Air travel to and from the small Gulf Coast country of Kuwait seems to be growing - but with the recent abandonment of London-JFK routes by the country's leading airline, Kuwait Airways, that growth is not likely to be coming from the West. Recently released statistics show that the passenger volume through Kuwait International Airport is up 7 percent from 2015 as of May. Read More »

If you believe a recent quality-of-life study, Ras al Khaimah (RAK) is really a pretty nice place to live. The study is a collaboration between the Ras al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority and Nielsen. For the study, RAK-TDA commissioned research initiatives to look at the overall quality of life for RAK residents with an eye toward the global World Happiness Report. Read More »

The British vote to exit the European Union, or Brexit, on Friday has sliced markets, sending oil prices crashing approximately 5 percent within the day. An update posted on U.K. site The Week posits $45 oil prices following a sudden slide that has reversed gains on expectations earlier in the week that the EU referendum could have turned out differently. Read More »

Some tech leaders are pointing to bold new initiatives by hotel chains in the Middle East region as a kind of renaissance for advanced products and services. Avaya, for one, cited 40 percent growth within a six month period. In a June 19 press release, experts attributed the rise in Avaya’s business to investments that hoteliers are hoping will reap dividends. Read More »

The founders of a small startup called KOOOT.com have a mission to change the way that women in the Gulf Coast region access local markets, as well as to improve their interactions with global brands.  Read More »

Hydroponics is radically changing agriculture around the world, and one company has received a seal of approval from the Shariah Supervisory Board (SBB), making its investment product an example of Shariah-compliant agriculture. Read More »

Saudi officials are bringing some of their vision for 2030 to America's Silicon Valley in hopes of attracting more economic power to rebuild a national economy. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and other Saudi leaders are stopping in San Francisco for talks with tech companies. The Saudi delegation is pitching Vision 2030, the plan to overhaul the country's economy. Read More »

IBM and Emirates Airline are partnering to give fliers better service and support when they book flights through the UAE-based international airline. Under the 10-year technology services agreement worth $300 million, IBM will provide the airline with mainframe and storage services delivered through an infrastructure-as-a-service model to provide a variety of assistance. Read More »

A contract between technology firm Sabre Corp. and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is the latest example of major disruption in the airline industry - changes that are bound to affect global air travel in a good way. Etihad Airways' recently signed agreement will allow passengers to book different types of travel and select options for seating, baggage and handling of airline points. Read More »

A recent agribusiness conference in Nairobi highlighted the desire of United Arab Emirates officials to expand trade with African nations and how leaders from Dubai are looking closely at continuing to expand trade with East African nations, including Ethiopia. Dubai imports 85 percent of its food and much of that comes from Ethiopia, according to Informa Middle East. Read More »

As tech journalists, finance professionals and others try to read the tea leaves on the advancing technology and practices of the banking industry, researchers are getting mixed signals from some consumer markets. One example is a recent study of smartphone users in the Gulf Coast region which uncovered trends among banking customers in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Read More »

For those unfamiliar with the season of Ramadan, the prospect of interacting with practicing Muslims during that month can be daunting. Many know that these Islamic holy days require fasting from dawn to dusk. Others might know that Ramadan is based on the revelation of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, information that can be found on Wikipedia. Read More »

Zenlayer, a global network and service provider of SDN (software-defined networking) technology, recently expanded its colocation and hosting capabilities with Equinix into Dubai and Melbourne, Australia.These two markets joins ZenLayer’s existing network of 50 data centers worldwide. As a service provider, ZenLayer connects companies and other parties in many different ways. Read More »

In the past few months, Qatar Investment Authority officials announced fund managers are making moves toward investing $35 billion in U.S. interests while opening an office in New York. The fund has hired top finance professionals. But none of that has, as yet, been enough to move the QIA from the bottom of the barrel in the eyes of organizations charged with monitoring sovereign wealth funds. Read More »

The JustProperty.com platform, a real estate tool for managing markets across the Middle East, recently announced it is expanding its operations to Bahrain and Jordan. This news is part of the quick emergence of JustProperty.com, a product of the JRD Group, over the past six months. Prior to that, the company had been operating in the Middle East for several years. Read More »

A new agreement between the Booking.com hotel reservation portal and a Middle East telecom provider is changing the way customers make hotel reservations in the Emirates, and throughout the Middle East. Read More »

Most of us still have not donned the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset, but in one of the major centers of global innovation, the high-tech and big-money city of Dubai, the move toward VR in various industries is alive and well. Read More »

In the UAE, public planners are looking to improve the tourism industry through partnerships with one of the leading innovative travel businesses in the marketplace - Airbnb. The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing signed an agreement with Airbnb that will provide more consistent experiences while streamlining the process of registration for property owners. Read More »

In an attempt to manage a significant amount of capital, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is apparently shuffling up to $100 billion into new investment efforts in what Arabian Business magazine is calling a “major overhaul.” A magazine story in mid-May said the Qatari sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is creating a new internal division to be headed by Ahmed Al Rumaihi. Read More »

While focusing on the modernization of financial management, advances in education and the diversification of assets, Middle Eastern officials are not neglecting some of the biggest technologies that have impacted finance in the last decade. Keynote Events and other partners are holding the first Blockchain Technology Conference in Dubai, which kicked off Monday at the Burj Al Arab.  Read More »