
ITB Berlin 2025 kicks off with optimism in the travel and tourism industry, plus innovations on the global stage
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Taking as its slogan 'The World of Travel Lives Here', ITB Berlin 2025 kicked off with fully booked halls and a record number of 5,800 national and international exhibitors (5 per cent more than in 2024) from over 170 countries underline the global reach of the World's Leading Travel Trade Show, while the ITB Buyers Circle with its 1,300 senior buyers is an indicator of the industry's upturn. Particularly in the key travel segments of Cruises and Travel Technology for example, but also in the dynamic markets of Southern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arab states, there has been significant growth. Albania is presenting itself as the host country with the slogan 'Albania All Senses'. Taking as its heading 'The Power of Transition Lives Here', the ITB Berlin Convention will address the challenges and opportunities of a changing market with high-profile speakers from companies including Expedia, DERTOUR, Google, Uber, Booking.com, Microsoft Advertising, Wyndham, UN Tourism, TUI, Ryanair and many more. The latest World Travel Monitor® findings of IPK International reflect the industry's positive mood.
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Emirates Woman
11 hours ago
- Emirates Woman
8 luxury skincare destinations providing transformative exfoliating treatments in the GCC
Looking to achieve glowing skin? Here, Emirates Woman lists down editor-approved skincare destinations that provide decadent skin-transformative exfoliating treatments for an unmatched summer glow-up. Bulgari Resort – Dubai, UAE THE HERO TREATMENT: The Ultimate Augustinus Bader Facial With Sapphire 3 ® Ionix Light is a 120-minute unique and gentle exfoliating treatment that doesn't rub the skin raw. It combines The Method Augustinus Bader – a bespoke skincare experience paired with next-generation synergistic skin rejuvenation technical device support and science-backed detoxification benefits resulting in an immediate fresh and healthy glow in just one session. For more information, visit The Spa, Mandarin Oriental – Abu Dhabi, UAE THE HERO TREATMENT: The Terrain Treasures treatment begins with a grounding ceremony featuring resonant singing bowls, embarking guests on a relaxing and rejuvenating path to mesmeric bliss. Created in celebration of the region's vast desert and endless ocean, the sand journey will transport your senses to the dunes of the Rub Al Khali desert through sound, movement, textures and scents of oud with an invigorating massage on a warm bed of crushed quartz crystals. In the water journey, guests can feel the waves of the Arabian Gulf as you enjoy a rhythmic lomi-lomi-style massage on a waterbed, whilst being elevated to an otherworldly realm by chromotherapy lighting and oils infused with the active ingredients of the pearl to restore a natural state of equilibrium. For more information, visit The Spa, The Chedi – Muscat, Oman THE HERO TREATMENT: The DoNotAge Facial is a 90-minute anti-ageing treatment that includes double cleansing and triple exfoliation delivering smooth and refined skin. Together with the use of ginseng and aloe, the treatments pack a powerful punch of naturally soothing ingredients to rejuvenate and hydrate the surface skin cells whilst intelligent peptides reeducate skin cells deep down to induce collagen production. A lifting and toning massage using the LING exclusive energy lift machine takes this treatment up a notch to improve facial tone where infrared light and heat therapy is used to increase cellular function, stimulating the production of collagen and firm facial contours to reveal a soft and youthful-looking complexion. For more information, visit Zulal Wellness Resort – Al Ruwais, Qatar THE HERO TREATMENT: The Jetpeel Clean & Hydrate is a 45-60 minute treatment that gently exfoliates, effectively unblocks, cleanses, and rehydrates your facial skin utilizing a pressurized stream of oxygen and saline. The treatment starts with a consultation and skin analysis then proceeds with the cleansing of skin using 111Skin's holy grail products. This is followed by a thorough cleansing of the face to prepare for the infusion stage, where a dermatologist will then prepare a customised blend of serums to infuse using the Jetpeel spray, immediately boosting the skin's radiance and texture. For more information, visit Skin Laundry – Dubai, UAE THE HERO TREATMENT: This 45-minute Hydrafacial MD treatment boosts radiance through extractions, gently exfoliating away dead skin cells while minimizing dryness, ultimately delivering impressive and instant results. While lymphatic drainage detoxifies skin resulting in a purified and vastly improved skin tone and the LED Blue & Red Light eliminates bacteria and free radicals. This all-encompassing treatment nourishes the skin with powerful antioxidants and skin-plumping peptides, resulting in a lit-from-the-inside glow. For more information, visit Mandarin Oriental – Dubai, UAE THE HERO TREATMENT: The Triple Peel Facial is the ultimate skin pick-me-up. Ideal for congested skin battling the effects of heat and pollution, this 1 hour and 30-minute detoxifying treatment combined with Ling New York Skincare products, sloughs away dead skin cells allowing the skin to breathe again while boosting hydration and softness, giving a vibrant complexion. For more information, visit mandarinoriental. com Al Messila Resort & VIP Spa – Doha, Qatar THE HERO TREATMENT: Results meet luxurious escape at the Al Messila Spa. The Radiance Facelift is a 60-minute customised radiance-restoring facial treatment designed to purify, hydrate and improve skin's overall luminosity. It is then followed by a relaxing scalp massage. For more information, visit Jimam Spa, Jareed Hotel – Riyadh, KSA THE HERO TREATMENT: The VIP O2 Oxygenation by Biologique Recherche treatment is a 60-minute luxurious and balancing ritual featuring a powerful combination of micro-exfoliation, oxygenation and bio-energy masses to improve skin texture, ultimately restoring radiance. This treatment rich in hyaluronic acid is then followed by a head, neck and shoulder massage to increase oxygen flow to the area. For more information, visit – For more on luxury lifestyle, news, fashion and beauty follow Emirates Woman on Facebook and Instagram Images: Supplied; Feature Image: Instagram @skinlaundrymena


Al Etihad
21 hours ago
- Al Etihad
UAE tops region for most skilled workforce, says report
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Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Khaleej Times
UAE: How you can use ChatGPT to help you save money
There are hundreds of AI tools available now as artificial intelligence and machine learning take off. But ChatGPT dominates the headlines with its 400 million weekly active users. As a highly capable chatbot, many users are experimenting with it for all sorts of help, both professional and personal. So, how does it stack up when it comes to saving money? Cheap flights Saving money when booking flights is topical as many people will be jetting away soon for summer breaks. Plus, we are seeing more social media content about how AI and ChatGPT saved people money when booking flights. I have spoken to many people about these claims and if ChatGPT saved them money on flights, while doing my own research. The platform has a range of Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPTs) for booking cheap flights, including Fly GPT, AirTrack GPT and direct access to KAYAK, a popular flight and hotel search engine. The trick is asking the right questions, or prompts. For example, you could ask it to 'Find me the cheapest flight from Dubai to London in July under $500.' Or 'What's the best time to fly from Dubai to Tokyo for the lowest fares?' ChatGPT will use well-known flight scanning platforms like KAYAK, Expedia, and Skyscanner to pull together its answers. These sites have also integrated AI into their own search engines along with other popular sites like Google Flights and Hopper. This allows them to offer features like flight alerts and price predictions. ChatGPT's advantage is that it will search across multiple websites, not just one. Another usefulness of ChatGPT is its ability to explore different hacks and tactics to find the cheapest flight options if your dates and destination airport are flexible. For example, you could ask it 'What days are cheapest to fly to New York?' or 'What airports near Paris are cheaper to fly into?' The cheapest days to book are often Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while midweek is usually the cheapest days to fly. Another popular prompt is to type: 'Act like a travel agent. I want to go to (destination) in August on a budget. Recommend cheap routes, airlines, dates, and tips.' Daily budgeting When it comes to saving money in other areas, ChatGPT says it can help you budget better, asking you upload a bank statement so it can break down your spending and offer advice. I tried this and I was impressed by the results. It listed all my spending into categories (travel, eating out, subscriptions etc) and then gave me some tips on how to save money. For example, I spent money on expensive snacks at the airport and it advised me to buy them cheaper at a supermarket and pack them in my carry-on. Banking If you are looking for the best savings accounts available in the UAE, no one site compares all the latest offers in one place. Using ChatGPT is a good starting point as it will give you names of banks that are offering the highest rates if you type the right prompt. But it is just that – a starting point. You still need to go to each bank's website to check the interest rate, see if the offer is still available and read the small print. Daily deals ChatGPT did recommend some useful money-saving sites that are popular in the UAE such as The Entertainer, Groupon and Cobone. If you've not heard of Cobone before, it describes itself as the Middle East's biggest 'daily deals', or group buying, site featuring discounts on the best things to do, see, eat and buy in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. I checked out all websites and they did feature a wide range of offers across shopping, staycations, dining and more. ChatGPT also offered me sites like Keepa, which tracks millions of products and prices on Amazon. However, this website won't track prices from A better option might be its other recommendation of Honey, a free browser extension by PayPal that automatically searches for discounts and coupon codes during the checkout stage. Smart shopping Supermarket and grocery shopping has become more expensive in the UAE but can ChatGPT help you search for the cheapest products among all the different chains here? In the UK, there's a popular app called Trolley, which is a supermarket comparison tool that finds the cheapest grocery prices across 16+ UK supermarkets. Type in blueberries, for example, and it will tell you which supermarket is selling them at the cheapest price. When asked, ChatGPT said it can give me price comparison tools for UAE supermarkets (e.g., Carrefour vs. Lulu). It recommended Pricena, although this is just for electronics, and Yaoota, which is an Egyptian e-commerce platform. Neither was useful in my quest to save money on my supermarket shop. There is currently no price comparison website for supermarkets in the UAE. Now that's food for thought.