Egyptian tourism revenues rose 17.6% to $5.58bn in the first six months of the year.

Sky News has announced plans to launch an Arabic language news channel. The news broadcaster is in discussions with a private investor to run a joint venture based in Abu Dhabi, and airing across the Middle East and North Africa region. If all goes to plan, the launch will happen within the next two years.

Saudi Arabia is expecting tourism revenues to rise nearly 5%, to $17.6bn, during 2010, and to more than treble to $61.9bn by 2020. The number of Saudis employed in tourism sectors has already grown by 60% over the last 10 years.

Young Arab people are unwilling to pay for online content despite regular news consumption, according to the latest findings from the Arab Free Press Forum.

Ad spend on out-of-home in the UAE dropped nearly 40% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, according to published reports.

The Middle Eastern carrier, Emirates is making it easier for prospective customers to book a flight with the introduction of a mobile booking site. Mobile Emirates.com is available to customers around the globe and is open for bookings 24 hours a day. The mobile offering is compatible with over 300 mobile devices but is currently only available in English.

Qatar is kicking off its 2022 World Cup bid with a promise to allocate $43bn to infrastructure. The Qatar 2022 bid committee, which was set up by the government to manage the bid, has also revealed plans to build 12 stadiums and 70,000 hotel rooms for the event. It is hoped that a successful bid will help move the country's economy away from its current dependency on oil and gas reserves.

The Middle Eastern tourism market proved to be resilient in 2009 and is expected to grow in 2010, according to Caroline Bremner, global travel and tourism manager at EuroMonitor International.

Two Arabic-language Gulf dailies , Kuwaiti Arabic-language newspaper Awan and Bahrain's Al-Waqt, are set to close due to economic difficulties, according to published reports.

India's Sun TV Network is to launch operations in Dubai later this year, according to local reports. The Middle Eastern operations will be spearheaded by its two flagship channels, Tamil Sun TV and Malayalam Surya TV.