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Dubai’s luxury hotels are cutting prices and pushing staycations as Middle East travel chaos dents tourism

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Dubai’s glitzy hotels are slashing prices and pushing staycations to fill rooms.

With air travel limited and governments around the world advising their citizens not to travel to the UAE, hotels are offering staycation deals to ease the impact of lower international tourism.

The Jumeirah hotel chain, which operates the 5-star Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the iconic Jumeirah Burj Al Arab, among others, has been touting staycation offers on its Instagram stories this week.

These offers, specifically for UAE residents, include up to 30% off stays and perks such as 2-for-1 spa treatments. Outside these resident discounts, the cheapest rate for two adults at the Burj Al Arab is $905 this month, rising to $1,514 in April. The hotel chain did not respond to a request for comment.

Shangri-La Abu Dhabi, another 5-star hotel, also promoted its staycation deal on Wednesday, which included 15% off dining.

Address Beach Resort, a 5-star hotel based in JBR, said it’s offering UAE residents up to 30% off to stay at its resort between March 5 and April 30. This month, the cheapest rate for two adults without residents’ discounts is $320 a night at the resort. It jumps to $571 in the middle of April.

Roda Beach Resort, a 4-star hotel located in Jumeirah, said it has received “multiple extension requests” and requests for a “staycation for a lower price” within a day of posting its staycation offer on Tuesday. The resort said it is offering deals on its rooms starting at $108 over the next three weeks.


Two people carrying surfboards walk across the beach in front of the Jumeirah Burj Al Arab and Marsa Al Arab

Dubai is known for its luxury hotels.

Christopher Pike/Getty Images



Hotels are cutting prices

The war in Iran has dealt a major blow to Dubai’s hospitality industry. The conflict is estimated to be costing the Middle East at least $600 million per day in international visitor spending, according to research by the World Travel & Tourism Council.

For a prospective tourist, being unfazed by the conflict is only half the battle. Several airlines, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Air Canada, have canceled flights to major hubs in the Middle East, including Dubai.

Though staycations have long been a core offering for many hotels in the UAE, price drops are likely drawing in some residents.

A website that launched on Sunday — “Hotel Drops Dubai” — is live-tracking pricing at dozens of four and five-star hotels in the city. According to its estimates, some of these hotels are discounted by nearly 60%, including the Al Khoory Atrium Hotel and the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai.

The UAE also recently announced it would move spring break forward by a week for schools and universities, making domestic getaways even more appealing to local families right now.

Poppy Johnson, a UAE resident and UK-born creative director for brands and businesses, said she booked a two-night Friday-to-Sunday stay at the Grand Hyatt using its GCC Residents Offer, which provides up to 20% off rooms, dining, and spa treatments, and complimentary breakfast and waterpark access.

It cost $114 per night for a king-size room, she said. She described the staycation as a much-needed “reset” after a disruptive 10 days.

“We wanted a bit of a reset” and a “change of scenery,” she told Business Insider. “Breaking patterns from over the last 10 days. To feel like we’re on holiday without having to get a flight.”

Do you live in the UAE and have a story to share? Contact this reporter via email at rshahidi@insider.com or Signal at @royashahidi.36. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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Morgan Stanley is cutting 3% of its workforce in core business lines, including banking, trading, wealth

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Morgan Stanley is reducing its global workforce by 3%.

The reductions are expected to impact roughly 2,500 positions out of the about 83,000 the firm reported at the end of 2025, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to Business Insider, adding that they will take place in early March. The Wall Street Journal first reported Morgan Stanley’s cuts on Wednesday afternoon.

The cuts will be global and span the firm’s three primary business units: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management. The rationale for the reduction is a combination of shifting business priorities, a revised global location strategy, and individual performance reviews, the person added, saying that the action is set to affect both front-office, revenue-generating roles and back-office support positions.

Notably, the person said that, while the firm’s respected wealth management division is affected, the cuts in that business line are focused on corporate “home office” roles. Financial advisors in field offices are not affected by this round of layoffs, the person continued.

The move follows a similar round of cuts last spring, when the bank reportedly trimmed approximately 2,000 roles. However, the current reductions come at a more optimistic moment for the firm’s bottom line. In its most recent earnings report, Morgan Stanley posted record full-year 2025 revenues of $70.6 billion, with investment banking revenues surging 47% in the final quarter of the year.

The layoffs come as the broader financial industry prepares for an anticipated windfall in corporate dealmaking, and some rivals are touting how they’re bulking up — not pulling back — on head count to meet the moment. Still, while Morgan Stanley is reducing head count in specific areas, the person with knowledge of the bank’s thinking said, it’s still planning for long-term growth and intends to add resources in some sectors while trimming in others.




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Gap CEO has 3 rules for cutting down meetings — and asking if he’s on the invite list breaks one of them

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In an era of hyper-efficiency, leaders are taking a close look at the meetings on their calendars — and Gap’s CEO is no exception.

Since returning to lead Gap’s global brand in 2020, CEO Mark Breitbard told Business Insider he’s been focused on restoring the brand’s relevance, and part of that has included stripping away bureaucracy and unnecessary layers.

Meetings are often viewed as the pinnacle of corporate bureaucracy, — and Breitbard said he follows three rules to keep them in check.

The 3 rules

Breitbard said that if no one is sure why a recurring meeting is happening, it should be examined critically.

“If it’s a default meeting, like it happens every single week, then I feel like we need to question it,” Breitbard told Business Insider.

His second rule is to keep the invite list tight. Breitbard said it’s a red flag when he walks into a meeting, and someone asks, “Oh, are you in this meeting?”

“If you ask, the answer is ‘no.’ I clearly don’t need to be here if you have to ask,” Breitbard said, suggesting that the meeting shouldn’t be so big that people are invited without having a clear purpose for attending.

His third habit rule is to end on time — or early. He said when it’s near the end of a meeting, there often comes a time when people say something along the lines of, “Well, we have five more minutes…”

“We don’t have five more minutes,” Breitbard said. “We’re done now.”

Breitbard said that people often book 30-minute meetings, but he’s inclined to finish earlier if the purpose of the discussion has been accomplished.

“At minute 24, I say, ‘OK, good, this was great. Thanks, everyone,'” Breitbard said, adding that when people question if it’s really time to end, he says, ‘Yeah, we got what we needed.'”

Cutting down on meetings

The debate over meetings and how they should be run isn’t new. In 2018, Elon Musk said in an email that large meetings should be scrapped or kept “very short,” and billionaire investor Mark Cuban has similarly said they get in the way of his productivity.

But in today’s results-driven work culture, the push to rein in the amount of time spent in meetings in has taken on a new form of urgency.

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy told Business Insider in December that “meetings are like bureaucracies,” and he has four rules for managing his own, which involve keeping gatherings short, ensuring there’s a purpose, and making sure there’s an agenda and notes.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, also recently announced that recurring meetings would be canceled every six months and only re-added if “absolutely necessary.” He also encouraged making recurring one-on-ones biweekly “by default” and said workers should decline meetings that interfere with “focus blocks.”




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Expedia says it’s cutting some roles as it assesses skills needed for the future and simplifies its structure

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  • Expedia is cutting jobs, the company confirmed to Business Insider.
  • Expedia said it’s focusing on skills needed for the future and simplifying its structure.
  • The scope of the cuts was unclear, but several affected employees posted about it on LinkedIn.

Expedia is cutting some roles as it looks toward the skills needed for the future, the company confirmed to Business Insider on Monday.

“We are eliminating roles as well as opening some new roles as we remain disciplined about assessing the skills we need for the future,” an Expedia Group spokesperson said in a statement. “We are also simplifying our structure and reducing organizational layers to move faster and with more accountability. These are not easy decisions, and we are grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are impacted.”

It’s unclear how many people were affected or which divisions the cuts occurred in.

Several Expedia employees posted about being laid off on LinkedIn on Monday.

“After a decade of proudly working at Expedia, my role has been impacted due to organizational changes,” Natasha Morosov Pereira, an operations improvement manager, wrote, adding, “While this transition wasn’t expected, I’m grateful for everything I’ve learned and optimistic about what’s ahead.”

Also on Monday, over a dozen Expedia employees shared the same message on LinkedIn promoting openings at the travel booking company: “Expedia Group currently has OVER 250 roles open! Let’s transform travel together.”

Expedia joins several other companies that have cut roles in 2026, including Citi and T-Mobile.

Like Expedia, many companies cutting roles this year and last have cited an effort to flatten organizational structures and move faster in order to prepare for the future.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at kvlamis@businessinsider.com or Signal at @kelseyv.21. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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Matt Damon says cutting one thing out of his diet got him down to his ‘high school’ weight

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Matt Damon, 55, says one diet change left him lighter than he has been in years.

During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the “New Heights” podcast, Damon spoke about how he prepared for his latest role in “The Odyssey.”

“I was in really good shape. I lost a lot of weight. He said he wanted me like lean but strong. It’s a weird thing,” Damon told hosts Jason and Travis Kelce, referring to the film’s director, Christopher Nolan.

To achieve that physique, Damon said he cut one thing out of his diet.

“I literally, just because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten,” Damon said. “I used to walk around between 185 and 200. I did that whole movie at 167. And I haven’t been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet.”

The actor said he works with a trainer, and compared the physical preparation to how the Kelce siblings would gear up for a football season, with training becoming part of his daily routine.

“You know, it’s like just part of your day. It’s part of your job, right? And it’s like yeah, you get really routinized about it and really kind of build your day around all that stuff,” Damon said.

The actor added that he hasn’t had gluten since. “I’m done. I’m done. I’m gluten-free everything,” Damon said.

A gluten-free diet eliminates gluten, a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. It is often adopted for medical or digestive reasons, including to manage symptoms of celiac disease.

For most people, gluten isn’t necessarily harmful.

“Evidence suggests that, for general health, the emphasis should be on a whole, minimally processed, plant-based diet, which can include gluten-containing grains,” Grace Fjeldberg, a registered dietician with the Mayo Clinic Health System, told Business Insider in 2021.

Despite its popularity, a gluten-free diet doesn’t necessarily result in weight loss and isn’t a universal approach to better health.

Damon is no stranger to getting into peak shape for a role.

In a 2016 BBC interview, Damon said that getting back into shape for his return to the Bourne franchise was “brutal,” after his last appearance in 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.”

“For the first Bourne movie I was 29 and I thought that was hard work getting into shape,” Damon said.

“Now I’m 45 and it’s just brutal. We shot this bare-knuckle fighting scene on my 45th birthday and it was a lot of work to get there,” he added.




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