DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) addressed regional tourism at meetings held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo recently.

UAE officials expressed the need for further enhancing the efforts to consolidate tourism in the Arab world and devising strategies to promote the Arab world’s tourism attractions to the outside world as well.

The UAE delegation was headed by Muhammad Khamis ibn Hareb, director operations and marketing for the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and vice chairman of UAE Executive Committee for Tourism Promotion.

The team represented the UAE at the ninth session of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism and the 16th meeting of the Arab Executive Tourism Committee, both held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

In his speech, Hareb stressed the importance of creating better awareness about the Arab world tourism through various measures, such as organizing workshops and conferences and devising strategies to deal with the present as well as the future. He also called for the removal of obstacles that hinder the growth of tourism in the Arab world.

The Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism meeting also reviewed proposals such as the formation of a task force of tourism experts to prepare strategies for promoting tourism.

The DTCM made a case for itself as having the experience in ecotourism. It also explored the possibility of the Arab world officially sponsoring the ITB-2008.

The meeting also discussed organizing a tourism exhibition during the next meeting of the council. The meeting approved a proposal to select one Arab city each year as the tourism capital of the Arab world.