Abu Dhabi attracted a record 26.6 million visitors in 2025, supported by strong gains across culture, leisure and business events, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) said on Monday.

Hotel revenues rose 19.5 per cent year-on-year to Dhs9.1bn, while MICE delegates increased 40 per cent to 2.2 million.

Culture and leisure event attendance climbed 20 per cent to 4.2 million. More than 8.6 million people visited Abu Dhabi’s cultural sites and libraries, with Qasr Al Hosn recording a 22 per cent rise in visitors.

“With a strong foundation of cultural engagement and robust tourism performance, Abu Dhabi continues to grow as a world-leading destination that offers exceptional experiences,” said Saood Abdulaziz Al Hosani, Undersecretary at DCT Abu Dhabi. He added that the expansion of Saadiyat Cultural District and solid hotel performance had strengthened the emirate’s distinctiveness and economic impact.

The emirate recorded 5.9 million hotel guests in 2025, a 2.2 per cent rise on the year, alongside 338,000 guests staying in holiday homes and glamping sites.

International arrivals increased 10 per cent, led by India, which posted a 22 per cent jump to 436,124 guests following expanded air connectivity. Other major source markets included Russia, the UK, China and Saudi Arabia.

Hotel occupancy highlights

Hotel occupancy rose three percentage points to 81 per cent, supported by a 19 percent increase in average daily rate and a 23 per cent gain in revenue per available room.

The average length of stay reached 2.9 nights, up 3 per cent, driven partly by a 13 percent increase in stays by Chinese visitors.

Hotels accounted for 92 per cent of all stays, with holiday homes and glamping sites making up the remainder.

Abu Dhabi delivered 252 culture and leisure events during the year, attracting over 4.2 million attendees.

The MOTN Festival drew nearly 253,000 visitors across Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Dhafra. Coldplay’s four-night run at Zayed Sports City brought in 193,470 fans, while the Abu Dhabi T10 cricket tournament hosted around 100,000 spectators. Liwa Village, part of the Liwa International Festival, welcomed more than 159,000 visitors.

Heritage festivals including Al Hosn, Traditional Handicrafts and Maritime Heritage together recorded over 608,000 attendees.

Abu Dhabi’s MICE sector sees strong growth

The MICE sector saw even sharper gains. Events rose 37 per cent to 6,600, bringing in 2.2 million delegates.

Major gatherings included IDEX/NAVDEX with about 206,000 attendees, Make it in the Emirates with 122,000, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week with 50,000, and the inaugural Bridge Summit with 39,000.

The Advantage Abu Dhabi programme supported 175 events that attracted 464,000 delegates, a 28 percent rise.

Culture-led engagement remained a core focus. Louvre Abu Dhabi recorded 1.4 million visitors, while Qasr Al Hosn welcomed more than 843,000.

DCT Abu Dhabi delivered 115 programmes across heritage, arts and education, supported by more than 20 active cultural sites and libraries across the emirate’s three regions.

Key milestones included the re-openings of Al Maqta’a Museum and Al Ain Museum, and the openings of the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum.

Al Ain and Al Dhafra regions continued to build momentum. Al Ain hosted 473,100 hotel guests, up 9 percent, while Al Dhafra recorded 147,900 guests, a 3 percent rise. Occupancy in Al Dhafra surged 19 percent. A dedicated strategy for the region is planned for 2026.

DCT Abu Dhabi said the strong performance underscores progress towards the emirate’s Tourism Strategy 2030, which aims to accelerate growth and expand the tourism and culture sectors through targeted development and international positioning.

Tthe UAE’s most influential business leaders, navigating the most complex geopolitical crisis in a generation, share how they are protecting their people, leveraging the Emirates’ strengths as a global hub, and keeping their enterprises not just intact, but ahead

As Saudi Arabia accelerates its ambitions to become a global artificial intelligence powerhouse, the declaration of 2026 as the “Year of Artificial Intelligence” is being viewed as more than symbolic—it marks a structural shift in how the Kingdom is building and scaling its innovation economy.

According to Emon Shakoor, CEO of Blossom Accelerator, the move reflects a transition from strategy to execution, creating a fundamentally different operating environment for both founders and investors.

“Saudi Arabia declaring 2026 the ‘Year of Artificial Intelligence’ is a definitive signal that the Kingdom has moved from planning to high-velocity execution,” she says.

For startups, this shift translates into closer alignment with national priorities and access to real-world problem statements. “Practically, it provides builders with direct proximity to large-scale, real-world problem statements driven by government and leading corporates,” she explains. For investors, the signal is equally strong, pointing to “deep access to capital across public and private markets… designed to de-risk AI ventures.”

From incubation to domination

This evolution is also shaping how accelerators themselves are operating. With the launch of DominAite, Blossom Accelerator is moving beyond traditional incubation models toward a more aggressive scale-first approach.

“In practice, this shift means focusing on businesses where AI is the core product and defensibility layer, rather than just a feature,” Shakoor says. “The global AI race requires startups to reach real revenue and follow-on fundraises quickly.”

Backed by the National Technology Development Program (NTDP), the initiative is structured not just to support startups, but to accelerate their path to commercial viability. The focus is on building sovereign AI capabilities while ensuring companies can scale from within the Kingdom.

One of the biggest challenges across global AI ecosystems is translating early-stage innovation into commercially viable businesses. Shakoor argues that Saudi Arabia is tackling this head-on through direct market access.

“We facilitate warm introductions into government entities and the PIF ecosystem… ensuring that innovation translates into tangible economic impact,” she says.

The emphasis on paid pilots and early commercial contracts is key. By prioritising revenue generation within the first year, the ecosystem is designed to move startups quickly from experimentation to execution—something many mature markets still struggle to achieve.

Infrastructure, data, and demand

Saudi Arabia’s positioning as an AI hub is underpinned by structural advantages that extend beyond capital. According to Shakoor, proximity to high-quality data and immediate demand from paying customers is what differentiates the Kingdom.

“We are not building in isolation; we are leveraging a clear national commitment to digital transformation and technological leadership,” she says.

This combination of data access, regulatory clarity, and institutional demand creates an environment where AI companies can scale faster and with greater certainty compared to more fragmented ecosystems.

While government-backed platforms play a central role in shaping the ecosystem, maintaining startup agility remains critical. Shakoor highlights a deliberate approach to balancing both.

“We maintain agility by deploying structured investment packages via single instruments that align incentives from the very start,” she says.

By focusing on a smaller cohort of high-potential companies, DominAite ensures deeper technical and infrastructure support, including access to cloud credits and GPU compute—resources that are often a bottleneck for AI startups globally.

Diversity as a technical requirement

Beyond capital and infrastructure, Shakoor underscores the importance of diversity in building globally competitive AI systems.

“In the context of AI, diversity is not just a social goal but a technical requirement,” she says. “Inclusive teams are essential to ensuring that AI models are trained on diverse datasets and are free from the narrow biases that can limit their international utility.”

As Saudi Arabia builds its AI ecosystem, this focus on inclusivity is positioned as a key enabler of global relevance and scalability.

Looking ahead, Shakoor believes success will ultimately be defined by the emergence of globally competitive companies originating from the Kingdom.

“Success is not measured by the number of graduates, but by how many companies emerge from here to define the new global center of gravity for innovation,” she says.

SpaceX outlined details of its highly anticipated IPO at a meeting with its team of bankers Monday night, telling them it plans to earmark a large portion of shares for retail investors and will host 1,500 of them at an event in June following the IPO roadshow launch, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“Retail is going to be a critical part of this and a bigger part than any IPO in history,” Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said during the virtual meeting, the two people said, asking not to be identified because the discussion was private.

Johnsen said the large retail component is by design as “those are folks that have been incredibly supportive of us and of Elon (Musk) for a long time, and we want to make sure that we recognise that.”

Reuters reported last month that SpaceX is rewriting the IPO playbook with a large retail portion in the offering.

The meeting brought together the full syndicate for the first time as part of the process for what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering ever as the rocket maker seeks to raise $75bn, valuing SpaceX at as much as $1.75tn, Reuters has previously reported.

The Elon Musk-led company plans to launch its roadshow the week of June 8, when executives and bankers will pitch the IPO to investors, the people said. About 125 financial analysts from the 21 banks on the deal are scheduled to meet with the company the day before, they added.

On June 11, SpaceX plans to host 1,500 retail investors at what the people described as a major investor event. In addition to the US, everyday retail investors in the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea would have the opportunity to participate in the offering, the people added.

One of SpaceX‘s lead underwriters told the group of 21 investment banks the retail demand and allocation will be something they’ve “never seen before,” the two people said.

The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are expected to be finalised closer to the IPO launch, they said.

Reuters previously reported that founder Elon Musk wanted to set aside up to 30 per cent of the company’s shares for smaller investors, compared with 5 to 10 per cent for most companies.

The company plans to make its IPO prospectus public in late May, they said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks in smaller roles spanning institutional, retail and international channels, Reuters previously reported.

The $1.75tn target represents a significant step up from the $1.25 trillion combined valuation set when SpaceX merged with Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI in February.

Typically, SpaceX’s roughly twice-yearly tender offers — in which employees and investors are able to sell their existing shares, allowing them to cash out from a company that has remained private for nearly 25 years — have served as the primary valuation anchor. The most recent, in December 2025, valued the company at $800bn, before the merger with xAI.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has resigned, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, as the airline grapples with persistent losses and heightened regulatory scrutiny following a crash last year that killed 260 people.

Reuters reported in January that Air India‘s board was scouting for a new CEO to replace Wilson, a former Singapore Airlines veteran brought in to steer the Indian carrier’s turnaround in 2022 after years of decline under government ownership.

The airline, which is contending with aircraft delivery delays, has also been reprimanded by regulators for safety lapses, including flying an aircraft eight times without an airworthiness certificate and running planes without checking emergency equipment.

New Zealand-born Wilson’s term was due to end in 2027. He is currently serving a six-month notice period and plans to stay with the company until a successor is found, the source said, declining to be identified as they were not authorised to speak with media.

Air India did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside regular business hours. Wilson’s resignation was reported by Indian publication Mint late on Monday.

Since taking over the top job in 2022, Wilson has steered the airline through the early and difficult stages of its turnaround, including overhauling Air India‘s engineering department and refurbishing planes amid supply chain disruptions.

Air India in December admitted there was a “need for urgent improvements in process discipline, communication, and compliance culture,” Reuters reported.

The airline, which has a fleet of 191 Boeing BA.N and Airbus planes, has lost money since being bought by Tata in 2022, with the financial pressure worsening since Pakistan banned Indian carriers from its airspace last year.

A prolonged Iran war will add further pressure on Air India‘s lucrative western routes, already scaled back due to Pakistan’s restrictions.

Air India is chaired by N. Chandrasekaran, who is also the chair of Tata Group. Singapore Airlines holds a 25 per cent stake in Air India.