Ticketing software in Dubai: what the DET requires before you sell
In Dubai every event — entertainment, sport, charity, religious or business — needs a permit from the Department of Economy and Tourism, and a ticketed event needs a specific Ticketed Event permit on top, even when entry is free but works by registration or guest list. Tickets themselves can only be sold through a ticket seller integrated with the DET's e-ticketing system via API. We work with promoters from Valencia and have no office, team or clients in Dubai; what we do have is that paperwork mapped, with the official link in front of every step.
What Dubai asks for before you sell the first ticket
Event permit (e-Permit) from the DET
Issued within 5 business days after approval and payment (the service page does not publish a minimum application lead time)
Any venue or organiser wanting to hold an entertainment, sports, charity, religious or business event in Dubai needs a permit from the Department of Economy and Tourism, applied for through the e-Permit portal. Every application carries a copy of the organiser's passport and a No Objection Certificate from the venue; additional requirements apply depending on the type of event. Once approved and the fees paid, the permit is issued within five business days. If the event is ticketed, a separate ticketing permit is also required for each ticketed event.
Account approved within 24 hours; trade licence valid at least 4 weeks before the event
Before any permit can be requested, the organiser or venue has to register on the DET's ePermits portal — and the gate is narrower than it looks. Only companies holding a Dubai trade licence can register: licences from other emirates, including free zones such as RAK, do not qualify. The licence must cover activities compatible with the permit being sought and be valid at least four weeks before the event start date. The documents are the trade licence, Emirates ID, passport and NOC; the annual subscription fee is AED 300 plus AED 10 (innovation) and AED 10 (knowledge), and the account is approved within 24 hours.
Ticketed Event permit and the Ticketing application
Processed within 24 hours after verification; urgency fee if submitted less than 24 hours before the event
To run a ticketed event in Dubai you need a specific Ticketed Event permit — and 'ticketed' includes free events that work by registration, invitation or guest list. With the permit issued, the organiser then submits the Ticketing application, setting out ticket categories, prices and capacities, and must appoint a ticket seller approved by the DET. The application is processed within 24 hours after verification and is free of charge, unless it is submitted less than 24 hours before the event, in which case an urgency fee applies. After the event, the organiser has to reconcile their sales report with the DET's system to close the event out.
Registering as a ticket seller (API integration with the DET)
Integration takes 1 to 3 months, depending on the contractual processes and the expertise of the developers doing the API integration (lead time published on the service page)
Any platform that wants to sell tickets for Dubai events must be integrated with the DET's e-ticketing system via API and listed as an approved ticket seller. The prerequisites: a Dubai trade licence carrying the 'Ticket Selling' activity, a platform ready to integrate, an in-house technical team, and local infrastructure or IP whitelisting. The subscription fee is AED 10,020 (AED 10,000 plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation; the service page does not state its periodicity), and the integration ends with a contract signed with the DET itself, whose e-ticketing team validates the licence and inspects the platform before confirming eligibility. We are direct about what this means: it is the market-entry requirement for Futura Tickets too — without this integration, no platform can sell tickets for Dubai events.
Temporary tent permit (with Civil Defence and Dubai Municipality)
Applications accepted up to 24 hours before the event; answered within 1 business day
Putting up a tent for an event takes a specific DET permit that requires the approval (or NOC) of Dubai Civil Defence and an approval letter from Dubai Municipality — official confirmation that both bodies are involved in temporary structures. The indicative cost published is between AED 5,000 and AED 15,000 per month depending on specifications. One caveat the service page itself states: only hotel operators can apply, and once issued the tent is added as a sub-venue of the hotel so that the event permit can then be requested on it. Applications can be made up to 24 hours before the event and are answered within one business day.
Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), with approvals from Dubai Civil Defence and Dubai Municipality · Source: DET — Temporary tent permit
5% VAT and the registration thresholds (and the trap for foreign companies)
UAE VAT is federal and set at 5% — the rate the Federal Tax Authority's own page applies in its calculator. Registration is mandatory above AED 375,000 of taxable supplies per year and voluntary from AED 187,500 — but the mandatory threshold does not apply to foreign companies: a non-resident business making taxable supplies in the UAE must register with no minimum turnover at all. That detail is critical for an international promoter selling tickets to an event in Dubai.
Dubai's big rooms run from Meydan Racecourse at over 60,000 and the Dubai International Cricket Stadium at 25,000 to the Coca-Cola Arena at 17,000 in City Walk, Global Village at 40,000 visitors a day in season, and Dubai Opera at 2,000, with the Dubai World Trade Centre and Expo City anchoring the trade fair and congress circuit. The real season runs October to April — August averages around 40°C at its daily maximum against 24°C in January — and it is pinned down by GITEX in October, the Dubai Shopping Festival across December and January, and the Dubai World Cup on the last Saturday of March; Ramadan will fall in the middle of that high season in 2027 and 2028. The ticketing side of the market is regulated by the DET — only API-integrated ticket sellers can sell — and it is occupied by installed players: Platinumlist, local and with a full suite for organisers, and Ticketmaster UAE. Competitors, not clients. Put the calendar and the counter together and the conclusion is concrete: a promoter aiming at the October-to-April window needs the ePermits registration, the event permit and an approved ticket seller lined up before the season starts, because a platform that is not yet integrated is one to three months away from its first sale.
The venues, seasons and festivals named above are public market references for Dubai, with capacities and dates taken from open sources. None of them is a Futura Tickets client and we hold no commercial relationship with any of them: they appear here solely to describe the size and the calendar of the city. Futura Tickets has no office, team or clients in Dubai.
Questions promoters ask about Dubai
Do I need a permit to sell tickets to an event in Dubai?+
Yes. Any entertainment, sport, charity, religious or business event needs a DET event permit, and ticketed events need a specific Ticketed Event permit plus a Ticketing application — 'ticketed' includes free events with registrations, invitations or guest lists (DET, dubaidet.gov.ae).
Can any ticketing platform sell tickets for Dubai events?+
No. Ticket sellers must be integrated with DET's e-ticketing system via API, hold a Dubai trade licence with the 'Ticket Selling' activity and sign a contract with DET; the integration subscription fee is AED 10,020 (DET — Register as a ticket seller).
Can a company licensed in another emirate or free zone apply for Dubai event permits?+
No. Only companies holding a Dubai trade licence can register on the ePermits portal, and the licence must be valid at least four weeks before the event start date (DET — Register on the ePermits portal).
How long does a Dubai event permit take?+
The permit is issued within five business days after approval and payment of fees; the Ticketing application is processed within 24 hours after verification and is normally free, but a fee applies if submitted within 24 hours of the event date (DET).
Information compiled from official sources on 28 August 2026 and published as general guidance, not as legal or tax advice. Futura Tickets has no office, team or clients in Dubai. Fees, lead times and permit conditions change, so confirm the current position on the DET's service pages at dubaidet.gov.ae and with the Federal Tax Authority at tax.gov.ae before you file anything.
The DET deals with the permits; the ticketing is what we can show you. Book half an hour and we will walk the platform through your actual event: a box office under your own brand, digital tickets with entry scanning, and the full buyer data exported to you instead of locked inside a marketplace. Remotely, because we have no office in Dubai and will not pretend otherwise — and we will be equally direct about the DET's ticket seller requirement, which applies to every platform in this market, ours included.