Dubai - A Dubai hotel is trying to ease the pain of the global financial crisis by offering free dinners for laid-off workers, media in the United Arab Emirates reported.
The three-star Arabian Park hotel is offering its free dinners from December 15 until January 15 to locals and foreigners who can prove they were fired.
"(The scheme is) to remind people of our value for money," the hotel general manager Mark Lee told the Gulf News.
The city, best known for its gleaming skyscrapers and man-made islands, is often compared to Las Vegas.
The State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank in the country, has picked up 19.7 per cent equity in Orissa-based Mayfair Hotels and Resorts (MHRL) through a private equity (PE) deal, for an undisclosed sum. 
Government and hotels are likely to review mandatory safety and security norms for the hospitality industry. Security norms need to be more stringent in the wake of the terrorist attacks on prestigious five star hotels in Mumbai. The vice-president (hotels) at India Tourism Development Corp. Ltd, Sudhir Sibal said that as terrorists are updating themselves with time, hotel industry should also become more updated. 
Dubai - US singer Kylie Minogue launched the 2-billion- dollar Atlantis Palm Jumeirah resort in the Gulf emirate of Dubai with a 45-minute performance set on the beach late on Thursday.
Sharjah, 11th Nov. 2008 -- Sharjah is planning to add over 5,000 new hotel rooms in the next two years, increasing the total number of hotel rooms to 12,000 rooms by 2010, a senior tourist official has disclosed.
