Dubai stays among the top five destinations for most of the people who are looking at their next holiday as restrictions on air travel ease and airlines resume regular flights, said a senior official.

“World tourism has witnessed an unprecedented negative trend, not seen since World War II. These types of shocks are something that have not been planned by tourism sector globally. We need to work hard to bring back confidence to the sector. However, there are positive indicators. We have seen a lot of online travel agency and other travel sites showing that demand for Dubai is very high and we are among the top five cities that people are looking at as their next holiday destination,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of Dubai Tourism.

“We are definitely ready and prepared for the next stage and are ready to welcome guests.”

He praised the crisis committee for having the highest level of Covid-19 test as well as the best level of healthcare and attention given to travel ecosystem to make sure that right system is in place so that people can enjoy.

Almarri said no date has been announced yet for the opening up the emirate for tourists but the complete reopening of the tourism sector will happen after Covid-19.

Over past few days, Dubai began to reopen tourism facilities such as holiday homes, beaches, hotels etc.

“While areas which are still pending such as spas, pools and kids play areas still need time before they open up,” he said, adding that “Dubai has the highest global standards of safety and security across all stages of travel reopening. There is going to be reopening of markets not just based on when we are ready but also when everybody else is also ready to open their markets,” he added.

While highlighting the trends in aviation industry, he noted that group travel is likely to decline and there will be more individual travellers, especially in places like China and Russia.

Source:https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/local/dubai-will-be-among-top-5-tourism-destinations

Private and family owned businesses in the UAE have requested the government to waive off value-added tax (VAT) for six months to one year in order to help stimulate demand in the economy.

A letter sent by family-owned business groups to Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee have suggested establishing a private-public sector committee, reducing VAT from five per cent to two per cent, eliminating licensing fee, accelerating payment to suppliers and contractors, freezing of 2.5 per cent market fee, 50 per cent reduction in customs fees and water and electricity in order to help them overcome Covid-19 impact.

Rizwan Sajan, chairman and founder of Danube Group, said demand is slow across all the sectors due to job losses and salary cuts, therefore, VAT relief will stimulate demand for consumer goods in the country.

“This, in turn, will help businesses and the overall economy. Importantly, many countries around the world have also offered tax sops to businesses and consumers. Since VAT is the only consumer tax applied here, and waiving off this tax can stimulate demand. We request government to consider it on a priority basis. We are quite confident that this step will expedite the recovery of the UAE economy as country reopens. Moreover, we also requested waiver on utility and telecom charges,” said Sajan.

On Monday, May 11, the UAE’s Ministry of Finance announced that it will not increase VAT after Saudi Arabia tripled it to 15 per cent.

Rajiv Raipancholia, CEO of Orient Exchange, said remittances have dropped by 30 to 40 per cent and there are job losses and reduced salaries due to Coronavirus impact.

“A waiver of VAT till year-end would support the end-consumer in terms of reduced expenses to make ends meet. At the same time, landlords need to give a rent free period of two to four months to retailers otherwise the brick-and-mortar model will face huge challenges of continuity,” said Raipancholia.

Suresh Kumar, Chairman of the Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC), said it is good if the businesses start to do well as a result of these measures because the amount of VAT collection after 6 months will more than offset loss of revenues for the government when business activity picks up.

“It is certainly worthwhile as businesses are operating on thin margins and with social distance in place at workplace, the cost will go up. So any such relief that businesses will get is good. I think six months of VAT waiver is a good period. It will give businesses an opportunity to restart their operations in fulls swing,” he said.

He suggested that sector-specific should be taken that will have better and strong impact on those sectors. “We have been regularly communicating and authorities are also actively participating,” he added.

Source:https://www.khaleejtimes.com/coronavirus-pandemic/combating-coronavirus-uae-businesses-seek-vat-waiver-for-a-year-to-stimulate-demand