Dubai will not allow casinos to be established in the emirate despite claims that gaming is on the agenda for hotels being developed in the new Bawadi Strip.
Paul Kennedy, group exhibition director for Reed Travel Exhibitions, surprised many at the opening business forum at AIME in Melbourne this week by claiming that gaming was on the cards for Dubai.
But Awadh S Alketbi, director of the Dubai Convention Bureau, told TravelMole Asia, “most definitely, Dubai will never have casinos”.
“The wish of investors is one thing, the wish of the government is quite another thing.”
Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry, from the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, supported Alketbi views. He said there would be 30 hotels in the Bawadi project offering their own special features but gaming would not be one of them.
Alketbi said the aim was to continue to promote Dubai as a destination for families and business events.
The Badawi development will add 29,000 extra rooms but Alketbi said he was confident that the extra supply would be soaked up by new demand.
“Our hotels currently average 81 percent occupancy and I don’t expect this to change,” he said.
