Just a few weeks after HomeAway announced its expansion to Middle Eastern cities, the world’s largest vacation rental website is now being made available in Dubai.
The company announced today that it is partnering with Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing to promote travel to and within the Emirates.
Both organizations are working together to build comprehensive traveler-centric campaigns to promote the region, which is already the fifth most popular destination in the world, as more than 52 million travelers visited the Middle East in 2014 and Dubai led the way.
This partnership with HomeAway will aid in the country’s goal of doubling its accommodations capacity by 2020.
The partnership is the first of its kind in the vacation rental industry, and both HomeAway and VisitDubai.com will be working together to promote the thousands of vacation home rentals already available in areas like the Palm Jumeirah, downtown and Dubai Marina.
According to Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Tourism, recent legislation passed in Dubai allowed for an expansion of accommodation offerings. In December 2013, the door opened to make it easier for homeowners to legally rent out holiday homes in the Emirate of Dubai.
The legislation helps give foreign and domestic travelers more peace of mind when finding a high-quality place to stay in the region. With HomeAway being able to market and list the homes on a global scale, Kazim says he hopes the company can help bring in 20 million travelers each year by 2020.
This news also comes on the heels of the revealing of HomeAway’s new city guides that are intended to promote travel to the world’s most popular destinations while making it easier for them to find important and helpful information about those locations. HomeAway’s guides help to make the site a one-stop shop for travelers.
HomeAway’s new English/Arabic website.
HomeAway now features hundreds of vacation homes throughout Dubai on its new English and Arabic website, www.homeaway.ae. As Dubai grows in its popularity, this partnership is making travel there more accessible to international travelers especially for groups and families. The destination is home to the world’s tallest building, theme parks and pristine beaches, as well as top-notch dining and entertainment.
A recent report by Ernst & Young found that the hotel market saw a slight fall in April, but hotel occupancy remained strong around 84.2 percent. These drops are expected to have stemmed from the weaker ruble and euro as fewer travelers are headed to Dubai from Russia and Europe. However, markets such as India and China are expected to make up for that loss.
Tourism in general is expected to uptick, and the TravelDubai.com and HomeAway partnership will make accommodations more accessible. There is an expected growth in medical tourism to the area, as well as traditional tourism.
On top of that, the city is gearing up already for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Dubai Expo 2020, which will bring new attention to the city.
The support and assistance given by HomeAway to local vacation rental owners is intended to raise awareness and ensure that homeowners have ample support to provide travelers with a unique and authentic experience traveling to Dubai.