Timeshare mulled to boost visitor numbers Dubai also targets under-pressure retail sector Dubai plans to lower costs for local retailers, develop a local time-share holiday home market, and further stimulate its SME sector, as part of a raft of measures to stimulate the emirate’s economy. Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum discussed the new measures with a number of leading government officials, the Dubai Media office said on Saturday. “Dubai has established a clear and well-established economic policy which in turn has strengthened its ability to absorb rapid changes in an unstable global economy in order to achieve sustainable economic growth and enhance its competitiveness at all levels,” Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement. The emirate’s Department of Economic Development has introduced an initiative to reduce operational costs within the retail sector, in a bid to increase investment. Details of the initiative were not disclosed. The time sharing initiative, one of a series introduced by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, is intended to promote family tourism via a market for “high-quality” time share holiday homes. The department is targeting between 500-1000 of such holiday units, in order to draw more family tourists and get them to stay longer. Other initiatives mooted by the DTCM include a move to collect government fees from 3-4 star hotels on a semi-annual rather than monthly basis, in a bid to aid liquidity in the sector. Dubai’s Department of Finance meanwhile is coordinating with government authorities, providing them with incentives to allocate 20 percent of tenders to SMEs in a bid to boost the sector and diversify the emirate’s overall economy. Other initiatives discussed by officials include efforts to attract added numbers of tech entrepreneurs to the emirate, moves to stimulate its Islamic finance capacity, and plans to develop a servicing hub for yachts and cruise ships.