In Dubai, several parks confirm that they no longer accept Nol cards for entry. People in that area and from different localities who visited the parks observed the change in a few parks.  

One of the customer service agents at Dubai Municipality reported that the mode of payment using Nol card has been removed and changed in most of the parks in Dubai and it all happened after a team-up was signed between Du and Dubai Municipality in October 2023.  

The goal of the partnership is to introduce new ideas for entering parks without tickets, making identity management smooth, improving worker happiness, and tech skills, and fostering sustainability. Fahad Al Hassawi, the CEO of DU, said that they plan to get rid of paper tickets. They aim to improve the development of a modern system to manage identities, change how people enter and have fun at public parks, and create a more advanced and comfortable experience for every visitor. 

Yet, there are some parks in a special case. The representative mentioned that the process of ticketing at Dubai’s Quranic Park still follows the old way of using the Nol card system, standing as an old example of the innovative method introduced for entry. 

Tasmiyah AA Deira resident, was taken aback when her go-to park in Mamzar Beach where they no longer accepted Nol cards. She shared her routine of having fun enjoying Lady’s Day with friends, who were all equipped with loaded Nol cards. On her recent visit to the same park, the Nol card option vanished. Instead, they had to get tickets featuring barcodes, which were scanned upon entry. These sudden changes in that park surprised her, altering the familiar routine of using a Nol card to access the entry to the park.

She noticed that the Nol card top-up and balance-checking machines were out of order, marked by banners on the way. Another resident, Premalatha Shrirm from the place of Karama, often visits Zabeel Park with her 10-year-old daughter, Akshara Shriram. They expected to take the rockets using Nol cards but they were surprised to discover the new ticketing system using barcodes in that place. This change caught them off guard during their usual visit to the park. 

Premalatha mentioned, “We used cash and purchased the tickets”. Her daughter, Akshara, learned for the first time that they were taking these tickets for Dh5, as the Nol cards are easy to swipe and had hidden this before. A Zabeel Park representative detailed that this change in ticket transactions began in the last year of October, signifying a shift from Nol cards to cash payment for park entry.  

Now, the people who visit the park often have the choice to purchase tickets using cash or credit cards. These entry tickets are then scanned using entry machines which replace the earlier Nol card devices. Safa Park goes a step forward by introducing a convenient mobile payment option. The people who are visiting can pay for a ticketless entry experience using Samsung Pay, Google Pay, or Apple Pay. This update provides more convenience for those enjoying parks in Dubai.

This smart way of taking tickets is still being introduced but not in all the parks yet. The prices of the rockets remain consistent across parks, only the way of paying for the tickets is changed. The shift is more about how you are paying for the entry, keeping the cost the same and gradually implementing the new payment method across various parks.

In 2017, Dubai Municipality made owning an Nol card mandatory for every visitor for the park entry. The people without one had to buy a Dh25 green Nol card at the park. There are special gates in that park to scan the Nol cards, and in some of the parks, they allow entry through the Nol app. Now, this familiar routine changed to get the ticket. The new ticketing system marks the end of an era for Dubai residents. It reflects a shift from the long-standing Nol card tradition and altered the way of taking tickets to their favourite parks in Dubai.