How to Start a Camping Grounds, Recreational Vehicle Parks and Trailer Parks Business in Dubai with Meydan Free Zone

Behind the coastal cities sit orange dunes, the ravines of Wadi Shawka, Jebel Jais at 1,934 metres and the green hills of Hatta. People pay to sleep out in all of them. Activity code 5520.00 is the license for running the places they stay.

This guide covers what the license allows, who books with you, how mainland and free zone compare, and the steps to get set up. Unusually for a hospitality activity, no third-party pre-approval applies, so the license can be issued directly.

Key Stats at a Glance

What This License Covers

Code 5520.00 covers short-stay outdoor accommodation. Three formats sit inside it.

Desert and wilderness camping grounds provide tent pitches, shelters or simple shared overnight accommodation in desert, wadi or mountain terrain, usually alongside guided activities. RV parks and caravan sites provide designated pitches with utility hookups, powered sites and sanitation for visitors travelling in recreational vehicles, campervans or caravans. Glamping provides furnished shelters: dome tents, bubble tents, tree houses, safari-style luxury tents, pods or Bedouin-inspired chalets.

What falls outside is worth reading carefully. Hotels and guesthouses sit in the 5510 group. Accommodation let monthly or annually for permanent residential use is ISIC 6820. Adventure activities without an accommodation component sit in ISIC division 93. Restaurant services run independently of the camping facility sit in ISIC division 56. Selling or making recreational vehicles, tents or camping equipment sits in ISIC divisions 45 to 47.

Who Your Guests Will Be

Young adults first. The 18 to 32 age group accounts for 43.9% of global glamping revenue, and they are the ones booking bubble tents for stargazing and posting the results.

Domestic weekend travellers are the volume. UAE residents wanting somewhere within two hours of the city that is not a hotel keep a site busy outside peak season.

Regional and international visitors are the premium end. Wellness retreats, mountain glamping on Jebel Jais and large desert camps all draw people who plan trips around the accommodation rather than treating it as somewhere to sleep. Pitch or campsite rental still led the camping and caravanning market with a 61.7% revenue share in 2025, so the simple product carries most of the money.

Mainland or Free Zone

Meydan Free Zone is the quicker route to a license here. No third-party regulatory pre-approval applies as a condition of the free zone license, so it can be issued directly without external sign-off before you start operating.

That is genuinely unusual for a hospitality activity and worth understanding correctly. The licensing step is fast. That does not mean the business is unregulated.

The regulation attaches to the site rather than to the company. Camping ground operators in the UAE must comply with land use, environmental and emirate-level tourism rules for the specific location, and those apply whichever jurisdiction issued your trade license. Since most of the good terrain sits outside Dubai, in Ras Al Khaimah, Hatta and the Hajar mountains, the emirate where your site sits matters more than the emirate where your company sits.

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Step by Step Setup Guide

• Step 1, pick your format: Desert and wilderness camping, RV and caravan park, or glamping. Each has a different capital profile and a different guest. ‍
• Step 2, identify your site and check its rules: Land use, environmental and emirate-level tourism conditions apply to the specific location, so confirm them before you commit to anything. ‍
• Step 3, choose your jurisdiction: Meydan Free Zone for full foreign ownership and a license issued directly, or mainland through DET. ‍
• Step 4, book your trade name: Check availability through the Meydan Free Zone portal or the DET portal, following UAE naming conventions. ‍
• Step 5, submit your setup documents: Passport copies for every shareholder and director, plus a business plan summary. ‍
• Step 6, collect your license: No external sign-off applies to the free zone license, so this step is direct once your documents are complete. ‍
• Step 7, secure your site permissions and register for VAT: Site-level approvals come from the emirate where you operate. Register with the Federal Tax Authority once taxable turnover passes AED 375,000.

Compliance and What You Need in Place

Site regulation, not license regulation

The important distinction in this activity. Your license is easy to get and your site is not automatically approved. Land use, environmental and emirate-level tourism regulations govern where you can operate and how, and those conversations happen with the emirate hosting your site.

Staying inside the code

Three boundaries catch operators as they grow. Add indoor rooms and you are into the hotel group. Let pitches on monthly or annual terms and you are into residential letting. Run adventure activities without accommodation and you are in a different division entirely. Any of those is a licensing question before it is a commercial one.

Food and beverage

Restaurant and food services run independently of the camping facility sit outside this code. If you plan a standalone restaurant on site rather than catering that forms part of the stay, check the licensing separately.

Guest safety

Desert, wadi and mountain sites carry real risk: heat, flash flooding in wadis, and remoteness from emergency services. Insurance, briefing procedures and an evacuation plan are operational prerequisites whatever the license says.

AML

This activity is not classified as a designated non-financial business or profession under UAE anti-money-laundering legislation, so no AML registration or reporting applies to this license category.

VAT

Register with the Federal Tax Authority once taxable turnover passes AED 375,000.

Market Opportunity

The global market is expanding steadily. Camping and caravanning was valued at USD 60.02 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 92.73 billion by 2030 at 7.51% CAGR.

Glamping is the faster segment and the one best matched to UAE demand. It was valued at USD 3.79 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 7.87 billion by 2033 at 9.5% CAGR, and it is already the most commercially active format in UAE outdoor accommodation.

The local sector is more developed than most people assume. The National identified 27 active camping and glamping locations across the UAE in its 2025 review, spanning desert camps in Ras Al Khaimah, mountain glamping at 1,770 metres on Jebel Jais, Airstream trailer accommodation in Hatta, bubble tent stargazing camps and wellness retreats. That is a real sector rather than an empty market, so the opening is in doing a format well rather than in being first.

Conclusion

Camping grounds and outdoor accommodation under code 5520.00 is one of the more accessible hospitality licenses in the UAE. No third-party pre-approval, no AML duties, and a license issued directly.

The country supplies the raw material: three distinct landscape types across seven emirates, from dunes to mountains at nearly 2,000 metres.

Where the work sits is the site, not the license. Land use, environmental and tourism rules govern where you can operate, and the format you choose decides your capital, your guest and your season. Speak to the Meydan Free Zone team to confirm your structure before you commit to a location.

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References

• Research and Markets
• Grand View Research
• Precedence Research
• The National
• Federal Tax Authority