Establishing direct flights to Dubai, UAE, may increase tourism for Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Seychelles, Bahamas, Warsaw, and Nigeria. This is the expected outcome of the MOUs signed today at Dubai’s ongoing Arabian Travel Market.
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Flying directly from Dubai to Nassau, bypassing the new Immigration hassle and changing planes at a U.S. airport, is a trend among Caribbean destinations. The Bahamas may benefit from this soon, expanding to flights beyond Europe.
The ongoing Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai has set many trends in a tough geopolitical environment and the aviation industry. Ignoring the ever-changing news from Washington, the UAE’s Emirates Airlines has been looking to establish more markets to fill its planes. At the ATM, the airline signed agreements with Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Seychelles, Bahamas, Warsaw, and Nigeria to bolster visitor arrivals and boost the appeal of each destination.
Emirates and Tourism Malaysia have renewed their partnership, reaffirming the airline’s longstanding commitment to the Southeast Asian gateway. Emirates will seek to promote Malaysia across key markets in its global network. It will explore opportunities for joint marketing promotions and advertising initiatives to position Malaysia as a premier tourist destination, highlighting its natural landscapes, cultural heritage, and unique culinary experiences. Emirates will also explore organising familiarisation trips to Malaysia for key media representatives and travel agents from strategic markets across its global network.
Emirates and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) have renewed their three-year partnership, which aims further to develop the country’s tourism and trade industries. Through joint initiatives, such as developing excursions and familiarization trips to promote the island nation to key feeder markets, Emirates and SLTPB aim to grow the tourism industry of the popular Indian Ocean destination by showcasing the destination to customers across the airline’s global network.
The joint efforts to boost the nation’s tourist industry have supported a steady increase in inbound traffic into the island, which recorded just over 2 million visitors in 2024. Between April 2024 and March 2025, Emirates carried over 240,000 passengers into Sri Lanka from key markets around its network, including Russia, the UK, Germany, Australia, China, and the US, among others.
Emirates and the Moroccan National Tourist Office will explore ways to promote inbound tourism to Morocco from key destinations on the airline’s vast global network. The agreement directly supports Morocco’s strategic roadmap to double the size of the tourism sector and ultimately make it one of the world’s top 20 destinations for visitors. The partners will explore programmes for trade partners and tour operators to educate further and incentivize the travel industry, in addition to familiarisation trips and other marketing initiatives to increase the destination’s visibility within Emirates’ network.
Morocco has ambitious targets to develop tourism, attracting 17.5 million visitors annually by 2026 and creating 200,000 new jobs. 2024 marked a record-breaking year, with 17.4 million tourists visiting the kingdom. The partnership inked at Arabian Travel Market directly supports this vision, leveraging Emirates’ frictionless travel options and vast global network to promote the destination further in key target markets.
Emirates and Tourism Seychelles have renewed their longstanding commitment to supporting the country’s travel and tourism industry. Building on a partnership established in 2013, the MoU aims to increase inbound tourist traffic to Seychelles, focusing on key feeder markets within the airline’s extensive network. Emirates has been a major contributor to Seychelles’ tourism successes, with the island welcoming more than 350,000 tourist arrivals in 2024. Joint initiatives that have contributed to healthy visitor numbers include marketing campaigns targeted at European markets like Austria.
Emirates and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas will partner on joint promotional campaigns in key markets to boost tourist arrivals in The Bahamas by showcasing the destination’s appeal to visitors and holidaymakers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will support Emirates’ efforts by providing tour operators and travel agents in key target markets with promotional giveaways, special packages, incentives, and marketing spend.
Emirates and the Warsaw Tourism Organization will work together for the first time to develop inbound passenger traffic from key markets in the airline’s global network to the city. Both entities will explore developing joint advertising campaigns and organizing familiarization trips for media representatives and travel agents to Warsaw. These initiatives aim to boost awareness of Warsaw’s cultural richness and strengthen its positioning as a key gateway in Central Europe.
Emirates and the Nigerian Ministry of Art Culture Tourism and the Creative Economy will work closely to boost international visitors to Nigeria. The partnership underscores the airline’s commitment to the market through attracting visitors from across its global network of more than 140 passenger destinations, as Nigeria’s tourism roadmap aims to make the country a major holiday destination in Africa, driven by significant investments in infrastructure, tourist facilities, and enhanced air connectivity to and from the country. The partnership between Emirates and the Ministry — to be driven by its agency for tourism promotion, the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) — supports this exciting new chapter and is further bolstered by the recently signed interline agreement between Emirates and Air Peace, which expands Emirates’ reach to 13 additional cities across Nigeria. Both partners will develop programmes for trade partners, hoteliers and tour operators, and explore incentives, familiarisation trips and other marketing initiatives.
