” the experts added.
In the meantime, let us remind you that Arab tourists began to annoy Turkey – for the same reason as the Russians. “While we thought that we would now make money from them, they started making money themselves,” – this is how outraged Turkish hoteliers commented on the situation with foreigners renting out their houses in Turkey to other tourists at another resort.
In Turkey, they are trying to introduce the idea to the society that in this way such property owners take bread from local hotels. We are talking about the resort of Bursa, which is popular with tourists from Arab countries. “It has become a common practice: those who come to Turkey as tourists and buy a house there, then turn it into a commercial activity and become competitors to hotels. The practice of renting out houses bought by foreigners is now also practiced in Bursa, which is one of the most popular destinations for tourists from Arab countries,” Turkish experts say, adding that this is the situation in all popular resorts, only in Antalya houses are rented out by Russian and Brits, read details here.