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Dubai: Seventeen new counters for special needs passengers will be set up soon at Dubai International Airport to provide hassle-free travel, a senior official said on Monday.
This year the airport has handled 219,000 special needs passengers and the number is set to double in the next decade as passenger numbers are expected to cross 70 million annually, said Jamal Al Hay, senior vice-president for strategy at Dubai airport.
Currently there are two check-in counters for special needs passengers at the airport. Besides the special check-in counters there will also be help counters, the official said.
Al Hay announced this during a press conference announcing the fourth edition of the International Tourism Development Forum for People with Special Needs in the Middle East.
"This new initiative is necessary as we always seek to provide the best customer service in the world and more importantly the initiative is in response to the growing number of passengers in Dubai airport. We are currently receiving 600 wheelchair requests per day and the number is expected to grow," he said.
Dubai airport has also set up a team to support this huge number of special needs passengers.
"We have set up Riaya, a division created with a team of professionals, to take care of people with special needs," Al Hay said, adding that meeting the needs of this category is not only a social responsibility but also encourages tourism. Nearly 10 per cent or 30 million individuals among the 300 million people in the Arab world are physically challenged and need special care.
Many of them are "tourists with special needs, therefore the Arab tourism industry could generate up to Dh11 billion in potential additional revenue by extending facilities to this category, according to market reports cited by Al Hay.
Issues relating to expanding the tourism facilities to accommodate them and challenges faced by the industry will be discussed at the International Tourism Development Forum for People with Special Needs on May 21.
Initiative
Friendly branches
All new Mashreq Bank branches will be special needs-friendly, announced a senior official.
Sa'ad Hakim, Events and Public Relation manager at Mashreq Bank, said the 10 new branches opening in the UAE will special needs-friendly.
"At this stage we are trying to meet the basic needs for this category so our new branches will have entrances, toilets as well as customer service counters that are tailored for them," said Hakim. The bank will also open five special needs-friendly branches in the Qatar and another 30 in Egypt.
The bank is also studying how to transform the existing branches to special needs-friendly units, according to Hakim.
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