Adnan Al-Jaziri

Writer,

icn.live

Adnan Al-Jaziri brings nearly a decade of reporting on the economy sector in the Gulf, contributing features to Arab News MENA and The Gulf Today in Business. His background in communication has shaped a career focused on explaining finance’s role in economic transformation. He studied Media and Communication at University in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia

Al Balad Development Company partnership with Al Ittihad Club reaches platinum

The Al Balad Development Company’s partnership with Al Ittihad Club has moved to platinum sponsorship, a step that links a football club to the long effort to rebuild one of Saudi Arabia’s oldest urban districts. This Al Ittihad Club platinum sponsorship replaces the silver tier the two sides agreed in 2023. It shifts the relationship from media and marketing visibility toward a season-long program of activities connected to Historic Jeddah.

Al Balad Development Company, known as BDC, is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund. It serves as the master developer of the Jeddah Historical District, the walled old town listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Al Ittihad Club, founded in Jeddah in 1927, is the oldest sports club in the country and carries a large regional following. Placing the two side by side puts heritage development next to one of the city’s most visible cultural assets.

What the agreement covers

Under the agreement, presented on their official website, both sides will draw on a range of media and marketing assets alongside community initiatives and events across the season. The activities will promote the cultural offerings of Historic Jeddah and BDC’s own projects. Shared content, supporter experiences, and district events form the core of the plan. The intent is to pull fans closer to the old town and to raise engagement with the district among younger residents.

Jamil Hassan Ghaznawi, CEO of Al Balad Development Company, said the partnership would help promote the company’s projects, attract visitors and investors, and support economic activity in the area. He noted the collaboration builds on the club’s long connection with Jeddah and its supporter base. The focus, he said, would fall on experiences that join sport, culture, and the historic district.

“We believe that reviving Historic Jeddah extends beyond urban regeneration to fostering sustainable connections between people and their environment. Partnering with Al Ittihad Club, backed by its massive fanbase is a pivotal step forward. It allows us to showcase our projects, attract visitors and investors, and drive regional economic activity.”, Jamil Hassan Ghaznawi said.

The Al Balad Development Company partnership and Vision 2030

The Al Balad Development Company partnership sits inside a wider structural shift. BDC works under the Public Investment Fund’s strategy and under Saudi Vision 2030, the plan to move the economy away from oil. Tourism, hospitality, and cultural sectors carry a defined role in that plan. A sponsorship that fills stadiums and feeds social channels becomes a route to an audience for a development brand that needs one.

Domingos Soares, CEO of Al Ittihad Club, said the club’s long relationship with Jeddah and its community gave the expanded partnership a firm base. He added the sponsorship would support work designed to bring supporters closer to the cultural and social life of the old district while adding value for fans and the city.

A club as a development tool

The reasoning is direct. BDC is developing roughly 2.5 million square meters of the historic core, with plans for homes, hotels, and commercial space, while keeping the district’s architectural character. A project on that scale needs footfall and attention. Al Ittihad supplies both.

The Al Balad Development Company partnership also shows how PIF-owned entities now work in concert. PIF holds a majority stake in Al Ittihad and full ownership of BDC. Sponsorship between the two keeps investment and messaging inside one portfolio. For the district, the return will show less in logo placement and more in whether the club’s supporters follow their team into Historic Jeddah’s streets, hotels, and cultural venues over the season ahead.

Photo Credit: The Al Balad Development Company

By Adnan Al-Jaziri
3 min read

Dubai Duty Free

Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments across DXB and online channels

Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments, a step that puts one of the world’s largest single-airport retailers inside Dubai’s wider move toward digital money. The retailer has become the first airport operator in the Middle East to add Crypto.com Pay as a regulated digital payment option. Eligible customers can use it at Dubai International Airport (DXB), at Al Maktoum International Airport, and on the online store at dubaidutyfree.com.

The rollout completes a partnership the two companies signed in July 2025. Back then, Dubai Duty Free and Crypto.com agreed a memorandum of understanding to study blockchain-based payments and other digital commerce ideas. That study has now turned into a live service.

How the payment works

The system sits inside the checkout customers already use. In a store, the point-of-sale terminal creates a QR code showing the amount in UAE dirhams. The shopper scans it with the Crypto.com app and approves the payment from a digital wallet. Online, the same QR flow appears before the order goes through. Dubai Duty Free receives its settlement in UAE dirhams through Crypto.com’s regulated payment infrastructure, so the retailer never holds the digital asset itself.

Access is limited. Only eligible UAE residents with a Crypto.com account can use the service for now. Ramesh Cidambi, managing director of Dubai Duty Free, said the launch moves the July agreement into its roll-out phase and adds convenience for customers while supporting Dubai’s goal of leading global digital commerce. Eric Anziani, president and chief operating officer of Crypto.com, described the launch as another milestone in bringing regulated digital payments into everyday spending.

Why Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments under central-bank rules

The service runs under the framework set by the Central Bank of the UAE. Crypto.com said it is the first Virtual Asset Service Provider in the country to receive a Stored Value Facilities licence from the central bank, which lets it offer regulated payment services. Because Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments under that licence, each transaction stays inside central-bank supervision. That licence is the reason the offer counts as a regulated digital payment option rather than an informal crypto transfer.

This detail carries weight for the region. For years, crypto in the Gulf sat outside clear rules. A central-bank licence changes the footing, because it lets a large, cash-heavy retailer take digital-asset payments without stepping outside supervision.

Where this fits in Dubai’s plan

Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments alongside Apple Pay, Alipay and TerraPay, its existing digital options. The addition feeds directly into the Dubai Cashless Strategy under the Dubai Economic Agenda, known as D33. That plan targets 90 percent of financial transactions across the public and private sectors to be cashless by the end of 2026.

Seen at scale, Dubai Duty Free crypto payments form one node in a much larger shift. Travel retail moves a high volume of transactions across many currencies and many nationalities. Adding a regulated crypto rail to that flow tests whether digital assets can work for routine buying rather than trading alone.

The wider signal is about method, not novelty. When Dubai Duty Free now accepts crypto payments through a licensed provider, it shows the emirate routing new payment types through its regulator instead of around it. For a city aiming to sit among the world’s top cashless economies, that route matters more than the technology on show.

By Adnan Al-Jaziri
3 min read

Tourism

Tourists Drop $6B on Food in Turkiye as Dining Leads Tourism Spending

Tourists spent close to $6B on food in Turkiye in the first six months of 2026, and dining now stands as the largest single category of visitor spending in the country. Figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute, known as TurkStat, put food and drink spending at $5.9 billion between January and June. That total ran about 9% above the $5.43 billion recorded over the same stretch a year earlier.

The wider picture helps explain why this number matters. Türkiye tourism revenue 2026 reached $25.75 billion across the first half, and food carried a larger share of that figure than any other category. The pattern fits a longer shift in how the country earns from travel. Visitors are spending more at the table, and regional cuisine has become a direct source of income rather than a background detail.

Why food leads $6B in Turkiye

Turkey food and beverage spending climbed as travelers worked through a broad menu of local dishes. Doner, pide, lahmacun and home-style cooking drew steady demand across different parts of the country. Each region offers its own version of these staples, which gives repeat visitors a reason to keep eating out.

The rise in dining revenue tracks the amount visitors put toward regional food while traveling. TurkStat tourism data shows the category holding its lead through the period, a sign that culinary interest is now a fixed part of the trip for many arrivals rather than an occasional expense.

Shopping follows food in visitor spending

Retail took the next large share of tourist spending in Turkey. International visitors spent roughly $2.2 billion on clothing and footwear during the first half of the year. Souvenir purchases brought in a further $890.2 million over the same window.

Together, clothing and souvenirs added about $3.1 billion to the total. That places shopping well behind dining but ahead of the smaller categories, and it points to a spending mix weighted toward food and personal goods.

Smaller categories round out the total

Some categories stayed below the billion-dollar mark. Revenue from sports, education and cultural activities came to nearly $249 million between January and June. Spending grouped under other categories added about $618 million to Türkiye tourism income in the first half.

The gap between these figures and the near $6B on food in Turkiye shows how concentrated visitor spending has become. Dining alone accounts for close to a quarter of the country’s total tourism revenue for the period. For a sector that once leaned on accommodation and sightseeing, the strength in food marks a real change in where the money lands. The trend also gives regional restaurants and local producers a steady flow of foreign currency, tying the wider tourism economy more closely to what visitors choose to eat.

By Adnan Al-Jaziri
3 min read

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