The user-friendly website offers comprehensive information and e-Services to visitors from across the world and attracts more than 250,000 hits a day. The new facility is expected to provide immense business opportunities for the Dubai tour operators which are already benefiting from the aggressive marketing and promotional agenda being pursued by the department.
More than 5.4 million guests were hosted by Dubai’s 372 hotels and hotel apartments in 2004.
Almost all the Dubai-based tour operators have a strong web presence, but the unique linking will provide prospective Dubai visitors the chance to virtually explore the facilities being offered by the organizations.
The linking forms part of the e-Services being provided by the department which was among the first government organizations to tap the web potential long before it became a way of life.
The web surfers could access the links by clicking the E-Services section on the home page.
From the Tourism and Commerce List on the One Stop Information Centre (OSIC), the website visitor will have the option to select the linking to tour operators from a hang-down menu offering a variety of E-services.
Early this year, the department launched the electronic issuance of the Entertainment Activities Permits.
The first of its kind of facility is expected to reduce by 90% the need for personal presence for obtaining the permits by the hotels and resorts, sports and leisure clubs and event management organizations.
The electronic issuance of Entertainment Activity Permits is in line with the department’s commitment towards the Dubai eGovernment in order to make the whole business of dealing with us less cumbersome, more effective and transparent.
The user-friendly facility allows settling the fees electronically as well. The department issued 6,767 Entertainment Activity Permits in 2004 and expects a 20% increase in the number of permits during this year.
The department achieved significant savings and boosted internal efficiency through its online procurement efforts via Tejari (www.tejari.com), the Middle East online marketplace. The department had migrated majority of its procurement activities online. The DTCM has outlined a few areas in which it anticipates greater online procurement potential during 2005.
The department had recently established a wireless connection from its Head Office to Heritage Village, thereby becoming the first government organization to have such a facility. The link has been created using a normal frequency and a firewall connection protects it anyone picking up connection or disturbing it.
Quelle: Strategiy, 15.08.2005
