Northstar

www.travelweekly-asia.com 20 | ITB ASIA Official Dailies Social travel website i Like Local has launched an international platform in Hong kong which allows travellers to book unique activities with local people in Asia. i Like Local was founded by former business consultant Sanne Meijboom, born in the netherlands and now living in Hong kong. The website connects travellers to locals who offer several styles of accommodation and activities that include food and culture. Locals set the price for the experience and receive 100% of the money paid to them by guests. i Like Local adds a fee of between 10% and 20% of the cost of the activity. There are almost 200 different activities to choose from across eight countries in Asia: india, nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and vietnam More activities are planned, including some in Africa and South America. Activities cover everything from helping a farmer in the Himalayas to sow seeds and pick his fruit, or being hosted by a schoolteacher, his wife and two children, at their home in galle, Sri Lanka. The teacher, premadasa and his wife, dammika say they want guests "to get an idea of how a typical Sri Lankan lower-middle class family lives". The couple charges less than 20 euros per night for a room and activities. Meijboom says for the local community there are no costs involved for participating in the concept. "By cutting out the traditional travel agency, the local as well as the traveller will get a better price. "With i Like Local, i want to offer people in developing countries a worldwide market in a simple way." She said in some cases it is not possible to work directly with individual locals as not all of them speak English. "in those cases we work with local ngos running community based tourism projects that help poor communities getting additional income, or we work with small local travel agencies who are supporting local communities by offering them jobs, providing them a certain percentage of their profit, training them and/or are focusing on environmental friendly solutions. "They are all picked with the greatest care to protect our principles." Travel website markets local experiences to the world By ian Jarrett Living And Loving iT LikE A LoCAL Dubai is targetting the mid-tier market in an effort to woo 20m visitors following its Tourism vision 2020 campaign. The emirate is giving 3-4 star hotels incentives to develop their properties and draw in tourists who prefer mid-tier accomodation. It is waiving municipality taxes for these hotels. Currently, there are 154 such hotels and in total there are 425 hotels in Dubai with many more in the pipeline. Traditionally seen as a high end destination, Dubai is positioning itself to attract the masses. Saud Mohammed Saeed Hareb, senior executive - Europe Region Overseas Offices, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: "We are focusing on 3-4 star hotels, and in this way we open up to people who don't want to stay in a five star hotel. "In 2017 if you open a 3-4 star hotel in Dubai you have the incentive of waiving the taxes on hotels, and having more mid-tier hotels will open a huge market for us." The average room rate for a 3-star hotel is AED273 according to the tourism office and for a 4-star it's AED480. Dubai's two largest Asian markets are India with 850,000 visitors and China with 280,000 visitors. Said Saud:"There is huge potential also in Malaysia, singapore and Indonesia." These three coutries dUBAi AiMS To ATTRACT Mid-TiER MARkET Marketing By natalie Chen contributed about 150,000 visitors to Dubai. "If you look at natural resources it still is oil , but the tourism industry is huge and has proven to be very successful for us. Dubai is a must place to visit because compared to other destinations we have the beach, the desert, and our shopping malls have ice rinks and huge acquariums where you can swim with sharks." Dubai has embarked on the Blue Waters Project , which is a man-made island of Jumeirah Beach Residence which will open in 2018 and it will have a number of hotels and malls as well as the world's largest ferris wheel, Dubai Eye. Dubai will also open its first Opera House located close to Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower Another huge milestone for Dubai is the World Expo in 2020. Other imminent projects include the Dubai Tram and the Dubai Safari Project and the 14km Jumeirah Corniche to be completed this year. Wire World adventure park will open in November, Legoland is scheduled to open in 2016,and a Six Flags theme park – the first to open outside North America – will be ready by 2017. Five-star hotels opened in the past year include Palm Jumeirah resorts Anantara, Sofitel and Waldorf Astoria, and city properties Oberoi and Conrad. Several 3-4 star properties have benefitted from legislative tax changes already made by the government. onE HUndREd HoTELS And THEME pARk To BE pART oF WoRLd'S LARgEST SHopping MALL Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle of the emirate's ruler, has revealed further details of the hospitality and entertainment precinct that will be part of the world's largest shopping mall. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, vice president of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, said the Mall of the World would connect to a theme park, 100 hotels and serviced apartment buildings with 20,000 rooms. The whole project, costing almost US$10bn, would be built over 10 years. "This is a long-term project and we are betting strongly on Dubai," said the company's chief executive Ahmad bin Byat. "The way things are growing I think we are barely coping with the demand... tourism is growing in Dubai." The first phase of the project will focus on the retail aspect, including the mall, and is expected to be ready in three years. The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi reports some analysts are warning that Dubai risks overbuilding again as it did a decade ago, culminating in its 2009 debt crisis. By ian Jarrett Sanne Meijboon, founder of i Like Local. responsiBle traVel

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