As part of efforts to boost tourism in the emirate, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced a reduction in tourism and municipality fees for hotels in the UAE capital, said a report.
In line with the government’s accelerator programme 'Ghadan 21', the initiatives will decrease tourism and municipality fees for hotels in Abu Dhabi, exempt long-term hotel guests and visitors from daily municipality fees, as well as increase investments in attracting tourists, said a report in WAM.
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 percent to 5.5 per cent (tourism fees from six percent to 3.5 per cent, and municipality fees from four per cent to two per cent).
The tourism and municipality fee reductions are estimated to increase available capital for hotels by Dh1 billion ($272.2 million) over the next three years, the report said.
It is also reducing the daily municipality fee from Dh15 ($4) to Dh10 ($2.7) 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.
To support the Abu Dhabi Tourism sector in attracting more visitors, DCT Abu Dhabi will invest directly Dh500 million ($136.1 million) in promoting Abu Dhabi in major tourism target markets globally.
In 2018, Abu Dhabi achieved a record of number of visitors and hotel guests, with a 3.94 per cent increase in hotel guests compared to 2017. Over the year, more than 10 million visitors arrived in Abu Dhabi from around the world, it said.