Saudi Gazette report DUBAI — The Dubai Tourism Authority is considering use of mobile text messages to caution Saudi visitors to adhere to UAE traffic rules and regulations as they enter the country, the director of business tourism in Dubai Hamad Bin Muqrin was quoted as saying. “We are considering to alert Saudi tourists against traffic violations text messages which they will receive immediately on entering the country,” he told a group of Saudi journalists. The move comes in the wake of Saudi Embassy in the UAE intervening to settle a number of cases of traffic violations committed by Saudis in Abu Dhabi during the past two months. Some of these tourists concealed their cars' plate numbers so that they would not be detected by radar for speeding or other traffic violations. The embassy, managed to pare down some of the fines from 20,000 dirhams to 5,000 dirhams per individual. It also paid the traffic fines for a few of the offenders. Muqrin said that the number of traffic violations committed by Saudis was limited and that the problem did not affect the influx of Saudi tourists to the country. He said more than 1.128 million Saudis visited Dubai in 2012, an increase of 28 percent over the previous year. “Saudis prefer Dubai because of the suitability of its basic infrastructure to their families including shopping malls, restaurants, entertainment places and tourist attractions,” he said. According to Muqrin, more than 10 million tourists of various nationalities visited Dubai last year. “Saudis topped all other nationalities,” he added. Quoting official statistics, Muqrin said Dubai has over 590 hotels with more than 80,000 rooms. During the first nine months of 2012, these hotels accommodated more than 7.2 million visitors, an increase of nine percent over the same period in 2011. “The hotels collected an income of more than 13 billion dirhams during this period,” the Dubai official said.
