
Dubai launches summer activities guide, celebrates local businesses
Launched by Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, the campaign showcases Dubai's vibrant summer atmosphere through a diverse array of entertainment options, including state-of-the-art indoor leisure destinations, world-class waterparks, innovative children's attractions, and luxurious poolside retreats, all set against the backdrop of the city's iconic landmarks.
The initiative coincides with the commencement of school holidays and aims to capitalise on the surge in footfall across Dubai's immensely popular attractions during the warmer months.
Shaima Al Suwaidi, Director of Brand Dubai, emphasised that the #DubaiDestinations campaign represents one of the strategic initiatives undertaken by the Government of Dubai Media Office to promote the city as a vibrant year-round destination. 'We are working in line with Mohammed bin Rashid's vision to stake the city's claim as an all-season destination that is the world's best place to live, work, and visit,' Al Suwaidi stated.
Summer activities guide
A key feature of this year's campaign is the launch of a series of interactive digital guides that offer a panoramic perspective on Dubai's diverse summer experiences.
These comprehensive guides provide up-to-date information covering everything from children's summer camps and seasonal activities to staycations and indoor sports destinations, as well as essential summer resources for families and individuals.
The Dubai Summer Activities Guide features beaches, parks, water activities, and indoor play areas, with each listing linked to its location on the Dubai map, making it easy for visitors to navigate and plan their visits effectively.
It provides comprehensive information to help residents and visitors make the most of their summer holidays in the emirate, reflecting the campaign's commitment to delivering practical value alongside promotional content.
The guide can be accessed through the campaign's digital platforms, ensuring wide accessibility for all potential users.
Collaboration with content creators
This year's campaign also features the participation of a distinguished group of leading influencers and digital content creators from across the region who will document and share their summertime experiences in Dubai.
These content creators will produce short videos to be shared across major social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram, providing authentic perspectives on Dubai's summer offerings.
The campaign includes a series of videos produced by Brand Dubai and the Government of Dubai Media Office, complemented by animated clips contributed by select content creators.
Various digital platforms will ensure optimal visibility for all promotional material among families and individuals spending their holidays in Dubai.
Celebrating local success stories
The campaign also highlights the Proudly from Dubai network of homegrown businesses, an initiative of Brand Dubai that celebrates the success stories of enterprises based and initiated in Dubai.
A curated selection of these businesses will be spotlighted in the campaign's promotional content, showcasing innovative summer-friendly products and services that reflect Dubai's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Arabian Business
6 hours ago
- Arabian Business
UAE holiday dates; GCC visa ‘coming soon'; Dubai real estate record; New Saudi law – 10 things you missed this week
From UAE holidays to highways, mortgages to mega-sales — here's what made headlines across the UAE and Gulf this week. Whether you're planning your next day off or tracking the region's real estate boom, we've got you covered. Catch up on 10 of the biggest stories news stories of the week as selected by Arabian Business editors. When is the next 2025 UAE holiday? People in the UAE enjoyed a long weekend break as workers in the public and private sectors were given a holiday to mark Islamic New Year on Friday, June 27. It followed a short time after an extended holiday for Eid Al Adha, earlier in June. There are more official public holidays to come, however, with planned breaks to mark: Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) birthday UAE National Day Unified visa for UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman launching 'soon' says GCC chief A unified tourism visa for visitors to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman will be launched soon, according to GCC Secretary General Jassem Al Budaiwi. In a statement by the GCC Secretariat, Al Budaiwi expressed gratitude to member nations for efforts to realise the unified tourism visa. After it is introduced, non-GCC visitors to the region will be able to move freely between the six nations using a single visa. Once approved, the unified Gulf tourist visa will allow its holders to visit six GCC countries, focusing on attracting and retaining tourists within the region to enhance economic integration. UAE announces petrol prices for July 2025 The UAE has released its petrol prices for July 2025. The prices have increased compared to the rates in June. While prices have remained steady recently, motorists are paying considerably less at the pump compared to the same period last year across all fuel types, even though there were price variations throughout the previous year. From July 1, the cost of filling up vehicles in the UAE has been: E-Plus: AED 2.51 a litre from AED 2.39 in June Special 95: AED 2.58 a litre from AED 2.47 in June Super 98: AED 2.70 a litre from AED 2.58 in June Diesel: AED 2.63 a litre from AED 2.45 in June Dubai slashes travel time on major road from 12 to 3 minutes with new tunnels and bridges Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched the Al Safa Street Improvement Project, a major infrastructure upgrade aimed at cutting travel time, enhancing traffic flow, and supporting the Emirate's rapid urban development. The project, extending 1.5km from the junction of Al Safa Street with Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Wasl Street, is designed to accommodate population growth and elevate quality of life across key districts. Once complete, the travel time on Al Safa Street will drop from 12 minutes to just 3 minutes, while road capacity will double from 6,000 to 12,000 vehicles per hour in both directions. UAE announces new mortgage procedures The UAE has announced new mortgage plans to slash bureaucracy and support real estate efficiency. In a move toward seamless government services in the UAE, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoEI) held its inaugural Customer Council meeting to overhaul the mortgage release procedure following loan repayment. The initiative—part of the Ministry's Smart Government agenda—brings together federal and local authorities, the Emirates Development Bank, and end-users to pinpoint bottlenecks and co-design a streamlined process. Saudi Arabia's new Social Insurance Law takes effect from today Saudi Arabia's new Social Insurance Law, issued last year on July 2 by a Royal Decree, came into force this Tuesday. The General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI) stated that the law applies exclusively to new civil employees joining the public and private sectors, who do not have any prior contribution periods in the current Civil Pension Law or Social Insurance Law. The amended law stipulates a gradual increase in retirement age. There will be no change in the current GOSI subscriber benefits. The organisation stated that the statutory retirement age for individuals affected by the amendments will range between 58 and 65 years. Dubai real estate sales hit record $89bn in H1 2025; best-selling projects and neighbourhoods revealed Dubai's real estate market recorded its highest-ever half-year performance, with 98,603 property sales worth AED326.7bn ($89bn) completed in the first half of 2025, according to the latest update from fäm Properties. The growth was fuelled by a record-breaking Q2, which saw 53,118 transactions worth AED184bn ($50.1bn) — a 25 per cent increase in value compared to the previous peak of AED147.2bn ($39.7bn) in Q4 2024, and 5.39 per cent more transactions than the earlier record of 50,400 deals. Highlights of the analysis include: Plot sales: AED 32.2bn ($8.7bn) from 1,384 deals (up 49 per cent YoY) Villas: 10,019 units sold worth AED66.5bn ($18.1bn) (up 38.3 per cent YoY) Apartments: AED81.6bn ($22.2bn) in sales (up 18.7 per cent YoY) Commercial properties: AED3.6bn ($980m) from 1,252 transactions (up 12.5 per cent YoY) Dubai to welcome 3 new global universities for 2025-26 academic year Dubai is set to welcome three leading international universities for the upcoming academic year as it aims to become a global education hub. Three leading international universities — IIM Ahmedabad (India), American University of Beirut (Lebanon), and Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences (Saudi Arabia) — are set to open branch campuses in Dubai during the 2025-26 academic year, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) confirmed. The move is part of Dubai's wider push to position itself as a top 10 global destination for higher education under the emirate's Education 33 strategy, aligned with the broader Dubai Economic Agenda D33. Dubai South Properties launches new luxury real estate community Hayat Dubai South Properties has launched Hayat, a master-planned community covering 10 million square feet. The development sits in the Golf District at Dubai South, close to Al Maktoum International Airport's current terminal. The development will house approximately 2,500 residential units comprising townhouses, semi-attached and standalone villas, mansions, apartments, and hotel apartments. Dubai suspends 2 engineering firms, announces major upgrade to contractor evaluation system Dubai Municipality has suspended two engineering consultancy offices from licensing any new projects for six months, following violations of professional regulations, licensing terms, and ethical standards. The decision was made by the Committee of Registration and Licensing the Practice of Engineering Consultancy and Contracting and aims to protect the interests of property owners and developers across the emirate. The action is part of the municipality's broader regulatory role, which includes routine field inspections to ensure that engineering consultancies adhere to approved legal and professional standards.


The National
7 hours ago
- The National
Timeframe: When a 155 million-year-old dinosaur first roamed Dubai Mall
This weekend, film fans in the UAE will be heading to the cinema to watch the latest Jurassic World film, but those who want to get a closer look at a real dinosaur can do so in one of Dubai's biggest tourist attractions. On March 10, 2014, Dubai Mall might have felt more like Jurassic Park after a massive dinosaur skeleton was unveiled to the public at the mall's Grand Atrium, and it quickly became a popular attraction, garnering attention from residents and tourists alike. The 24.4 metres long and 7.6 metre-tall fossil from the late Jurassic Period was 90 per cent original. Skeleton displays of the dinosaur species, known to scientists as Diplodocus longus, usually only feature 30 per cent of original bones. The dinosaur remains were unveiled by Mohamed Alabbar, founding member and chairman of the mall's owner, Emaar. The remains of the creature, distinguished by its long tail, slender neck and very small head, were unearthed in 2008 at the Dana Quarry in central Wyoming, US. The specimen is of an adult female and was discovered in a resting position. Before arriving to Dubai, it was previously exhibited at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and acquired for Dubai Mall through Khalid Seddiq, founder of the Etihad Modern Art Gallery in Abu Dhabi. After the unveiling, a competition was announced to give the Dubai Mall dinosaur a name, with the winner getting a chance to travel to Jurassic Park at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. In June that year, Johara Al Bayedh, a bank manager from Saudi Arabia, was announced the winner for her suggestion, DubaiDino. 'I'm a big fan of dinosaurs and I had submitted three names,' Al Bayedh told The National after her win. 'I was so excited about this that I entered instantly, and knew I had to be one of the first ones. It's just amazing to have a giant dinosaur fossil in Dubai. It is not just educational, but will make people imagine how planet Earth used to function, and how the world was back then.' In August 2019, Emirates Auction announced that it would hold an auction to find DubaiDino a new home, seeking lovers of rare collectibles as potential new owners. The online auction began with a starting value of Dh14.6 million. Despite the auction, DubaiDino is still a resident of Dubai Mall. The fossil has since been moved from the Grand Atrium to a new location. It can now be found near the mall's ice rink.


The National
7 hours ago
- The National
Introducing my son to Lebanon helped me heal my relationship with home
As the wheels touch down on the tarmac at Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport, my wife and I turn to our 20-month-old son, Dia, kiss his soft head and whisper: 'Welcome home.' Then we both cry. It's his first time in Lebanon – a trip long delayed by an interminable war. Like many Lebanese born in the diaspora, my relationship to the country has always been complicated. Raised abroad, I absorbed it through Sunday meals at Lebanese restaurants in London, family stories and summer visits. As a teenager and young adult, I would go on to live there for 10 years, turning it into a site of belonging and often heartbreak. For the past five years, I've been estranged from it. I had seen a lot during my years in Lebanon, but nothing broke me like the August 4 Beirut port explosion. I felt I lost too much that day. I almost lost my father, who was in a building by the port. We couldn't locate him for hours. I lost far less important things – our company's brand-new office, my car, work projects. After that trip, I left broken. Something had snapped in my already tense relationship with a country that was often exhausting to live in, however much I loved it. Since then, I've only returned for work, family emergencies or deaths. My relationship with Lebanon calcified into something unpleasant. But something shifted on this trip. I came back as a different person. I came back as a father. Lebanon today feels hopeful but precarious – a country both limping out of war and still staggering from the collapse of 2019. The streets are tired. Shoots of wild grass protrude from the pavements and highways. I have become obsessed with these unkempt public roads. They remind me of the way Lebanon looked at the end of the civil war. The country has the air of an aristocratic home fallen into disrepair – once proud, now crumbling, its residents unable to afford its upkeep. But still full of life and stories. But none of that matters when I see my son here. To see how he belongs to this place. He's surrounded by doting grandparents. Even the neighbours beam when they see him. He devours zaatar and stuffed vine leaves. He's wide-eyed with curiosity. As Lebanese, our link to the motherland can often be tied to the kind of nostalgia these scenes can evoke. Nostalgia is a powerful, sometimes dangerous thing. It led many in our diaspora to invest life savings in Lebanon out of duty or hope, only to watch them vanish in the banking collapse. I used to be so weary of that dangerous form of nostalgia that led people to be irrational. But I find myself understanding it this time. For me, returning to Lebanon has always carried a hint of regression. Like anyone revisiting their parents' home, you slip back into old habits, old roles. You unlearn everything that's happened in the intervening years. But this time is different. There's no regression – only transformation. I'm here not as a son, but as a father. I'm not trying to make sense of my place, I'm building a bridge for my son between his heritage and his future. In a recent therapy session, while speaking about my connection to the Mediterranean, I had a surprising realisation: it wasn't the sea I was so anchored to. It was the mountain. I wanted to see if Dia had the same connection. On a visit to Jaj – a village 1,200 metres above the historic coastal town of Byblos – my wife's aunt left some cherries unpicked in the garden just for Dia. He picked them himself, dropping them into a plastic tub with glee. Nour noticed the cherries at the top had been pecked at. 'The top of the tree is for the birds,' her aunt said. 'The bottom is for us.' One simple sentence. Centuries of understanding how to live with the land, not just on it. And now, my son is learning that wisdom. And through him, so am I. Back in Beirut, we realise the city is not exactly toddler-friendly. Pavements are often a suggestion. When they do exist, they're broken, cluttered, blocked by scooters and cars. Electrical cables dangle from poles. It's whatever the opposite of baby-proof is. One afternoon, Nour suggests we might find more space to roam by taking Dia to my alma mater – the American University of Beirut. I haven't set foot there in years. I don't often reminisce about my time there, or much else. But walking through the main gate feels like a reckoning. I tell the security guard I remember my student number – a strange fact to recall from 2001. He pulls up my record, and there it is: my old ID photo. I barely recognise the boy in the image – fresh-faced and naive. Closer in age to Dia than to me now. I'm carrying my son and pointing at the ID photo on the screen, wondering if he'll recognise me. He smiles. Maybe he does. Maybe he's just happy to be here too. As he runs around the grounds of the 19th-century campus, I remember something Nour told me recently – about mycelium networks that connect trees underground, allowing forests to share resources and nutrients. That's how I feel, watching my son plant his feet on this soil. He's connected to people he's never met, to land he's never seen. And in watching him, I realise I'm part of that network too, in a way I haven't felt in years.