Abu Dhabi slashes fees to boost tourism

In a bid to further boost tourism in Abu Dhabi, the emirate's Department of Culture and Tourism cancelled one fee and reduced a few others.

As part of the Abu Dhabi government's accelerator programme 'Ghadan 21', the initiatives by Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi will see a decrease in tourism and municipality fees for hotels in Abu Dhabi, exemption of long-term hotel guests and visitors from daily municipality fees, as well as an increase in investments for attracting tourists and further promoting Abu Dhabi's infrastructure, tourist attractions and events.

The tourism and municipality fee reductions are estimated to increase available capital for hotels by Dh1 billion over the next three years.

To give hotel owners access to more capital to reinvest in their businesses and growth, DCT Abu Dhabi is implementing a series of fee reductions, including reducing the overall tourism and municipality fees for hotels in Abu Dhabi from 10 per cent to 5.5 per cent (tourism fees from six per cent to 3.5 per cent, and municipality fees from four per cent to two per cent).

It is also reducing the daily municipality fee from Dh15 to Dh10 for each hotel room, and removing all tourism and municipality fees on any tourist attraction tickets sold by the hotels.

DCT Abu Dhabi also announced that long-term visitors in hotels -- 30 or more consecutive nights -- will be exempted from the daily municipality fee to encourage extended stays at hotels. It is also changing the frequency of fee collection from monthly to semi-annually, giving hotel owners access to more capital to help with continual improvements and the quality of their offerings.

"The initiatives will encourage local, regional and international tourism investment within the Emirate and help enhance Abu Dhabi's position as a global tourist destination," said Saif Saeed Ghobash, Under-Secretary at DCT Abu Dhabi.

Ghobash explained that the initiatives' focus is to enhance the relationship between the government and private sector. "These initiatives will support tourism companies in Abu Dhabi, which in turn will help guarantee the continued growth of the sector and contribute significantly to the national economy," he added.