Al Etihad Payments (AEP), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), has announced a landmark strategic partnership with Mastercard that will introduce the world’s first Jaywan-Mastercard co-badged credit card while strengthening the country’s digital payments infrastructure.

The agreement marks a major step in the UAE’s efforts to modernise its financial ecosystem, combining the capabilities of the national domestic card scheme, Jaywan, with Mastercard’s global payments network to deliver enhanced payment services for consumers, businesses and financial institutions.

Expanding the UAE’s payment ecosystem

As part of the collaboration, the partners will launch the first-ever Jaywan-Mastercard co-badged credit card, develop advanced infrastructure for switching and processing card payment transactions, and establish a new operations centre in the UAE. The centre will become part of Mastercard’s global network, providing advanced card payment services to local and regional markets, a WAM report said.

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The partnership is expected to strengthen the UAE’s position as a leading international financial hub by enabling the issuance of Jaywan co-badged credit cards that can be accepted worldwide. It will also see the implementation of a new Mastercard network node in the UAE, designed to process both domestic and international payment flows.

The move will place the UAE among the first countries to benefit from Mastercard’s latest payment technologies and services.

Supporting innovation and resilience

The partnership aligns with Al Etihad Payments’ mission to bring together banks, fintech companies, merchants and global technology providers to modernise the nation’s payment infrastructure.

By expanding payment options and supporting local innovation, the collaboration aims to improve resilience across the financial sector while helping businesses and financial institutions deliver more efficient services in an increasingly digital economy.

The launch of the Jaywan-Mastercard credit card, with Mastercard serving as the primary international scheme for the programme, is expected to deliver secure, simple and accessible payment experiences. It will also provide banks, fintech firms and merchants with additional capabilities to better serve customers, grow their businesses and contribute to the national economy.

Advanced payment capabilities

Under the agreement, Mastercard will deploy next-generation payment infrastructure across the UAE to support Jaywan debit, prepaid and co-badged credit cards.

The initiative will include advanced switching and processing capabilities, value-added services, cybersecurity solutions, fraud prevention tools and threat intelligence technologies. Drawing on Mastercard’s global expertise, the partnership aims to support the UAE’s national payment objectives while encouraging continued innovation across the sector.

Saif Humaid Al Dhaheri, the CBUAE’s assistant governor for Banking Operations and Support Services and chairman of Al Etihad Payments, said, “This collaboration represents a defining moment for the UAE’s payments ecosystem. By combining national infrastructure with global innovation, we are strengthening sovereignty, resilience and choice, while accelerating the UAE’s journey toward a future-ready financial system.”

Dr Dimitrios Dosis, president, EEMEA, Mastercard, added, “As Mastercard celebrates forty years in the UAE, this latest milestone with Al Etihad Payments reflects how together we can strengthen the foundation for continued growth in trade, tourism and commerce. We are bringing together trusted technology, global scale and deep local relationships to strengthen domestic resiliency while remaining deeply connected to the global economy.”

As the partnership develops, Al Etihad Payments and Mastercard said they will continue exploring flexible, market-driven solutions that support the UAE’s digital transformation agenda, expand payment choice and further strengthen the country’s future-ready domestic payments ecosystem.

Dubai has launched a new tourism initiative that encourages residents to become ambassadors for the city by inviting friends and family from overseas to experience everything the emirate has to offer. The newly unveiled ‘Invite’ campaign rewards eligible UAE residents with exclusive benefits worth more than Dhs3,000 when their nominated guests travel to Dubai between July 20 and October 31, 2026.

The initiative reflects Dubai’s continued efforts to drive international visitor numbers through personal connections, recognising that recommendations from family and friends remain among the strongest influences on travel decisions. By combining attractive incentives with a simple nomination process, the campaign is designed to generate additional tourism while giving residents another reason to reconnect with loved ones.

Read more-Dubai offers 30- and 60-day tourist visas within 48 hours

The reward package includes a collection of exclusive hotel stays, dining experiences, attraction tickets and other curated offers that can be redeemed until December 31, 2026, subject to individual terms and conditions.

Turning residents into tourism ambassadors

Unlike traditional tourism campaigns that focus solely on international advertising, Dubai’s latest initiative places residents at the centre of its visitor strategy.

With more than 200 nationalities calling the emirate home, residents maintain strong personal ties with families and friends across the world. The campaign leverages these relationships by encouraging people who already know and love Dubai to introduce the destination to those who may be considering their next holiday.

Rather than simply suggesting a visit, residents now have an additional incentive to actively encourage travel, creating value for both themselves and their guests.

The programme also aligns with Dubai’s broader ambition of maintaining year-round tourism momentum by stimulating travel during the campaign period while encouraging visitors to explore multiple aspects of the city’s tourism offering.

Driving business across the hospitality sector

Beyond rewarding residents, the campaign is expected to create additional opportunities for hotels, restaurants, attractions and leisure operators participating in the initiative.

Every additional visitor contributes to the wider tourism economy through accommodation bookings, restaurant spending, retail purchases and entertainment experiences. By encouraging residents to invite people they already have close relationships with, the campaign taps into a visitor segment that often stays longer, travels in groups and explores the destination more extensively.

Hospitality businesses also benefit from greater exposure, with participating hotels and attractions using the campaign to showcase premium experiences that may encourage repeat visits in the future.

Industry experts have increasingly recognised the importance of referral-based tourism, where trusted recommendations from friends and relatives can be more influential than traditional marketing campaigns. Dubai’s latest initiative builds on this concept by rewarding residents for helping expand the city’s international visitor base.

More than just accommodation

A key feature of the programme is the breadth of experiences included within the rewards package.

Rather than focusing exclusively on discounted accommodation, the campaign combines hospitality with lifestyle experiences that allow participants to enjoy different sides of Dubai. Depending on the participating venue and individual offer, benefits may include hotel stays, preferential room rates, complimentary upgrades, dining privileges, attraction access, spa savings and other exclusive experiences.

The combination allows residents to enjoy premium experiences while discovering new venues across the city, while visitors also gain access to some of Dubai’s renowned hospitality and leisure offerings.

By bringing together accommodation, dining and entertainment within a single rewards programme, the initiative creates a more complete experience that reflects Dubai’s position as a destination offering far more than a traditional city break.

A straightforward process for participants

Residents wishing to participate can nominate up to five visitors at a time through the campaign’s official nomination platform, with additional nominations accepted through separate submissions.

Once at least one nominated visitor arrives in Dubai during the campaign period, authorities will verify the arrival before issuing the resident’s rewards package via email. Benefits are expected to be distributed within 72 hours of verification, with packages being issued during August 2026.

The programme is open to UAE residents and citizens aged 18 or above who hold a valid Emirates ID. Eligible visitors must be non-UAE residents travelling on a valid tourist visa or qualifying for visa on arrival, although visa arrangements remain the responsibility of the visitor.

To ensure fairness, each visitor can only be nominated once during the campaign, while participating residents can receive a maximum of three reward packages.

Supporting Dubai’s long-term tourism vision

The launch comes as Dubai continues to strengthen its position as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations through innovative campaigns that extend beyond conventional destination marketing.

Instead of relying solely on promotional advertising, the emirate is increasingly encouraging authentic experiences and word-of-mouth recommendations to attract international travellers. Friends and relatives who visit often experience Dubai through a local perspective, discovering neighbourhoods, restaurants and attractions that may not feature in traditional travel itineraries.

This approach not only enhances the visitor experience but also supports businesses across multiple sectors of the tourism economy.

For hotels, restaurants and attractions, the campaign creates opportunities to welcome new guests while showcasing the quality of Dubai’s hospitality. For residents, it transforms hosting family and friends into a rewarding experience, offering exclusive privileges that extend beyond the visit itself.

Creating shared experiences

At its core, the ‘Invite’ campaign is about more than rewards. It is designed to encourage meaningful reunions while giving residents an opportunity to share the city they call home with the people who matter most.

Whether introducing first-time visitors to Dubai’s iconic landmarks, enjoying world-class dining or experiencing the city’s diverse entertainment and cultural attractions together, the initiative aims to make every visit more memorable.

By combining practical savings with premium hospitality experiences, the campaign creates benefits for residents, visitors and the wider tourism industry alike. As Dubai continues to innovate in destination marketing, the initiative demonstrates how personal connections can become a powerful driver of tourism growth, turning every invitation into an opportunity to strengthen relationships, support local businesses and showcase the city’s world-renowned hospitality.

For years, Saudi Arabia has built ambitious hotels and, more often than not, partnered with international operators to run them. Atheel KAFD Hotel represents a new chapter. Due to open in the final quarter of 2026 inside Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District, it will be the first Saudi-managed hotel in the district, developed by KAFD and operated by Adeera Hospitality, both companies inside the Public Investment Fund. What it quietly signals is not just Riyadh’s ability to build another 214-room hotel, but a growing confidence to operate one to the standard the world expects.

Adeera was created to answer exactly that. Positioned as Saudi Arabia’s national hospitality company under PIF, its mandate is to develop and run homegrown brands to international standards. Stefan Leser, its chief executive, is precise about what that does and does not mean for how the company works.

“Our objective is to deliver hospitality that is globally competitive while authentically expressing Saudi culture, values and the renowned generosity of Saudi hospitality,” he says. Atheel, in his framing, is less a first property than a first proof: “the first expression of our operating philosophy in practice.”

Authenticity from the inside
The industry’s language on “local character” is usually decorative, a majlis in the lobby, dates at check-in. Leser draws the line somewhere harder. Authenticity, he argues, cannot be applied from the outside; it comes from the people and communities that define a place. “There can be no true reflection of Saudi hospitality without Saudi voices shaping the experience,” he says, from the food to the welcome. It is a notable position for a European executive running a national champion, and he states his own role plainly: “My role is not to define Saudi hospitality, but to help create the environment for it to thrive.”

That is not only rhetoric. Atheel’s pre-opening executive committee is 63 per cent Saudi, most in leadership or specialist roles, many returning from careers with international groups. Leser frames the wider shift toward considered, culturally grounded luxury — and away from scale for its own sake — as one Saudi Arabia is well placed to lead, given what he calls its “incredible historical, cultural and geographic diversity.” The aim, aligned with Vision 2030’s emphasis on Saudi talent, is a model “delivered to the highest international standards, while remaining authentically Saudi.”

If Leser sets the philosophy, Emre Pasli has to open the doors. The general manager is blunt about the brief. Riyadh, he says, is drawing global investors, founders and decision-makers at a scale the city has not seen before, and it does not need more rooms so much as hotels with a reason to exist. “The market does not simply need more hotel rooms,” he says. “It needs hotels with a clear sense of purpose.” Atheel, he states, is built for a traveller who wants efficiency and sophistication but also to feel connected to the place they have landed in.

That ambition is location-led. KAFD is designed as a “10-minute city” of 95 buildings, LEED Platinum, its offices, homes and hotels linked by a Guinness-record skywalk network and a metro stop with a direct line to the airport.4 Pasli wants Atheel woven into that daily rhythm rather than parked beside it. “We want to create a place where business conversations continue over dinner, where residents feel equally welcome,” he says, a social anchor of the kind that hotels become in mature global cities, and his ambition is for it to become “the hospitality heart of the district.”

That integration is the offer itself, not just the backdrop. Riyadh was long a city where movement depended on the car; KAFD, with its metro connection and pedestrian skywalks, is among the sharpest signs of that changing. “Connectivity is becoming one of the defining factors in people’s choice of where to stay,” Pasli says. Business travellers, increasingly conscious of how they spend their time, can move between meetings, dining and the metro on foot — which, he argues, changes what a guest is actually buying. At Atheel, they are choosing “a base of operations within one of the city’s most connected and consequential addresses,” not simply a room, and he expects accessibility and integration to weigh as heavily as the traditional measures of luxury. His shorthand for the district’s pitch, and the hotel’s, is the same: “Where power meets place.”

The design, and the soul
The architecture is by Foster + Partners: bold geometric massing, a façade engineered to deflect the Riyadh sun and cut cooling loads, and a sculptural atrium said to run the full height of the building — one of the tallest internal hotel spaces in the capital.

Pasli treats all of it as a beginning rather than the point. “Architecture creates a stage,” he says. “What gives a hotel its soul is the experience that unfolds within it.”

That experience is built to carry the cultural argument without announcing it. Alongside the French brasserie Riya Maison and the rooftop pool and lounge Cloud 14, the flagship is LAFANA, a contemporary Saudi restaurant Pasli wants taken seriously on its own terms.6 The intent, he says, is “not to showcase culture as a feature, but to allow it to be naturally woven into the guest journey.” For both men, the definition of luxury is the same, and it is a rejection of the old model. In Pasli’s words: “Luxury is not about excess. It is about meaning, precision, warmth, and a strong sense of place.”

The longer game
The stakes reach past one opening. Pasli reads Atheel as evidence of a sector maturing fast enough that “international standards and local expertise are no longer separate conversations.” The part of Vision 2030 he rates most highly is its patience with people: “Buildings can be developed in a few years. Developing future leaders takes much longer.” The real legacy, he suggests, will not be the hotels but the generation of Saudi professionals trained to run them.

As a new class of longer-staying guests arrives — consultants, project teams and executives in the city for weeks or months — the hotel is designed around work-leisure overlap rather than the old business-versus-leisure split, with flexible public spaces and rooms meant for working as much as sleeping. But the closing thought is Leser’s territory as much as Pasli’s: that a hotel like this is, for many visitors, their first real encounter with the country.

“Saudi Arabia is introducing itself to the world with the confidence of a nation that knows its own worth,” Pasli says. “Atheel was built to be part of that welcome.” Whether the kingdom can run luxury as well as it can commission it is the test. Late 2026 is when the answer opens for business.

Apple is launching a device leasing program called ‘Apple Upgrade’ on July 28 in the US to boost sales, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The new service arrives as Apple has raised prices on its iPads, MacBooks and other devices except the iPhone, no longer able to shield customers from surging memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s data-center buildout.

Read more-iPhone 18: What you need to know about its higher prices, delayed launch

Apple Upgrade will support most iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch models and the company is partnering with Klarna Group the financial backer for the program, the report said.

It will function as a subscription, allowing users to pay off their device early, switch to a new model before their term ends, or retain the device after the leasing period concludes, Bloomberg reported.

The service will be available in both Apple’s physical retail stores and online.

Apple intends to market the program as offering lower payments than its existing financing options, the report said.

The company plans to end new enrollments in its current iPhone payment plans, the iPhone Upgrade Program and standard financing — to clear the way for the new Apple Upgrade initiative.

Unlike the current iPhone Upgrade Program, Apple Upgrade will not include AppleCare. Some devices, including the Apple Watch SE, the entry-level iPad, the iPhone 16 and the MacBook Neo, will not be eligible for the program, the report said.

Business and education purchases will also be excluded, according to Bloomberg.

Both Apple and Klarna did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Novo Nordisk has appointed Venkat Kalyan as general manager for the Gulf, strengthening its leadership team as the pharmaceutical company expands its presence across one of its key strategic growth regions.

Based in the Gulf, Kalyan will oversee the company’s operations across the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen, with responsibility for strengthening healthcare partnerships, driving innovation and improving outcomes for patients living with chronic diseases.

The appointment reflects Novo Nordisk’s confidence in the Gulf’s evolving healthcare landscape and the UAE’s growing role as a regional hub for medical research, innovation and collaborative healthcare initiatives.

Commenting on his appointment, Kalyan said: “The Gulf markets hold real potential and are exceptionally well positioned to lead the next phase of healthcare transformation. I look forward to building on Novo Nordisk’s strong foundation in the region and working closely with all our healthcare stakeholders to improve outcomes for patients.”

Kalyan brings nearly 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, including 18 years with Novo Nordisk. Before assuming his new role, he served as general manager of the company’s Gulf Emerging Markets Cluster.

His leadership experience spans multiple international markets, including India, Switzerland, Denmark, Middle Africa, South Africa and the Gulf region, providing broad experience in managing healthcare businesses across developed and emerging markets.

Novo Nordisk said the Gulf has become an increasingly important part of its global growth strategy as healthcare systems across the region continue to invest in innovation, chronic disease management and patient-centred care.

The company said it remains committed to expanding access to healthcare solutions while working with governments, healthcare providers and other stakeholders to support the development of more sustainable and accessible healthcare systems across the Gulf.