Dubai: Dubai Police on Wednesday launched its ‘Emirates Welcomes Cultures’ campaign which aims to raise awareness of UAE values and the general code of conduct among visitors and tourists.

Col Mohammad Rashid Bin Surai, director of the Tourism Security department, said the campaign aims to encourage tourists to contact tourism police on 800 CID (800243) in case of any issues. “We are also working with flydubai and some holiday service providers to spread awareness. We will also be present in malls, airports, beaches and hotels,” he said.

The awareness campaign will include brochures in English and Arabic, social media and stickers on ATM machines.

The campaign is in coordination with multiple organisations such as the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Dubai Economic Department (DED), Shaikh Mohammad Centre for Cultural Understanding and the Roads and Transport Authourity.

“As part of the campaign, we also want to raise the awareness of service providers, such as taxi drivers, on how to treat tourists,” he said.

He said they will have trained officers from tourism security at existing DTCM counters to answer visitors’ queries.

Meanwhile, the tourism security department received 515 calls, mainly from Saudis and Egyptians, between June-September.

“We get calls about bad service, uncleanliness in hotels, disagreement about prices and bad service from service provider. Although some of these do not fall under our jurisdiction, we route the problem to the concerned authority,” he said.

Of the 515, 356 were complaints, 76 were requests for help and 36 were general queries.

Colonel Dr Jasem Khalil Mirza, director of the Security Awareness department at the General Directorate of Community Services at Dubai Police, said that the UAE is a country that welcomes people of all faiths and nationalities.

“We treat everyone equally and everyone is welcome as long as they follow the rules and laws of the country,” he said.

The tourism police helped many tourists over the year, Col Bin Surai said.

“There was an instance where we received a complaint from a tourist in the Gold Souq, who thought he was cheated by the jewellery shop where he bought some items,” he said.

The man felt that the colour of the gold sold to him was too light, and called the tourist security with his concerns.

The tourist security employee who was attending to his call asked him for the shop’s name and the bill’s number and asked the man to go to an officer in the area, who she then called and asked him to assist the tourist.

“She also called the shop and told them about the complaint, and it turned out there was a misunderstanding, and they had sold him 18K gold instead of 24K gold, hence the lighter colour. The shop offered to refund the money or exchange the gold,” Col Bin Surai said.

The issue was resolved in 20 minutes, and he said the man was very impressed and grateful.

The campaign will run until December 31.