Dubai Tourism Hops into Bed with Airbnb

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) and Airbnb have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help promote responsible hosting and help grow and diversify tourism in the emirate.

It follows the introduction of enhanced regulations last month that make obtaining a ‘holiday home’ licence more streamlined for individual tenants and homeowners who want to rent their homes to guests.

Dubai Tourism said the initiative would boost competition “through a safe and transparent holiday home segment”.

Under the agreement, Airbnb will cooperate with Dubai Tourism on preventing breaches of the regulation by informing all host members of the Dubai Tourism regulations via its website and through email reminders of the rules.

The two parties will also explore joint marketing and promotional activations for Dubai as a tourism destination.

There are almost 3,500 Airbnb listings in Dubai. This number and the number of guests choosing Airbnb when travelling to Dubai has doubled since last year.

HE Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Tourism, said, “This not only lets us be more competitive as a tourism destination but also speaks to our ability as government to drive demand-led policymaking and embrace innovation to further our proposition.”

Dubai Tourism last month updated its regulations surrounding holiday homes. Under the new resolution, private homeowners can apply for a holiday home licence without the need to go through an approved Dubai Tourism operator providing they meet all criteria, as can tenants who are renting a property.

Dubai Tourism has upgraded its application portal to facilitate these new licence applications, and will shortly allow for all e-commerce payments to be done digitally.