I feel quite at home in the Google canteen. There’s a good selection of free food – a hot and cold buffet, snacks, great coffee and fridges full of coconut water and Badoit. And, as expected in Dubai Internet City, free Wi-Fi. Ivan Jakovljevic – Google’s head of travel in the Middle East and North Africa – has also arrived early for our meeting and suggests we share a bowl of freshly cut mango for dessert. I hadn’t seen the mango. “You have to ask for it!” he tells me. “It’s good mango!” And it is.
Jakovljevic, who is from Serbia and has been in Dubai for 10 years, clearly enjoys leaving the virtual world to actually travel in the real one. He’s been to more than 50 countries, and relishes the chance to take off on a new route, most memorably, in recent experience, to Georgia, which he says is becoming increasingly popular with UAE travellers and is only a three-and-a-half-hour flight away. “I went there for a ski trip. I’m an aspiring snowboarder, and I found that the experience was very different to what I’m used to in the more traditional ski resorts in Europe. It was more wild, more in touch with nature – it was really a very pleasant experience.”
Cambodia is another recent favourite. “That was very interesting and exotic. In a restaurant I ate crispy tarantula in a lemongrass sauce,” he says.
Previously employed as a management consultant in the cargo and transportation industry, Jakovljevic graduated with a degree in traffic engineering and transportation in Serbia. “Moving people or moving things, that’s what I’m about,” he says.
Now, Jakovljevic’s role mostly involves helping travel providers throughout the Mena region target customers. With 43 per cent of all global travel now being booked online, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading the way, with figures at about 35 per cent of trips booked online and rising. With airlines and hotels, Jakovljevic says, we are seeing a constant “channel shift” away from traditional travel agents towards the internet.
“The second thing we have seen is the emergence of digital-first type players, online travel agencies like Booking.com, which is now the strongest travel brand in the region; and of course, there are also local digital travel companies starting up.”
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Read more:
Mobile preferred for travel searches but only two Mena airlines fully compliant
Inside Google's Middle East headquarters in Dubai
Top 10 coolest neighbourhoods to visit in 2017
Where is the Arab Airbnb?
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While Jakovljevic’s role mainly relates to advertising, greater choice and transparency means things are far better for consumers than they used to be. “If you remember, 10 or 15 years ago, you would go to a travel agent and they would give you a few different options, and you would have to pick on the spot without necessarily knowing what you were choosing or not choosing.
“Fast forward 15 years, you go online, you see the user reviews, you see the pictures, you see the videos. You can also look for bad experiences, if you’re not comfortable. I think that transparency has definitely created a much more educated traveller. And a much more educated traveller is able to make those decisions in a much better and more efficient way.”
The most fascinating part of Jakovljevic’s job is the insight he gets into our travel habits. “If you think about the traveller’s journey, it starts with a dreaming phase. You don’t necessarily know where you’re going to go, you just know that you have days off, there’s a holiday coming, you know that you want to go somewhere, but you don’t exactly know how.”
For most of us, this involves lying on the sofa at night with a smartphone. “People slowly shift from the inspirational part to research, understanding a little bit more and coming up with a shortlist of destinations – places you want to go to, airlines that you want to be using, a shortlist of hotels that you potentially want to be staying at.”
He says that in the UAE, 40 per cent of travel queries are done through mobile phones (the figure is 60 per cent in Saudi Arabia), and that the majority of these queries are in English, reflecting the large expat community (in Saudi, the majority of travel-related queries are in Arabic). Then, when it comes to air travel, 85 per cent of these queries are “branded queries”, such as “flight with Emirates” or “flight with Etihad” and then a mention of the destination – reflecting local loyalty to regional airlines. But when it comes to hotels, it’s the other way around. Here, 60 per cent of hotel queries don’t contain a brand term, meaning that “it’s more about a particular destination, rather than a hotel of a particular chain”.
Loyalty generally is “quite important”, Jakovljevic says, following recent research Google conducted with TNS, a survey company. “Thirty per cent of the travellers from the UAE, when they were booking, essentially knew which brand they wanted to book. So they were not really shopping around, they knew they were going to go with Emirates or Jumeirah, or whatever. And then, they went to their site and searched for the best price for that particular provider and then booked.” With airline bookings, most of the bookings are made direct through the airline’s websites, as opposed to flight search engines, says Jakovljevic, “and on the hotel side, it would mostly be through online travel agencies like Booking.com”.
Video is particularly important in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, he says. “You go on YouTube, you search for winter sun, for example, or a ski destination – you can see what’s out there and get inspired. Video in general is huge and it’s become even bigger, and it’s especially big in the Mena region. What we’re seeing here, are some of the highest numbers in terms of the online consumption of video per capita in the world.”
There are a number of different reasons for this, he explains. “We [Mena] are one of the most mobile-developed regions of the world. We have a young population, which is very comfortable going online and sourcing information. The local content that is available on TV or other sources of information is sometimes limited, so people go online and find more content there.”
YouTube is particularly popular, with the Arab world second only after the United States in terms of total “watch time” – mobile watch time in the Mena region also grew by 90 per cent between 2016 and 2017, according to data from Google. “A lot of the young people from Saudi and the UAE are putting up videos that they are producing and showcasing their passions and experiences,” Jakovljevic says, adding that while people go online to research trips and be inspired, “they also look at videos to check the quality of the products and services that they will be experiencing”.
Then, he explains, the traveller finally starts to think about going through with the booking. “Once you have made a decision about where you want to go, and shortlisted the airlines and hotels – how do you do it in the most efficient manner? Who are the purveyors or suppliers of choice that you are going to be transacting with?”
At this point, typically between four and four-and-a-half weeks before departure from the UAE, Jakovljevic says, most of us make the actual booking on a desktop computer, though an increasing number are feeling comfortable enough with digital-first sites like Booking.com to make transactions on mobiles, too.
Along with Google’s own travel apps such as Google Trips, Jakovljevic, like about 150 million other people, is a fan of Airbnb. “I find myself using it more and more, but it has less to do with the quality of the app than the value proposition.
“When I travel either for business or personal reasons, I find that I want to stay in the areas where the locals will congregate in a way that will help you to experience the place as if you were living there for a limited period of time, as opposed to just staying in a hotel.”
Jakovljevic's next trips are to the Philippines and South Africa. I just wonder, now, who he'll be flying with and where he'll be staying...
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
List of alleged parties
May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members
May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party
Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson
Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party
Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters
Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Playing records of the top 10 in 2017
How many games the top 10 have undertaken in the 2017 ATP season
1. Rafael Nadal 58 (49-9)
2. Andy Murray 35 (25-10)
3. Roger Federer 38 (35-3)
4. Stan Wawrinka 37 (26-11)
5. Novak Djokovic 40 (32-8)
6. Alexander Zverev 60 (46-14)
7. Marin Cilic 43 (29-14)
8. Dominic Thiem 60 (41-19)
9. Grigor Dimitrov 48 (34-14)
10. Kei Nishikori 43 (30-13)
Huroob Ezterari
Director: Ahmed Moussa
Starring: Ahmed El Sakka, Amir Karara, Ghada Adel and Moustafa Mohammed
Three stars
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Company%20Profile
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Ukraine
Capital: Kiev
Population: 44.13 million
Armed conflict in Donbass
Russia-backed fighters control territory
SERIES INFO
Afghanistan v Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi Sunshine Series
All matches at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Test series
1st Test: Zimbabwe beat Afghanistan by 10 wickets
2nd Test: Wednesday, 10 March – Sunday, 14 March
Play starts at 9.30am
T20 series
1st T20I: Wednesday, 17 March
2nd T20I: Friday, 19 March
3rd T20I: Saturday, 20 March
TV
Supporters in the UAE can watch the matches on the Rabbithole channel on YouTube
Read more about the coronavirus
The%20specs
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Without Remorse
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Michael B Jordan
4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates