Source: www.zawya.com
Roads & Transport Authority – Nashwan Atta’ee: The Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) will soon be launching the Dubai Travel Pass (Terhaal) initiative; a pack that gives visitors to Dubai the ability to use public transportation with relative ease upon arrival in the Emirate. The intention is to provide means for visitors to travel from their homes and back to their homes seamlessly. Over a phased launch period, the pack will be available to tourists at various points during their trips, to allow them to decide on ground transport, while developing their visit plans, according to Peyman Younes Parham, Director of RTA’s Marketing and Corporate Communication.
“The overall objective is to ensure that visitors are given an immediate overview of public transport modes including Dubai Metro, Dubai Bus and Dubai Water Bus, which are the public transport modes provided by RTA in a smooth and safe environment, thanks to the advanced infrastructure, facilities and services implemented by the RTA over the last 5 years,” continued Peyman. “Through rolling out this initiative, RTA is intending to ease the mobility of tourists across Dubai, while also make their visit a memorable experience, brought on by the use of some of the best infrastructure and systems in the world besides contributing to the enhancement of the tourism in the Emirate,” he said.
“The Dubai Travel Pass includes two Nol Cards, each with a credit of AED14, booklets about the integrated public transport systems, maps, information of interest to visitors, places to visit and how to get to those places using public transport, as well as other general information such as telephone numbers of emergency service, police, embassies, and ambulance. The pack also includes various value-added offers for use in Dubai on the trip, courtesy of RTA and it’s partners,” added the Director of RTA’s Marketing and Corporate Communication.
In phase 1 the Dubai Travel Pass (Terhaal) will be distributed across DNATA outlets, Duty Free shops of the Dubai airports, hotel, malls. Soon after, these will be made available on board Emirates aircrafts,” commented Peyman.
He pointed out that the actual cost of the Pack is AED65; which is less than two times what someone would pay to obtain similar information individually. The added value of more than AED 200 is a reward the visitor for the purchase of the pack.
“Over the next phases of the project, RTA and DNATA will review the response of visitors to upgrade the project based on those expectations. In the future, the RTA hopes to be able to distribute the Dubai Travel Pass (Terhaal) in foreign countries and at points where visitors are just beginning to make their travel plans for Dubai, to increase the probability of these visitors planning and using public transport modes during these visits.”
For his part, Abdulla Tawakul, SVP Regional and Coroporate said: “This valuable initiative is a continuation of DNATA’s already successful business relationship with the RTA. The Tourist Activation Program enables us to extend still further the range of services we already provide to visitors coming in to Dubai. With over 50 years of servicing travelers to Dubai and with our increased presence of outlets in the GCC this program provides us an opportunity to remain at the forefront of innovation and customer excellence, providing added value by encouraging use of Dubai’s range of public transport options.”
