arabian travel news - nov 2009

ILTM INTERVIEW | MYSTERY SHOPPER | PACKAGE PLANNER | FLYDUBAI REVIEW | AGENT OF THE MONTH

An ITP Business PublicationNovember 2009 Issue 11 Vol. 4

High-profi le summit tackles tough topicsHigh-profile summit

THE METMS 2009AGENDA UNVEILED

THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PLAYERS REVEALED

The future of GDS bookings discussed

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01 November 2009 – Arabian Travel Newswww.hoteliermiddleeast.com

News

03 Regional newsJoint ventures and consolidation for Dnata; ITP seeks partners; and ATM 50% contracted.

08 News analysisArabian Travel News discusses the pros and cons of booking hotels and car rental on the GDS.

12 AirlinesA look at Oman Air’s new A330-300, while SAS and Norwegian go head to head in Dubai market.

14 AccommodationDoha hotels claim they are opti-mistic about 2010 prospects; Oman Air’s new airport hotel; and destination spa for Zighy Bay.

16 Cruise Royal Caribbean’s Dubai-Singa-pore sling and new Princess fam-ily cruisetour to Alaska.

13

Contents

18 Tour operatorsAl Rostamani gets SriLankan Hol-idays contract and Dnata Holi-days considers change of focus.

19 Add onsCar rental companies perform well in 2009 plus agent specials.

20 Tools

Q&A

26 InterviewUNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai talks to ATN about UNWTO’s stance on climate change and why the UK government is not getting a Christmas card this year.

Skillset

32 Mystery shopperATN’s mystery shopper asks four Sharjah-based agents for pack-ages to Egypt and Jordan.

34 What’s newThe latest hotel openings, airline routes and visa rules you should know about.

35 Package plannerThis month Kanoo Holidays puts together some winter sports packages for a group of fi ve men.

36 ReviewsEvason Ma’in Hot Springs & Six Senses Spa and fl ydubai get put through their paces.

Agent action

55 Agent interviewAl Naboodah Travel and Tourism Agencies head of leisure and mar-keting Shibly Jowhershah dis-cusses the current challenges fac-ing his business.

56 Agent of the monthBCD Travel tours manager Rahul Pradhan, nominated by VisitBrit-ain, is this month’s star.

17 Tourism boards New France representative tar-gets Middle East’s top end and Malta launches GCC offensive.

36

39

Agents should offer value over price, asserts Travelport GDS.

21 MICEConfi dence index reveals good prospects for Abu Dhabi’s bur-geoning MICE industry.

22 Luxury Niche hunting products in Nor-way; luxury travel trends for 2010; and ILTM to draw the crowds.

56

39 Power 50Arabian Travel News reveals its run-down of the 50 most infl u-ential people in the Middle East’s travel and tourism industry — the fi rst such list to ever be published.

03 November 2009 – Arabian Travel Newswww.hoteliermiddleeast.com/travel

REGIONAL NEWSNews

JVs and consolidation for DnataNew business development VP sets out company’s current strategy

Domestic stays buoy Abu Dhabi

STRATEGY

STATISTICS

Dnata is on the look out for investment opportunities, joint ventures and acquisi-tions while simultaneously looking to drive better effi -ciencies across the business.

That’s the message from the company’s incoming vice president of business development, Ailsa Pollard, who is currently reviewing existing relationships and business practices.

She told ATN that in the fi nancial climate meant there were good opportunities to invest and seek joint ventures.

“I am review-ing investments that are in the pipeline and

Abu Dhabi’s hotel market has fared well in 2009 compared to other global markets, buoyed by domestic busi-ness, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has said.

While occupancy and guest night rates for July 2008-2009 year-to-date showed a 9% decline, average occu-pancy rates were still 77% and one of the world’s high-est according to ADTA strat-egy and policy director Law-rence Franklin

Revenue growth hit 7%, much of which can be attrib-uted to Q1 when globally, rates were sliding he said.

“More recently, average room rates have stabilised,”

he added. Franklin said the domestic market had per-formed extremely well — up by almost a third to July 2009.

“A strong local economy and residents’ desire to hol-iday at home have helped hold up the business and lei-sure market,” he explained.

Franklin was speaking at the ADTA’s fi rst annual indus-try forum, which took place last month and involved key stakeholders in the UAE travel and tourism industry.

DTTAG reviews GTTAC bidASSOCIATIONS

The general secretary of the Gulf Travel & Tourism Associations Committee (GTTAC) has stated its case to the Dubai Travel and Tour Agents Group (DTTAG).

Hani Khorsheed, the general secretary of the Abu Dhabi Travel and Tourism Agen-cies Coun-cil (ATTAC), which is spearheading

GTTAC, visited DTTAG heads last month in a bid to persuade them to join the Gulf-wide group, which has already signed up agency associations from Bahrain, Kuwait, Sharjah and more recently, Qatar.

DTTAG manager Leo Fewtrell told ATN: “We are reviewing the draft consti-tution and looking to ensure we will be able to comply with the rules of the new association prior to mak-ing a commitment in full.We will also be submitting

any reservations con-cerning the consti-tution as soon as deliberations are complete.”

News

Franklin said the task ahead was to target the “upper and emerging mid-dle classes” from new out-bound growth markets such as India, China and Russia.

Delegates also heard that around 10,000 new rooms would open in Abu Dhabi before the end of 2010, with a further 7000 under construc-tion to come on line in 2011.

ADTA is targeting 10% growth in hotel guest arrivals next year and 15% in 2011.

She said there were many companies that were “in dis-tress” and that it was there-fore “a good time to re-nego-tiate existing relationships”.

“There are companies out there that in the past have been your competitors, but you can now look to work together with them,” Pollard continued. “Communica-tion across the industry and with other TMCs has become much more open.”

Pollard has joined Dnata from Leisurecorp where as chief operating offi cer she was responsible for business

strategy, acquisition, man-agement and divestment

of a number of assets and joint venture rela-

tionships. She said her role

at Dnata would

also see her focus on consol-idation and effi ciencies.

“It’s early days right now, but something we are putting in place is consolidating UAE contracting — for Gulf Ven-tures, MMI and Dnata Holi-days,” she revealed.

“This will help us and the UAE hotels.”

Pollard said Dnata was also working on joint marketing campaigns across all of its “channels to consumers”.

Therefore the air and non-air (Dnata Holidays) cam-paigns will work in tandem, starting with Eid break pro-motions out soon.

Pollard also disclosed that Dnata Holidays would broaden its offering to include three- and four-star products. See page 18 for more details.

am looking more at joint ven-tures rather than pure acqui-sitions,” she said. “There are some interesting JVs we are looking at with local and international companies.”

The growth in hotel arrivals for

2010 targeted by Abu Dhabi.10%

Qatar 2022 bid boosted on webSPORTS TOURISM

The Qatar 2022 Bid for the FIFA World Cup has unveiled a new website (www.qatar2022bid.com) featuring the campaign’s new brand logo. Qatar 2022 communi-cations director Nasser Al Khater said the site was one of the “cornerstones” of its cam-paign to bring the fl agship tournament to the Middle East. The Qatar 2022 brand would continue to evolve ahead of FIFA’s Host Nation decision in December next year, he added.

The www.qatar2022bid.com site.

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04 Arabian Travel News – November 2009 www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/travel

REGIONAL NEWSNews

ITP looks for new TMC partnersAlliance wants to fi ll gaps in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman

PARTNERSHIPS

Independent TMC network, International Travel Partner-ship (ITP), has revealed plans to fi ll the gaps in its Middle East coverage.

Director of partnership relations Ian Epps said he was particularly keen to secure a TMC in Saudi Arabia, while he was also in touch with independents in Qatar, Bah-rain and Oman.

“I am in discussion with a possible partner in Saudi Ara-bia that hopefully will come to something,” Epps told Ara-bian Travel News. “They feel they have reached the stage when it’s time to look at join-ing a network.”

Partnerships in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon were also on the cards, he added.

ITP currently has partner-ships in 33 countries includ-

ing the UAE where it recently signed-up Abu Dhabi’s Al Jaber Travel.

Epps said ITP’s policy was usually one partner per coun-try, however, if two compa-nies within the same country were willing to work closely together, the group would consider it.

This is the case with Al-Fut-taim Travel, the agency that Al Jaber’s vice president, Paul Farrell, used to manage.

“They are working together and Abu Dhabi and Dubai are on separate BSPs, so it works well,” explained Epps. “Our priorities are dictated by commercially-important markets — when a partner or customer who requires us to have a presence.”

In addition to the UAE, ITP currently has partners in Jor-dan, Egypt, Kuwait and Iran.

In order to be a partner

Epps said TMCs must be fi nancially secure, have an IATA license and must not only be willing to reap the benefi ts, but to contribute by helping fellow members also.

“They must have a multi-national mindset,” he said.

“The main benefi t [of being part of ITP] is the abil-ity to develop sales opportu-

nities between one another,” Epps added.

ITP has a “mature” hotel programme, having secured special rates with 16,000 properties globally.

“Another of our strengths is SMEs corporate businesses while most of our partners are very experienced in MICE activity,” Epps added.

• Although the decline in the Middle East is signifi cant (-13%), this is the only region, apart from Africa, which posted positive results in June and July. • The positive results in Africa (+4%) refl ect the strength of North Africa and the positive results of destinations such as Kenya and South Africa. • Europe (-8%) is still enduring the impact of recession but the im-provement in data for July (-4% as compared to -11% in May and -7% in June) shows

THE UNWTO’S REGIONAL PANORAMA:

GLOBAL UPDATE

Signs of tour-ism recovery in H2 2009The UNWTO has predicted a recovery in global tourism in 2010, with signs of improvement already showing in 2009. World international ar-rivals declined by 4% in July, a rela-tive improvement when compared to decreases of 10% and 7% in May and June respectively, said the UNWTO.

In addition, coun-tries that already reported data for August reveal this month was not as depressed as the fi rst six months of the year. Arriv-als worldwide are estimated to have declined by 7% in the period January to July 2009, com-pared to the same period last year.

“Other industry indicators from air transport and ac-commodation sec-tors corroborate this upward trend,” said the UNTWO.

As decline rates are anticipated to ease during the remainder of 2009, international tour-ism is forecast to decrease within a range of -6% and -4% this year.

demand is picking up. • In Asia and the Pacif-ic (-6%) some destina-tions such as Korea and Malaysia are bucking the negative trend. • In the Americas (-7%) though there was a low-er decline rate in July, this has not been as sig-nifi cant as in Europe.

The Middle East posted tourism growth in June and July.

Epps is in discussions with a possible partner in Saudi Arabia, he told ATN.

GSM sings up Al Rostamani

UAE-based Al Rostamani Travel and Holidays has been signed up as the exclusive UAE partner of Global Spe-cialist Markets (GSM).

GSM is a partnership of 39 independent travel man-agement companies from around the world that pro-vide “innovative, fl exible and competitive solutions to meet international travel needs” for corporate clients.

In order to be a member, TMCs must meet stringent criteria and must ultimately “guarantee the delivery of seamless and consistent global travel solutions”.

PARTNERSHIPS

Corporate market travel trends

Source: International Travel Partnership (ITP)

• Corporates are taking day trips for meetings instead of staying overnight• Australia is only just starting to feel the pinch• “Tiger econo-mies” such as Ire-land and the Balkan states have suffered• Germany and France showing stronger recovery than the UK

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REGIONAL NEWSNews

ATM 2010 “sitting pretty”: RTEAnnual trade show already 50% contracted according to organiser

TRADE SHOWS

Arabian Travel Market (ATM) organiser Reed Travel Exhi-bitions (RTE) has claimed it is “sitting pretty” fo 2010 with 50% of the travel show already contracted.

“It’s mainly because we are keeping to the same fl oor plan as this year because all the exhibitors were happy,” explained ATM marketing manager Lucie James.

She said RTE would also stick to the same amount of fl oor space — it was 20,228m² in 2009 compared to 25,000m² the previous year.

“The shortfall came from the property element so this year ATM was a pure travel and tourism show — we have had a very positive response to this,” James added.

“Also, the reduction in space last year was not a reduction in content because those who didn’t have a stand shared with those that did.”

She said most exhibitors were sticking to the same stand size as 2009 for the 2010 installment, which will take place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from May 4-7.

“People are being careful and looking to get as much as

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IT’S A HOTELbut not as you know it

possible out of their invest-ment,” she added.

RTE said Careers Day would be moved from day four to day three of the event (May 6) to coincide with Travel Agents’ Day and this year would bring in HR man-agers from across the travel and tourism industry to talk about career development.

Travel Agents’ Day will run as usual with Arabian Travel News hoping to grow its already successful pass-port scheme. The topic for debate on Travel Agents Day is currently being discussed by ATN and RTE.

6.5%Increase in visitors compared to 2008

5.14%Increase in travel trade professionals attend-ing the show

2211Members of the public visited the exhibition on Consumer and Ca-reers Day

1.9%Increase in Buyers Club members

146 Hosted Buyers com-pared to 119 in 2008

ATM 2009 RESULTS

Travel Agents’ Day is on day three.


REGIONAL NEWSNews

Dnata celebrates 50 years in businessDnata has transformed from a two-person ticket agency to a multi-sector operation

ANNIVERSARY

It was the vision of the former ruler of Dubai, HH Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Mak-toum, that brought Dnata in to being — nationalising air-line tickets sales to generate revenue to fund the construc-tion of a Dubai aviation hub.

The newly created Dubai National Air Travel Agency — Dnata — set-up shop in Bur Dubai souk in 1959 as Dubai’s fi rst dedicated travel agency, transforming the way people booked their travel, giving them access to professional staff armed with the latest technology and a knowledge of airlines and schedules that went beyond the ad hoc prac-tices of the day.

The operation grew slowly at fi rst, but in tandem with Dubai’s expansion, it began to take on new roles — as a government travel service and later providing leisure, medical and student travel services. Up until 1980, air-line ticketing accounted for 100% of Dnata’s business, but within fi ve years, hotel and car rental were providing

more than one-third of turn-over, leading to the formu-lation of the leisure division and later Dnata Holidays.

Today Dnata covers three principal areas — cargo, ground handling and travel services and has a staff of more than 6500. The busi-ness boasts around 100 out-lets GCC-wide and one in Afghanistan; six holiday lounges in Dubai; represents 35 major airlines; and is the regional partner for HRG.

Other divisions span off-shore and marine; private jet charter; luxury hotel repre-sentation, DMC and incen-tive travel; contact centres; holiday packages; and cus-tomer programmes such as the NBD Dnata credit card.

Dnata Travel Services divi-sional senior vice president Iain Andrew said he would continue to grow the portfo-lio of businesses and expand the fi rm’s regional presence.

“We also plan to grow our investment with global con-tact centre outsource organ-isation The Mindpearl Group [of which we own a 49% stake],” he said.

The Dnata building has become a landmark on Sheikh Zayed Road.

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Dubai government nationalises airline ticketing with the establishment of Dubai National Air Travel Agency

Dnata starts trading out of a small shop in Bur Dubai souk

Dubai International Airport opens on September 30

Dnata offi ces open in Dubai, Sharjah and RAK. Two agents allowed to sell Dnata tickets from Kuwait, each receiving 3% commission. Al Nasr Square HQ opens

Dnata ends its long-standing co-operation agreement with BOAC and appoints its fi rst general manager — Maurice Flanagan

The fi rst corporate logo created and a staff uniform is designed. A common language reservation system is also introduced.

GSA for 22 airlines with 14 outlets, issuing 600,000 tickets annually, Dnata moves to new centre with 156 counters

Emirates launched, with fl ights to Karachi and Mumbai

Dnata corporate travel joins the Business Travel International network

Axis is launched by Dnata; a ME/Asian distribution network

Dnata is GSA for 33 airlines and runs 28 travel shops plus Holi-days by Dnata launched

Dnata Travel Services moves to new HQ on Sheikh Zayed Road

A new identity is launched with a green/blue logo

DTA opens its fi rst regional out-let in Kuwait. The fi rst Holiday

Lounge by Dnata opens in Dubai

BTI is dissolved and Dnata partners with Hogg Robinson Group, with corporate travel re-launched as HRG UAE; Dnata opens in Saudi Arabia

Dnata acquires DMC Gulf Ventures; is appointed regional manag-ing partner for HRG in the Middle East, North Africa and West Asia

Luxury Hotels by Dnata is created to offer sales, marketing and PR to upscale properties targeting Middle East; Dnata/HRG opens in Abu Dhabi

Dnata buys 20% stake in Hogg Robinson Group, later in-creasing this to 23%; Luxury Air Travel by Dnata is launched

Dnata opens Afghanistan’s fi rst one-stop travel shop in Kabul and Dnata/HRG opens in Qatar

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REGIONAL NEWSAdvertorial BIT

The 2010 installment of the Borsa Internazionale del Turismo looks set to add even more workshops and innovations to its programme of events

The 2010 edition of the Borsa Inter-nazionale del Turismo (BIT), an industry leading travel trade show comprising a large portfolio of tech-nical workshops and networking opportunities, looks set to become one of its most diverse editions yet.

The 30th BIT International Tour-ism Exchange takes place from Feb-ruary 18-21, 2010 in the Fieramilino district of Rho, Italy.

A series of new dedicated plat-forms have been announced, including foreign-on-foreign work-shop Buy World, a fi rst for the inter-national travel exhibition.

Buy World, will focus on supply and demand in international tour-ism, bringing together 100 buy-ers from dynamic South-East Asian markets and 200 tour operators and travel agencies from more than 140 countries represented at BIT.

Alongside Buy World will be sev-eral other new exhibition initiatives including the dedicated venues and locations area, the short-break zone and the wellness/spa zone.

Other show favourites will also make a welcome return, such as the Bit Itinera conference on religious

BIT gears up for its 30th show

Celebrating its 30th year in 2010, BIT takes on two crucial roles for the travel trade: identifying and cultivating the most promising trends, and putting operational tools at the disposal of busi-nesses from the sector 365 days a year.

It is considered the “marketplace” for the Italian tourism systems market and is one of the four largest trade shows of its type in the world.

Corrado Peraboni, chief executive offi cer of Fiera Milano Expocts, organis-ers of the trade show, observed: “The numbers reveal that businesses in the sector are maintain-ing their prior levels of engagement with BIT in spite of the diffi cult times we face.

“What is changing is that operators are choosing to optimise their investment by tak-ing advantage of the full system of integrated, multi-channel instru-ments that BIT has grown to represent.

“The trade show still lies at the heart of this complex and BIT hopes to do its share by of-fering a program of concrete initiatives to promote the optimisation of investments.”

About BIT 2010

tourism. The second edition of BIT Itinera will focus on the growing spiritually-motivated element of the sector. New pilgrims are embracing a broader outlook on spirituality, often independently of specifi c faiths, and are seeking out deeper artistic, cul-tural and scenic experiences in reli-giously-inspired destinations.

Recognising this trend, this year’s BIT Itinera is broadening its range of activities to include the big three monotheistic religions.

Buy Club International, the only international workshop dedicated to the world of associations, and the “silver edition” of Buyitaly, the world’s largest collection of work-shops focusing on Italian products,

will also return to the trade show. The exhibition has been bolstered by the news that Italians will continue to travel despite the tough economic conditions globally.

The report Where Italians go on Vacation, based on research con-ducted in April and March, con-fi rmed that Italians, despite being more thrifty, were unwilling to cut their travels out of their budgets.

This attitude has lead to positive forecasts for 2009 in the growth of on-line reservations, a stabilisation of domestic travel volumes and a reinforcement of low-cost fl ights.

Further information on Bit 2010 can be found online at www.bit.fi eramilanoexpocts.it

BIT 2010 is the event’s 30th installment.

Price freeze: fees for BIT 2010 remain the same as 2009 rates.


REGIONAL NEWSNews analysis

As Travelport develops a tool to boost hotel and car bookings, ATN asks agents and suppliers how booking these products could be made easier

The GDS of the future

Agents were generally negative about booking hotels and cars on the GDS.

Kuwait’s Al Jarallah Travels and Tours Co tours manager, Abdulla Is-mail, spoke for many agents when he said the main reason he didn’t use the GDS was that if there was a problem with the booking, there was no “no one to contact on the ground”.

“I use DMCs because it is better to have someone at Ground Zero if there is an emergency,” he said.

Ismail said GDS providers should place more importance on hotel and car rental: “Most GDS providers hold training programmes for the [airline] ticketing side, but it is rarely that any such thing is done for hotel and car rental updates. GDS providers should make a concerted effort to make the use of their products more popular

by giving more training, better incentives and more person-alised services.”

Ismail said he had used Galileo to book hotels and car rental and con-ceded that the system offered “very good products and prices”.

“The information is vast, but highly sleep-inducing,” he said. “The reper-toire of products is huge, but they are packaged poorly.”

However, Ismail said if GDS provid-ers did train the industry on “cross-selling and up-selling opportunities on their system”, he was sure their market share of sales would “steadily increase quickly”, which is good news for Galileo’s Universal Desktop tool.

Suppliers concur that they would like to see more sales generated through the GDS, but have identifi ed the hur-dles they face in achieving this goal.

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group MENA & Asia Pacifi c executive director Sam Eltibi said agent sales accounted for 13% of total sales this year but over the past fi ve years, GDS sales had decreased due to “the decline in traditional travel agent business”.

“In addition, online distribution channels have moved to direct con-nects or less expensive GDS alterna-tives, which has negatively impacted our overall GDS business,” he said.

Eltibi said GDS providers tradition-ally focused their efforts on air and

hotels and that car rental had “never received the attention the bigger segments commanded”.

“If GDS acted more like our own websites, or that of the aggregators they power, there would be more cross-selling opportunities, which would generate incremental revenue for both the car suppliers and the agents,” he added.

Europcar International Middle East sales manager Oliver Boucher said GDS providers needed to provide more travel agent training on booking car rental on their systems.

What the agents said:

What the car rental suppliers said:

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When it comes to making air book-

ings, agents by and large swear by the GDS and even though carri-

ers worldwide are doing their best to direct traffi c direct to their own web-

site, still 75% of all airline sales are made on the GDS according to IATA.

The consumer would therefore assume that agents would automatically book other travel components on this, their main book-ing system.

After all, why, if you are using this tool to book an airfare would you not use it to book a hotel, car, travel insurance etc?

Unfortunately, until recently, the GDS pro-viders have not made it particularly easy or attractive to book such value-adds on their systems. Not only that, but they have made little effort to provide agent training on hotel and car rental bookings.

As a result, global hotel and car rental attachment rates on the GDS average just 5% globally, with the Middle East below average at around 1-2%.

However, since January, when the way in which Travelport GDS distributed Galileo in the Middle East quite dramatically, the com-pany has been on a mission to boost its car rental and hotel bookings once and for all.

The company’s hospitality and car rental team, in conjunction with members of the Middle East offi ce, have already been visiting agents across the region and training them on just how easy it is to book hotels and car

5%Global GDS hotel and car attachment rate

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Sam Eltibi.

Abdullah Ismail.



GDS consultant Jeff Edwards, the former CIO and head of distribution for Wyndham Hotel Group, said the current GDS systems were “archaic” and that it was almost impossible to merchandise on a green screen.

He said the GDS should evolve to become a marketing tool and one that packaged CRM information in an ef-fi cient way.

“As a hotel I want to see what’s

happening in my competitive set [in terms of rates, demand and gaps in the market],” he said. “You need to show hoteliers where the opportunities are in terms of heads and beds. Suppliers want value for money and return on invest-ment has to be measurable.”

What the hotels said:

Access to local and global content is what travel agents want ”

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rental on the GDS. In addition, they have been strengthening relationships with suppliers to not only add to and improve content (there are now 87,000 hotels available on Galileo), but to ask for feedback on how best Travelport can market their products to the Middle East.

In September, the company staged a one-day conference in London involving repre-sentatives from hotels and car rental compa-nies responsible for distribution.

Travelport was particularly keen to fi nd out the industry’s views on its soon-to-be-launched Universal Desktop tool, which pres-ents a new way of merchandising their prod-ucts to the trade.

Addressing the members of the hand-picked audience, Travelport GDS president and managing director Europe & Brazil Olaf Gueldner stressed that the GDS was “still rel-evant” in connecting suppliers to agents, cor-porates and online agencies.

“Access to local and global content is what travel agents want,” he said. “But they want

UNIVERSAL DESKTOPThe Universal Desktop is the tool devised as a result of Travelport’s vision to create the industry’s “fi rst comprehensive, fully-inte-grated travel agency desktop that seamlessly integrates selling and merchandising pro-grammes and improves workfl ow, process automation and content aggregation”.

In layman’s terms, it allows hotels, car rental companies and in the future, other ‘non-air’ products to better merchandise their wares in a format not dissimilar to their own consum-er-facing websites.

The tool helps them communicate up-sell-ing and cross-selling opportunities to agents and to “drive brand awareness through tar-geted advertising and promotions”, accord-ing to Travelport.

Search capabilities are customisable and therefore agents can search for hotels and car rental solutions prioritising their own corpo-rate agreements with particular fi rms.

Importantly, the system shows images of the product, while alongside, up-selling and cross-selling options are listed to help agents make the most of the booking.

Travelport fi rmly believes that merchandis-ing ‘add-ons’ to allow product differentiation

geting

Stherenrate

Ithecroma

Ting

to see photos of hotels, competitive fares and rates, tools to save time and money and those that make them stand out in a crowd.”

He acknowledged that the GDS needed to “deepen its content offering” to include “all hotels, all rail and all cars”.

Paving the way for the demonstration of the Universal Desktop that followed his pre-sentation, Gueldner stressed that providing suppliers with merchandising opportunities and the ability to “un-bundle” their products through the GDS was the way forward.

1-2%Middle East GDS

hotel and car rental attachment rate

Jeff Edwards.

The agent control centre (dashboard) on Universal Desktop.

Merchandising, cross-selling and up-selling opportunities on Universal Desktop.



Agents’ questions answeredTravelport GDS vice president Middle East Rabih Saab addresses some of the agent myths regarding hotel and car rental bookings on the GDS

Agent argument: I would rather deal with wholesalers and hotels direct so I know the people on the ground and if there is a problem, they can help sort it

tant, Alpha Holidays, Duba and Biju Antony, manager — business develop-ment, Al-Futtaim Travel, Dubaii)

Saab’s response: Some agents might not be aware of our Best Available Rate (BAR) programme, which guarantees the best publicly-available rate at the time of booking. It is important to note that a two-week-old quote cannot be compared with a quote from today from the GDS or any other booking channel. In this regard, hotels need to ensure rate parity amongst online and offl ine distribution channels.

Agent argument: GDS needs to provide a better mode of payment or voucher system. (Asim Shahzad, commercial manager, Baz Tours and Cargo)

Agent argument: The suppliers provide online web portals where we can in-stantly book and issue vouchers. We can’t do this on the GDS.

Saab’s response: As a GDS, we pro-vide travel agents with a channel to thousands of hotels globally. We don’t issue vouchers, but we do provide guar-antee/confi rmations for bookings. For car rentals, we have an e-voucher

functionality that al-lows agents to is-sue e-vouchers for car rental book-ings — provided they have estab-lished credit with the supplier.

• The GDS has more than 87,000 hotel properties representing 280 hotel chains • It has 30,000 car rental loca tions, representing more than 25 car rental companies • 19.3 million car bookings are made annually• 23.6 million hotel bookings are made annually

Travelport hotel and car stats

Agents’ questions answeredTravelport GDS vice president Middle East Rabih Saab addresses some of the agent myths regarding hotel and carrental bookings on the GDS

Agent argument: I would rather deal with wholesalers and hotels direct so Iknow the people on the ground and ifthere is a problem, they can help sort it

and value-based comparisons and building in targeted advertising of brands alongside this, is the way forward for the distribution of travel products.

The benefi ts to agents are numerous — they receive full content, rich product information and can offer relevant product offers and pro-motions according to the journey made and the type of traveller they are serving.

Travelport GDS vice president Middle East Rabih Saab said the Universal Desktop was a revolutionary tool that represented a “quan-tum leap” for the GDS.

“We are looking to aggregate everything so the air segment, transfers, hotels and car rental are all on one booking,” he explained.

He said Universal Desktop was a “very user-friendly” tool and that anyone au fait with using popular social networking sites such as facebook or myspace would fi nd the tool easy to use.

“We expect some of the bigger agencies to adopt the new desktop fi rst,” said Saab.

“However, we will not force anyone to use it and they will still have the option of using the old green screen should they wish to.”

Travelport is yet to reveal when the Uni-versal Desktop will be rolled out across the region, but Saab said it would defi nitely take place before the end of 2010.

functionality that al-lows agents to is-sue e-vouchers for car rental book-ings — provided they have estab-lished credit withthe supplier.

out. (Abdulla Ismail, tours manager, Al Jarallah Travels and Tour, Kuwait)

Saab’s response: Traditionally, agents in the region have gone through whole-salers and DMCs because of existing relationships on the ground. However, this can prove challenging when book-ing hotels globally because you don’t always have a contact in every single destination. Moreover, we have an escalation system in place to handle follow-ups when necessary.

Agent argument: Agency commission is guaranteed through bulk suppliers at any point of time. (Paulo Baby, general manager, Travel Incorporated, Dubai and Shibly Jowher Shah, Al Naboodah Travel, Dubai)

Saab’s response: Hotels that use a commission consolidator such as Pegasus tend to be very effi cient in making commission payments. Com-mission is usually paid within a month of booking and some hotels process commissions on a bi-monthly or even weekly basis. Cheques can even be is-sued in their currency of choice. Also, [apart from commission paid by sup-pliers] we now give agents fi nancial incentives for booking car rental and hotels on the GDS.

Agent argument: When booking hotels and car rental on the GDS, a credit card guarantee is required, which unfortu-nately, clients do not always want to provide. (Manish Nimkar, commercial manager UAE, BCD Travel)

Saab’s response: One alternative to this is for agents to use a lodge card, which is similar to a line of credit; then they would not have to put the custom-er credit card through the system to guaran-tee the booking.

Agent argument: I get better rates when dealing with suppliers directly. (Ro-chell Saleem, tours consul-

Rabih Saab.


REGIONAL NEWSNews

Poshest aircraft loo takes offNew Oman Air A330 promises a royal fl ush in the First Class cabin

The key selling points of Oman Air’s new products...

PRODUCT

Oman Air has unveiled an aircraft loo that could be claimed one of the poshest in the business.

The toilet for the First Class cabin on the airline’s brand new A330-300 delivered last month, boasts a bidet, which according to Oman Air, is the only one in the skies.

Not only that, but the WC — located behind the cock-pit and accessible to the pilot and First Class passen-gers only — has luxury fl oor-ing that has been designed to imitate a sandy beach.

And true to the airline’s Omani roots, the toilet fea-tures Amouage-branded amenities such as hand wash, hand lotion and cologne.

AirlinesOman Air gives football red cardSPONSORSHIP

Securing a high-profi le foot-ball sponsorship deal is not on the agenda for Oman Air.

CEO Peter Hill said spon-sorships designed to attract the “mass market” — such as those secured by Emirates and Etihad (Arsenal and Man-chester City respectively) — did not gel with the air-line’s strategy. “We are look-ing for niche sponsorships — to be aligned to like-minded

brands,” he said.

pitch of 85.5 inches, a seat width of 25.5 inches and in-seat gadgets such as an eight-point massage sys-

tem, a 23-inch in-fl ight enter-t a i n m e n t m o n i t o r with wire-

less handset and various USB,

Ethernet and power plugs.

There are six

mini suites in a 1:2:1 confi g-uration. Oman Air CEO Peter Hill said all of the airline’s new products boasted more space than other carriers in its competitive set.

For example, in business class there are 22 seats in a 1:2:1 confi guration (four abreast seating) so all pas-sengers have aisle access.

“This compares to most business class cabins where the seats are six abreast,” said Hill. “I dare you to fi nd another business class cabin with more space.”

The brand new three-class A330-300s will operate Euro-pean routes and from Jan-uary, guests in all cabins on board all of the new A330s will be able to use their mobile phones and access WiFi.

Oman Air has seven A330 aircraft on order at a cost of around US $100-150 million each, three of which (A330-300s) boast the brand new First Class cabin and product.

The First Class Suite features an 82-inch long, fully-fl at bed within a

• 82-inch long fully-fl at bed• 85.5-inch seat pitch• 25.5-inch seat width• Electric seat-adjustment controls• Eight-point in-seat massage system• Six seats (1:2:1 confi guration)• 23-inch in-fl ight entertainment (IFE) monitor• Wireless IFE handset and back up handset• Two USB ports and Ethernet, video/audio and PC plugs• Chill out sofa at front of cabin

Selling the new Oman Air First Class

Selling the new Oman Air Business Class• 77.5-inch long lie-fl at bed• 82-inch seat pitch• 22-inch seat width• Electric seat-adjustment controls• 20 seats (1:2:1 confi guration)• Two USB ports and Ethernet, video/audio and PC plugs• Cocktail table• Buddy seat

Selling the new Oman Air Economy Class• 34-inch seat pitch• Adjustable head and foot rests• 10.6-inch seatback mounted IFE screen• USB and RCA video multi-plug for each passenger• Ethernet socket and PC port for every double seat

Hill is looking for niche sponsorships.

Seats in Oman Air’s economy class on the A330 boast a 34-inch pitch.

The 23-inch screen in fi rst class.

Business class is 1:2:1 confi gured.

The brand new A330-300 was delivered last month.

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REGIONAL NEWSNews

Economy class lift for Air France/KLMBoth airlines launch new economy-plus products to cater to recession-forced trends

PRODUCT

Air France and KLM are set to launch new economy prod-ucts they say cater well to the new corporate buying trend towards downgrading from business- to economy-class.

Air France is set to launch Premium Voyageur and KLM has introduced an Economy Comfort product.

The former is a fully-blown premium economy prod-uct whereas the latter has been applied to two rows — or around 35 seats — in econ-omy on each KLM long-haul aircraft, which boast more room, comfi er chairs and a seat that reclines further.

“This product is timely as business travellers have been forced to swap from business

SAS GM aims for double-digit growthSTRATEGY

The new UAE GM of Scan-dinavian carrier SAS has set out ambitious targets to growth passenger numbers on the Dubai-Copenhagen route this winter.

Albert Henschel told Arabian Travel News that passenger-wise he was targeting “double-digit” growth for the three times weekly service, which started on October 29 and will run until March 28.

To kick-start this demand, SAS launched a ‘First Five

Flights’ campaign with return prices starting at AED 1460 (US $398) in Economy and AED 3360 ($915) for Economy Extra and AED 5860 ($1597) for Business Class. In addition,

a ‘Re-Introduction Cam-paign Fare’ promotion for fl ights until Decem-ber 17 is priced AED 1885 ($514), AED 4560 ($1242)

and AED 6560 ($1787) respec-tively. For a small additional fee, passengers

can fl y to other destinations in

A340s by the end of 2010 comprising around 20 seats, each reclining to 123-degrees with 40% more room than the standard economy prod-uct. Seats are 19 inches wide

class to economy class due to their corporate policies,” said Air France-KLM commer-cial director for the Gulf, Iran and Pakistan, Bas Gerressen. “At least this product will give them a little more room.”

Economy Comfort will be rolled out on KLM’s long-haul aircraft in December and will be available on the Middle East routes soon after.

Passengers must pay 80 Euros (US $120) to upgrade to Economy Comfort unless they are Platinum cardhold-ers or have bought a fl exible economy fare, in which case it is free of charge.

The Premium Voyageur product is a brand new class of cabin and product, which will be rolled out on all Boe-ing 777s, Airbus A330s and The Premium Voyageur product.

with a 38-inch pitch.Other features include 10.4-inch TV screen, laptop plug, ameni-ties kit, wool blanket, feather pillow, noise-reducing head-set and extra baggage.

Air France has clarifi ed its strategy for the A380 on the Paris-Dubai route.

The airline has said there will be a test fl ight of the super jumbo from Paris to Dubai some time this month, which will then fl y onto South Africa, but there are no defi nite plans to oper-ate this route daily from the winter season onwards as suggested in the media. See www.hoteliermiddleeast.com for more plus an update on winter schedules.

AIR FRANCE A380 UPDATE

Norwegian DXB boostEXPANSION

Scandinavian low-cost car-rier (LCC) Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian) has revealed plans to expand its Dubai operations and boost awareness of its product in the market place.

The Norwegian carrier, which fl ies from Dubai to Scandinavia daily — three times weekly to Oslo and Stockholm and once weekly to Copenhagen — said it aimed to increase frequen-cies across all routes and operate all-year-round ser-vices (it currently fl ies during the winter only) by 2011.

In addition, there would be a bigger effort to mar-ket the product to the Dubai consumer and travel trade,

revealed chief commercial offi cer Daniel Skjeldam.

“Our biggest market is the Scandinavian leisure market because when it’s cold in win-ter in Scandinvavia, it’s nice and warm in Dubai,” he told ATN. “But we fi nd the Middle East market is quite an inter-esting one and there is plenty for them to do in Scandinavia — we offer skiing in winter, for example, plus in summer, it’s a lot chillier than the Mid-dle East.”

He said on average, prices were half of that offered by rival carrier SAS, which started fl ying three times weekly from Dubai to Copen-hagen on October 29.

Norwegian fl ies a fl eet of Boeing 777-800 aircraft in a one-class confi guration.

winter schedules.

Scandinavia or Northern Europe from Copenhagen, thanks to the SAS network.

“This year we are much more aware of the impor-tance of competitive pricing as all airlines fi ght to protect market shares,” explained Henschel. “I would pre-dict better results [in terms of load factors] this year — that’s my mission.”

This is the third winter SAS has operated a Dubai-Copenhagen service. Hen-schel said extra frequencies and a year-round operation would only be considered if the economy picked up.

SAS operates an A340 on the route with 46 seats in Business, 28 in Economy Extra and 171 in Economy.

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Henschel is targeting double-digit passenger growth for 2009-2010.


REGIONAL NEWSXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Guvenc: new properties delayed.

Good prospects for Doha hotelsQatar’s hotel GMs optimistic for 2010 despite over-supply issues

PERFORMANCE

Oman Air has bought the Golden Tulip Seeb hotel.

The property, located opposite Muscat’s Seeb Inter-national Airport — Oman’s Air main hub — and next to the airline’s head offi ce was wholly purchased last month

However, Golden Tulip will still manage the property on the airline’s behalf.

“Now we will be looking to see how we can work with Golden Tulip to direct where that hotel is going,” said Oman Air CEO Peter Hill.

“It hasn’t had much invest-ment and needs a refurbish-ment so we’ll sit down and work it out.”

General managers at top-end Doha hotels are cau-tiously optimistic about their performance coming out of 2009 and into 2010.

They concur that over-supply of rooms will only be an issue if all the prop-erties scheduled to open actually do so, which they doubt, while many antic-ipate strong MICE demand. “It won’t be until Q4, 2010 or early 2011 [when most of the planned proper-ties come online],” said W Doha gen-eral manager Safak Guvenc. “By that stage, Qatar will be more of an established desti-

nation with corporate busi-ness being more solid.”

He said room

ager Garry Friend said 2010 prospects were “very good” with business “centered around the ballroom”.

The increase in new airline feeder markets such as Aus-tralia (Melbourne and Syd-ney) would help, he said.

“If Qatar Airways can increase the num-

ber of fl ights and planes it will help the hotels here,” he added.

First destination spa for Middle East on the cardsDESTINATION SPA

Six Senses Hotels & Resorts is looking to develop a 44-villa destination spa — the fi rst in the Middle East — close to the Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay resort on the Musandam Penin-sula in Oman.

The destination spa would be developed on a plateau above Sense on the Edge, the Hideway’s fi ne-dining restaurant located in the mountains that sur-round the resort, revealed Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay general manager Rochelle Kilgariff.

It would be the com-

pany’s second such spa worldwide following the launch of Six Senses Desti-nation Spa, Phuket in Thai-

increase thber of fl i

planes help thhere,” h

ast on the card

For hotel openings see page 34

Oman Air buys airport propertyAIRPORT HOTEL

HOT OFF THE PRESS

A second Hyatt property will open in Doha in the next year-and-a-half, Grand Hyatt Doha general manager Garry Friend re-vealed. However, he did not disclose the Hyatt brand it would be or where in Doha it would be located.

land in 2008, which is the fl agship property. Kilgariff said the ‘intelligent luxury’ hotel group was also look-

ing at locations in Portugal, Morocco and Brazil where destination spa properties could be developed.

There are also plans to expand the Zighy Bay prop-erty adding two more villas and an observatory tower similar to the one at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives.

Six Senses has also revealed plans to open a resort Sri Lanka.

The project is situated on an island in the Puttalam district on the west coast, which is home to reefs, saltpans, mangroves and sand-dune beaches as well as fi ve species of marine turtles and dugongs.

The destination spa will be developed on a plateau above Sense on the Edge.

Vetry: I don’t compete with

anyone in the city.

The Grand Hyatt Doha.

rates in W Doha’s competitive set were currently around QR 1200 (US $330) compared to QR 1400-1500 ($385-$412) last year and conceded that corporate rates were now “pretty competitive”.

Sharq Village and Spa gen-eral manager Hoss Vetry said Q4, 2009, looked “excellent” for the Ritz-Carlton man-aged property.

“November will be our strongest month this year with some major events tak-ing place,” he said. “We are targeting to increase occu-pancies by 12.5% year on year. We won’t raise rates — we will keep them the same as this year as we have to keep in mind the economy will still stay reason-ably fl at like 2009.”

Grand Hyatt Doha general man-

Accommodation


REGIONAL NEWSAdvertorial Aloft Abu Dhabi

Starwood introduces the much-anticipated lifestyle brand to Abu Dhabi

Aloft concept debuts in UAE

F&B outlets include W xyz bar, a hip new edi-tion to the fashion-driven hotel scene. Guests are given the option to do what they like, whether it’s enjoying the bar, play-ing on the pool table for free, surfi ng the internet, or playing one of several board games on offer.

relax@12, located on the hotel’s 12th fl oor, is an indoor/outdoor lounge serving sushi and interna-tional tapas.

re:fuel by Aloft is a grab-and-go gourmet outlet, offering a selection of light meals, munchies, healthy bites and make your own cappuccinos, while Maï Café located by the hotel’s pool area is an arabesque-inspired outlet.

International cuisine is served at Dine where live-cooking stations and an open kitchen make for an informal dining envi-ronment. Guests can pop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner to feast on pastas, burgers, fresh favourites and sweet treats.

Leisure facilities include the re:charge fi tness centre where ‘Aloha’ memberships are available and the splash pool where guests take a dip or lounge in style from morning until night.The hotel’s intuitive approach to technology is highlighted by giving guests the opportunity to check-in for fl ights directly from the exhibition centre. There is also the option of effort-less self check-in at the touch-n-go kiosks in the hotel lobby.

camp Aloft offers the hotel’s younger genera-tion of visitors a kid-tastic time. The hotel’s child package includes a bed-in-a-bag and special treats such as fun food favourites served at re:fuel by Aloft. Guests will always be in the know at the in-touch terminals, which offer printable access to email accounts and internet-based local information at their fi ngertips.

A new twist to B&F

Leisure and convenience

Added incentives

loft Abu Dhabi opened its doors in October and aims to attract a

niche market of for-ward-thinking busi-

ness travellers.Located next to

the city’s Capital Centre, the property will not only serve visitors and exhib-itors to the Abu Dhabi National Exhi-bition Centre (ADNEC), but hopes to become a regular destination for fashion-conscious customers.

Featuring 408 rooms and suites, the hotel, which is just 20 minutes from downtown Abu Dhabi and 15 min-utes from Abu Dhabi International Airport, combines a variety of intui-tive technologies and public spaces.

“Aloft Abu Dhabi will appeal to youthful-minded travellers with its urban fl air and social interplay,” said Aloft and Element hotels global brand leader Brian McGuinness.

“Alive with the energy of discovery and interaction, Aloft will be a perfect match for Abu Dhabi.”

Aloft Hotel general manager Stephan Vanden Auweele said Aloft Abu Dhabi would “bring a combina-tion of sophistication and playfulness to this vibrant community”.

“We feel that Aloft, with its inno-vative, fresh perspective on lodging, will provide a welcome alternative for travellers while also becoming an integral part of Abu Dhabi,” he added.

The property, which is the fi rst of ADNEC’s on-site hotels to open its doors, will become the second largest hotel in Abu Dhabi in terms of capac-ity and will help cater to some of the 1.8 million visitors to the exhibition

centre each year. All rooms at the property feature ultra-comfortable signature beds, oversized spa show-ers and customised amenities from sister brand W’s Bliss Spa. The rooms also feature plug-and-play connec-tivity stations so guests can charge all their electronics and link to the 42-inch LCD TV.

“Aloft is the world’s fastest grow-ing hotel brand; it has re-invented the industry by ignoring certain aspects of hotels that have become clichéd and old fashioned in the minds of our target audience,” said Auweele.

“For example, hotel-wide compli-mentary WI-FI is very important to our customers, but room service and silver service are not. We provide our customers with want they want and don’t concern ourselves with things that they don’t; this approach reduces our costs and allows us to charge a lower price per room.”

Aloft Abu Dhabi is at the forefront of the ‘Aloft revolution’ as one of the fi rst 50 hotels to open worldwide before the end of the year.

For more information call: +971 2 654 5000 or visit aloftabudhabi.com

Aloft F&B outlets include W xyz.

Aloft Abu Dhabi opened its doors in October.

The hotel features 408 rooms and suites.

RCI promises a Dubai-Singapore slingUS cruise giant connects two of the world’s fastest-growing cruise hubs this month

Princess family Alaska cruisetours

CRUISE TERMINALS

CRUISETOURS

Princess Cruises has intro-duced a new cruisetour option in Alaska designed specifi cally for families.

The 12-night tour, com-bining land and sea compo-nent, includes special fea-tures not usually included in a cruisetour package; jet-

boating, pannig for gold and an interactive tour of Denali National Park.

The cruisetour is offered at a 25% discount for all berths, so all members of the fam-ily are included in the spe-cial pricing. The Family Fun cruisetour includes a seven-night ‘Voyage of the Glaciers’ cruise plus a fi ve-night land

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) recently announced that the emirate’s new cruise terminal, which can hold four ships at once,

Silversea Grand VoyagesITINERARIES

Upscale cruise operator Silversea has unveiled 17 specially-tailored Grand Voyages for 2010 offering extended itineraries from 30 to 91 days.

“Our Grand Voyages are perfectly suited to the trav-eller who has the time and passion to indulge in travel on a grand scale,” said Silver-sea managing director UK & Ireland Trudy Redfern.

To entice customers to book one of the Grand Voy-ages, Silversea has intro-duced incentives, which for cruises of more than 50 days include complimen-tary upgrades to business class on the air component

will be ready for business in January 2010.

It is expected to boost the number of cruise passen-gers entering the emirate from 260,000 to 380,000 per annum, surpassing market analysts’ predictions of 6% annual global growth rate up to 2020.

Meanwhile Singapore has broken ground on its Inter-national Cruise Terminal (ICT), which once completed in 2011, will double the city’s berthing capacity.

Cruise passenger through-put in Singapore has grown steadily, registering an aver-age annual growth rate of 12% between 2003 and 2008.

Singapore aims to wel-come 1.6 million cruise pas-sengers annually by 2015.

Royal Caribbean Interna-tional has announced a 13-night cruise from Dubai to Singapore to depart on November 4, ahead of the cruise line launching its Mid-dle East itinerary in 2010.

The cruise operator’s Mid-dle East executive director, Lakshmi Durai, said Dubai and Singapore were both “fast emerging cruise hubs” and each had shown “tre-mendous support to the growth of the cruise industry in their respective markets”.

“The increase of new and impressive cruise terminals [in Dubai and Singapore] means Royal Caribbean International will be able to provide its future guests

with a truly fi rst-class experi-ence from beginning to end,” Durai added.

Dubai and Singapore are both in the process of upgrad-ing their cruise facilities.

Oasis of the Seas will be able to fi t into the new Singapore ICT facility.

Singapore ICT will be located in the city’s new downtown lifestyle and fi nancial hub, which is home to new leisure and entertain-ment attractions, such as the Singapore Flyer, Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Barrage.

ICT’s deep waters, a large turning basin and lack of height restrictions mean the world’s largest ships, such as Royal Caribbean’s forthcom-ing Oasis of the Seas will be able to call at Singapore and enjoy dedicated cruise termi-nal facilities.

of the journey. Of special note is Silver Spirit’s Grand Inaugural Voyage, a 91-day trip departing Fort Lauder-dale on January 21 and vis-iting more than 20 coun-tries and 45 ports including Rio, Chile, Mexico and LA. Fares start at £25,838 (US $42,395) per person, based on double occupancy.

Did you know?• Dubai received 82 ships and 182,030 cruise passengers in 2008• Dubai expects to receive 101 ships and 316,043 passengers in 2009• Dubai expects to host 99 ships and 383,432 passengers in 2010• The new terminal will straddle 3450m²

tour featuring one night at Mt. McKinley Princess Wil-derness Lodge, two nights at Denali Princess Wilder-ness Lodge and two nights at Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. Fares start at $1743 per person for the fi rst and second berths and $1191 per person for the third and fourth berth passengers.


TOP TIPFor hints and tips on cruise ship accommoda-tion pricing, see page 30.

Cruise

Princess offers family Alaska cruisetours.

Silver Spirit is offering 91-day voyage.


XXXXXXXXXX NEWS

Malta makes its Gulf intentions clearMalta’s tourism head visits Dubai as the country sets it sights on emerging markets

STRATEGY

Malta is targeting travellers from the Middle East and the conference sector as it attempts to soften the blow of the credit crunch.

Malta Tourism Author-ity CEO Josef Formosa Gauci told ATN the island was “going beyond” traditional European source markets and looking to the GCC for leisure and MICE business.

“Core European markets can give us growth but the future is in the emerging mar-kets,” he said.

Tourism accounts for 20-25% of the Mediterranean

Tourism Boards

“But we are going to feel the pinch this winter because we have found that people are not confi rming

country’s economy, how-ever, visitor numbers from core markets such as the UK fell 9-10% in 2009, following a record year in 2008, Gauci revealed. The Maltese contin-gent was in Dubai last month promoting the island to tour operators in the emirate.

“Malta offers tourists a diverse holiday,” explained Gauci. “We have a good mix from sandy beaches to a lot of culture; it’s the diverse ele-ments that make us a very unique destination.”

He said conference busi-ness had also become a “very important” facet of Malta’s tourism offering.

Gauci to target emerging markets.

their [MICE] bookings,” he revealed. Despite this, Gauci claimed the future was bright for the island’s tourism sec-tor, citing the launch of Smart City, a large ICT cluster affi li-ated with Dubai Internet City, the growing popularity of the island’s scuba diving offering and an increasing number of cruise lines docking in Malta ports as reasons to be positive.

Emirates Airline operates an indirect daily service to Malta from Dubai, via Cyprus and EgyptAir fl ies direct to the island twice weekly from Cairo. This is set to increase to three times weekly in the next few months.

France to set out fi ve-year strategySTRATEGY

The new Middle East repre-sentative for France has said his initial strategy is to attract the high-end Gulf traveller.

This links into the destina-tion’s current fi ve-year mar-keting strategy (2005-2010) to drive increases in tourism receipts and its next fi ve-year plan, which Karim Meka-chera said would be “very tar-geted on specifi c markets”.

“In terms of the Middle East we will look at the luxury segment, especially in the Gulf,” said Mekachera, who has replaced Pascal Lepetre.

“We will also be working on themes such as shopping and mountains etc, particularly for the Saudi Arabian market — we want to generate more interest in the French Alps.”

Mekachera said his fi rst priority was to “understand this market and its different

segments”, which he believed were quite different to those in his former role represent-ing France in India.

“Our India strategy was very simple — FITs and MICE, plus the movie industry,” he said. “I think it (the fi lm industry) will be very impor-tant for the Middle East as far as big productions are con-cerned — it’s a great theme plus international produc-tions get a 20% tax rebate.”

Mekachera’s appointment

Norwegian lobbies for a Scando presence in UAECAMPAIGN

Scandinavian low-cost car-rier (LCC) Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian) is lobbying the tourism boards of Scandinavia to start promoting the region to the Middle East.

“We are in dialogue with the tourism authorities because we believe this (the Middle East) is an affl uent [outbound] market,” Nor-wegian chief commercial offi cer Daniel Skjeldam told ATN. “It’s not us who should be paying for the marketing — particularly as we are a low-cost airline.”

Norwegian fl ies to Scan-dinavia from Dubai daily and plans to ramp up its marketing in the emirate.

“Up until now, we have

targeted the Scandinavian leisure market and haven’t marketed in the Middle East, but we will look into that,” added Skjeldam.

Rival carrier SAS, which is about to enter its third winter season fl ying from Dubai to Copenhagen, has also lamented the lack of promotion of Scandinavia in the Middle East.

ST

Thsenhisthe

Ttioketto recplachget

EasegGuha

themofor— int

Mprithi

50%The decline in tourism to

Scandinavia so far this year.

in the Middle East and the development of a new strat-egy to promote France coin-cide with the creation of a new name for the French tourism promotion agency.

Former French promo-tional tourism offi ce Mai-son de la France and ODIT France, the tourism invest-ment agency, have merged to create Atout France.Mekachera: luxury market is target.

1.3million

The number of tourists to

Malta in 2008 representing a record year for

the island

TRAININGAtout France will introduce web-based training for agents in 2010, which Mekachera said could be cus-tomised for each region and for special partners. Agents completing modules are given certifi cates.


NEWS XXXXXXXX

Tour Operators

Oman Air to beef up tour operationsAirline to offer holiday packages to new destinations and to boost inbound business too

EXPANSION

Oman Air’s chief commer-cial offi cer, Barry Brown, has revealed plans to beef up the airline’s tour operating arm, Oman Air Holidays.

“What we would like to do eventually is build a fully-fl edged tour operation with our own coaches and hotels etc,” he told ATN.

In the meantime, the hol-idays division is develop-ing outbound packages to some of its new destinations including the UK, Thailand, France, Germany, Sri Lanka and The Maldives, with the offering spanning a wide range of budgets.

Dnata Holidays will broaden its offering to include three- and four-star products ATN can reveal.

“This is in response to cus-tomer needs although our strength will remain in fi ve- star,” said Dnata Travel Ser-vices’ recently recruited vice president of business devel-opment, Ailsa Pollard. “We are also looking to broaden the scope of products to include new products such as cruises in the brochures.”

She said the manage-ment team was still deciding whether or not there would be a re-positioning of the Dnata Holidays brand given that for the last three years it had focused on attracting high-end consumers.

However, the “current thinking” was that the full

However, the inbound offering — targeting resi-dents of Europe and the GCC in particular — is pitched at “the top-end tourist”, said Brown. Oman Air CEO Peter Hill added that with Oman’s close proximity to Yemen, the airline and its leisure division were well placed to expand the holiday offering into the neighbouring country some-time in the future.

Hill said the airline was also considering operating pleasure fl ights over Oman, similar to those operated by seaplane specialist Seawings in Dubai.

Hill and Brown were speaking to ATN last month

Dnata Holidays launched its fi rst luxury travel brochure in 2007.

Change of focus for Dnata Hols?BRAND STRATEGY

Brown: we want Oman Air to have its own coaches and hotels

CONTRACT

Al Rostamani Travel and Holidays has signed a con-tract to represent Sri Lankan Holidays in the UAE.

The fi rm will start off by issuing fl yers promoting special offers for the tour operating arm of the airline, SriLankan, but could even-tually produce dedicated Sri Lankan Holidays bro-chures, said Al Rostamani Travel and Holidays general manager Heinz Gabel.

“They will give us the materials to distribute and they do have a brochure

that could work in this mar-ket,” he told ATN. “However, we could produce our own brochure at a later date.”

He said Al Rostamani would continue to feature Sri Lanka in its own ‘Desti-nations’ brochures.

Heinz said the signing of the deal with the tour oper-ator was “perfect timing” given that the civil war in Sri Lankan was now over.

“The prices are very rea-sonable and you get a lot for your money,” he said.

“We will put some special packages out in the market soon,” he added.

Al Rostamani Sri Lanka deal

as Oman Air launched its fi rst brand new A330-300 air-craft (see page 12). Four new A330s — two 200s and two 300s — will be operating by the end of the year, with three more on order taking the total to seven.

They will fl y to many of the recently-introduced ser-vices from Muscat such as Frankfurt (four times weekly; Munich (three times weekly);

scope of product — from three- to fi ve-star — would be incorporated into the 2010 Dnata Holidays brochures.

The Luxury Hotels by Dnata division would con-tinue to focus on luxury hotels only, she added.

Dnata Holidays received a re-vamp in 2007 when the then general manager Nick Sheppard and product man-ager Nathan Adams came on board. They stipulated that the Dnata Holidays product was targeted at the “discern-ing traveller”. For more infor-mation see page 3.

41%

The increase in Middle East arrivals to Sri Lanka for the fi rst nine months of

2009 (over ‘08)

Paris (four times weekly); and The Maldives (four

times weekly), as well as its already established daily London route.

Hotels in Muscat have been waiting with baited

breath for the new fl ights to arrive with The Chedi Muscat director of sales and market-ing Lore Koenig hoping that in addition to a destination in its own right, Muscat would become a stopover point for honeymooners travelling from Europe via the Middle East to the Maldives.

“We are really hoping to see a lot more stopover traffi c that we wouldn’t usually get,” she said.

2007

“What we would like to do eventually is

build a fully-fl edged tour operation”

The year Dnata Holidays received a much needed re-vamp

Car rental holds fi rm in 2009Major companies report growth despite the economic downturn

Two of the most prominent car rental companies have reported positive growth in sales in 2009, despite the economic climate.

Both Europcar and Holiday Autos experienced an increase in bookings year on year, with only Dubai show-ing weaker growth.

Holiday Autos Middle East gen-eral manager Asoka Ponnuswamy said projected bookings for 2009 were 5-7% up on 2008, although revenue was on par with 2008, while Europcar International Middle East sales man-ager Olivier Boucher said at the end of September, bookings were up 18% year on year, with Abu Dhabi, KSA, Bahrain, Egypt and Qatar performing well, although Dubai was done 16%.

In terms of popular outbound des-tinations, Germany was Europcar’s best performer followed by the UK, France and Switzerland respectively.

Holiday Autos identifi ed the Mid-dle East, Europe and UK, Australia and New Zealand and South Africa

Add ons

as top picks with its clients. “We saw increases in South Africa because of the value of the currency (the Rand is weak) and great deals on long-haul fl ights,” said Ponnuswamy.

He projected a 10% bookings growth for 2010 on 2009 fi gures.

Boucher said projections for 2010 were “diffi cult” but that Europcar would target “signifi cant growth for inbound and outbound” bookings in the Middle East.

Holiday Autos projects 5-7% growth in 2009.

GROWTH MARKETS

Thrifty Car Rental Lebanon achieved a 30% hike in revenues during the summer compared to the same period last year.

The car rental fi rm has attributed this growth to the huge surge in both tourist and VFR traffi c to the coun-


PERFORMANCE

Thrifty Car Rental gets hectic in Lebanon

RANK COUNTRY

1 Germany

2 UK

3 France

4 Switzerland

5 Italy

6 Austria

7 Eastern Europe

8 Spain

9 Belgium

10 USA

try now that the political situation there is deemed stable, not to men-tion that in January, the New York Times rated Beirut as the number one place to visit.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Tourism said more than one million tourists fl ocked to the destination this sum-mer, with a 28% increase in tourists from outside Arab countries for July and August.

“Our customers primarily include Lebanese expatriates from Europe, North America, Canada and Austra-lia,” explained Thrifty Car Rental Lebanon general director Elie Khouri. “During Eid we had cars booked out for between seven and ten days.”

In addition to agency com-mission, Holiday Autos provides individual agents in UAE with an incentive of AED 5 (US $1.36) per booking day: e.g. agents can earn AED 150 ($41) for monthly hires, month-on-month. This offer has been extended until De-cember 31.

AGENT INCENTIVE

You willlie to

your datethat itis your

new car.

Monthly car rentals.New vehicles,

immaculately maintained.

Tourism accounts for 9.3% of

Lebanon’s GDP.This is set to increase

to 25.7% by 2019. Source: WTTC

EUROPCAR TOP 10

Destinations where Middle East clients hire cars.


REGIONAL NEWSMIME NEWS

TRAINING

Agents too obsessed with price: GDSTravel agents should be offering value, not the cheapest rates possible: Travelport

New eLearning portal for trade

GDS BOOKINGS

Travelport sponsors ATTACSPONSORSHIP

Tools

The eLearning programme is suitable for all GDS users.

To access Galileo eL-earning, go to www.travelportservices.com

Faris Azzee and HE Nasser Butti Omeir Bin Youssuf open the Travelport offi ce.

time, but what agents must realise is that they cannot take a two-week-old quote and compare it with a quote they are getting today from

either the GDS or any other booking channel,” explained Saab. “It’s the best rate at that point in time when they search. In this respect, I will say the hotels need to get a grip on their distribution channels so there is rate par-ity. This market is obsessed with price, but ultimately, it’s about value.”

He said agents could search on all mediums avail-able for days to get the best fares, which changed on a daily basis according to sup-ply and demand, however, they should focus less on bar-gain rates and more on pro-viding a fast and effi cient ser-vice to clients.

Travel agents are obsessed with price to the detriment of service.

That’s the message from Travelport GDS Middle East vice pres-ident Rabih Saab, who has claimed the trade is unfairly knocking the GDS providers and their best rate guarantees.

An ATN survey of agents (see pages 8-10) found that many disregarded the GDS as a viable booking tool for hotels because they were under the impression they could get a better rate from their own suppliers.

However, Saab said many were unaware of Galileo’s ‘Best Available Rate’ (BAR)guarantee: “This guaran-tees the best rate at any given

Many agents are unaware of Galileo’s Best Available Rate

(BAR) guarantee.

All of the agents ATN sur-veyed believed they got bet-ter hotel rates speaking to DMCs and wholesalers direct, which they used as an excuse to not book accom-modation on the GDS.

Dubai’s Al-Futtaim Travel business development man-ager Biju Antony said he booked through consolida-tors, which offered “much more competitive rates”.

Agents also said it took lon-ger to receive commission when booking with the GDS and argued that car rental, hotel and supplier online portals allowed them to book easily and print out customer vouchers immediately.

Travelport GDS has become the offi cial sponsor of the Abu Dhabi Travel & Tourism Agencies Council (ATTAC) to ensure the GDS provider has close links with the association’s membership.

The move coincides with the GDS provider opening a new offi ce in Abu Dhabi to service its Galileo-con-

nected travel agents in the UAE capital.

Located in the Al Muhairy building in the Madinat Zayed district, Travelport’s new offi ce will offer Gali-leo solutions and services and will house dedicated sales, training and helpdesk teams focused on providing customer support.

Travelport UAE country manager Faris Azzee will be overseeing the operation, which was inaugurated by

ATTAC chairman HE Nasser Butti Omeir Bin Youssuf, who is

also a board mem-ber of the Abu Dhabi

Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI)

along with ATTAC director general

Hani Khorsheed.

Travelport is offering Galileo and Worldspan-connected travel agents in the Middle East the opportunity to gain “critical technology skills” through its eLearning Por-tal — a web-based learning platform designed for the travel trade.

Travel agents who sign up for the free programme can explore the latest function-alities and shortcuts avail-able on the two GDSs.

Suitable for users of all levels, the customised eLearning programme offers a self-paced curricu-lum focused on some of the most widely-used features of the systems, including ticketing, airline bookings, seat confi rmations, ticket

refunds and hotel and car reservations.

Travelport vice pres-ident Middle East Rabih Saab said the programme would help users fully lever-age Galileo and Worldspan tools and enhance their understanding of the com-pany’s technology.

“Many travel agents in the Middle East are using a limited set of entries when booking travel and are not aware of the infi nite capa-bilities of the GDS,” he said.

“Our eLearning portal

empowers travel agents by equipping them with practi-cal knowledge that will help them save time and maxi-mise their use of the plat-

form,” he added.In addition to the eLearning portal, Travelport offers the multi-lingual online

help facility ‘Ask Trav-elport’ for both Galileo and Worldspan users, provid-ing them with responses to thousands of Frequently Asked Questions about the operation of these systems.


REGIONAL NEWSNEWS MIME

Abu Dhabi upbeat about MICEConfi dence index reveals events and exhibitions key business drivers

MARKET TRENDS

Events such as the 2009 Eti-had Airways Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Novem-ber) and the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009, which starts in December, will kick-start what is set to be a prosperous 12 months for Abu Dhabi’s MICE business, a confi dence survey has revealed.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) survey, based on the United Nations World Tourism Organisa-tion’s (UNWTO) method-ology for its global confi -dence index, questioned 120

local industry stakehold-ers, including accommoda-tion providers and tour oper-ators, found Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry registered a confi dence rating of 96 — which is 39 points ahead of the UNWTO’s rating for the worldwide industry for Janu-ary and April this year.

Over the coming 12 months, events and exhi-bitions were identifi ed as opportunities for growth (56% of respondents) with other positive infl uenc-ers including economic sta-bility, reduced room prices, increased attractions and

developments, better infra-structure, and services and the business travel sector.

Survey participants said the domestic market would deliver strong business for Abu Dhabi in the next year.

MICEGLOBAL UPDATE

AIBTM datesReed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) has announced that the inaugural Ameri-cas Incentive Business Travel and Meetings Ex-hibition (AIBTM) will now take place in Baltimore, Maryland from June 21- 23, 2011.

This new major event adds to the company’s established portfolio of ‘IBTM’ exhibitions specifi -cally serving the global meetings industry mar-ketplace including GIBTM (March 29-31, 2010).

Events/exhibitions 56%

Economic stability 43%

Reduced room prices 34%

Attractions/developments 29%

Infrastructure/services/offering

17%

Business travel 16%

Survey fi ndings:Opportunities for next 12 months according to survey respondents:

%

%

%

%

%

%

Al Muhair: survey feedback identifi ed

opportunities.


REGIONAL NEWSNEWS LUXURY

There’s a moose on the loose so get your clients booked on a luxury hunting trip in Norway

HUNTING

It’s no secret that hunting is a favourite pastime of many GCC nationals.

However, until now, they have travelled to tried-and-tested destinations, particu-larly in Africa, to pursue their hunting ambitions.

But now there is a new lux-ury hunting experience you can introduce to your dis-cerning clients — one they can combine with rest and relaxation in remote Norwe-gian countryside.

The Bestul Hunting Lodge is part of a 500-year-old busi-ness that is set in 35,000 hect-ares of land — an area that equates to the size of Luxem-bourg. Here, deep in the for-ests of Løvenskiold, guests, accompanied by accom-plished hunters, can shoot a range of animals from moose, roebuck and bea-ver to grouse, blackbirds and much more. Fishing for trout

and salmon is another activ-ity on offer.

There are a range of hunts available involving different techniques, all of which are ethical emphasises Løven-skiold CMO Rune Jensen.

“All of our killings are humane plus we look after our animals — we feed our moose hay, carrots, grain and lots of minerals,” he said.

The moose are so well looked after that they produce some of the “cleanest meat you’ll ever eat”, he added.

Luxury

The number of moose shot in Norway annually

36,000

groups of men on corporate retreats although father-and-son weekends — where dad is “hailed the hero” for his hunting efforts — are becom-ing popular.

“But the fastest-growing

As we stepped down onto the platform of Vienna’s main train station we were greeted by the hotel chauffeur who took charge of our luggage and whisked us smartly along the 10-minute journey to the Sacher Hotel. Whether you arrive by land or air, it is a service available to all guests, even at short notice.

And if that sounds like the height of luxury then you ain’t heard nothing yet.

Established in 1876 by the son of the creator of the world famous Sacher Torte and run since 1934 by the Guertler family, the hotel seeps luxury from every crevice, from the modern yet classic bedrooms to the traditional dining areas and bars, bedecked with rich wallpapers, deep, powerful colours and sparkling chan-deliers fi t for a palace.

Oak panelling, marble fl ooring, fi ne antique furni-ture, deep-pile carpet to sink quietly into; it is all there. The

WHAT THE CUSTOMER SAID

The Sacher Hotel, Vienna, AustriaREVIEW

The lavishly-decorated lobby area of The Sacher hotel is steeped in history.

Anna Sacher Restaurant, which still refl ects the colour, glamour and mystique of the nineteenth century “fi rst lady”, houses a plethora of famous paintings.

The reception embod-ies Viennese effi ciency with charming and helpful staff, while the hall itself is fes-

tooned with photographs of the famous, from Kurt Wald-heim to Princess Grace of Monaco. Most intriguing of all, however, is the tablecloth on display in the lobby that carries signatures from days gone by — both Darwin and Einstein have signed their autographs on this priceless

canvas. The Sacher is a lesson in history — the place to stay today as it was a century ago and a reminder of the musi-cal tradition set by Mozart and Strauss, which magne-tised the rich and famous to its hallowed halls.

As for the Sacher Torte, cre-ated in 1832 by chef Franz Sacher, the recipe of this rich honey and chocolate cake remains a secret even today, so whether you stay or not, take time out one after-noon to sit in the café bar and savour the delight of the Sacher Torte. We guarantee you will return.

Roger & Chris HornettBrentwood, Essex, UK

NICHE PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

market is female groups,” said Jensen. “We are looking to create female packages with spa included.”

The average stay is three to seven days and prices start from around 5000 Euros (US $7513) per day all-inclusive.To hunt, guests must already have a hunting license from their home country.

“We think this is an ideal place to hunt for the Gulf market — Norway is only six hours away and this is a place where you can truly escape and have a unique hunting experience,” said Jensen.

The Bestul Hunting Lodge is two hours by car from Oslo or 30 minutes by helicopter.

“This is a place that is totally secluded,” stressed Knut Tørbjorn Moe, CEO of L&P Advantage, which rep-resents a portfolio of top-end hunting lodges in Norway.

“It’s out of the ordinary world where you can switch off and unwind.”

We think this is an ideal place to hunt for the Gulf market ”

Although many hunters will kill the largest moose so they can keep their trophy — the head of the bull — the smaller moose are the tastiest and once hunted their meat is prepared by the top chefs at lodge to create an evening feast. Additional lodge facil-ities include a spa plus there are two staff to every guest.

“We research every sin-gle guest before they arrive

— we Google their background and fi nd out

their likes and dislikes,”

said Jensen.The lodge

mainly receives


REGIONAL NEWSNEWS LUXURY

ILTM to draw the crowds at 2009 eventGroup exhibition director Debbie Joslin explains why visitors flock to this show

TRADE SHOWS

ATN: Have exhibitors been reluctant to invest in the show given the eco-nomic climate?There is no doubt the eco-nomic climate has made exhibitors look more closely at their return on invest-ment, but what ILTM offers is a format that delivers. Tai-lor-made appointments are driven by the requirements of both the exclusively-invited buyers and the luxury travel suppliers. This ‘bespoke’ approach of matching buy-ers with suppliers brings real value to ILTM.

ATN: What’s your hosted buyer mix this year ?We are targeting around 70 countries and expect-ing to see increased buyer participation from Brazil, USA, China and Germany together with a combination of emerging and mature mar-kets that underpin the luxury travel sector. For the fi rst time we welcome buyers from the Association of Celebrity Per-sonal Assistants (www.acpa.la.com) representing some

of the world’s top celebrities and personalities.

ATN: How many buyers are you hosting from the Middle East compared to last year?We have already registered 34 buyers from the Middle East, which is an increase on last year. We are still in the pro-cess of accepting buyer appli-cations and exercise a strict qualifi cation process. For example, all VIP buyers must operate on an outbound

WHAT: International Luxury Travel Mar-ket (ILTM)WHERE: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, CannesWHEN: December 7-10, 2009WHY: It showcases the world’s most prestigious luxury travel products and services to an audi-ence of discerning international luxury travel planners and buyers.HOW MANY: 3600 luxury travel buyers and suppliers.ROI: Last year 84% of VIP buy-ers looked to place orders of between 50,000 Euros (US $75,000) and 5 million Euros ($7.5 million) with 52% of those placed within a year.VISIT: www.iltm.net

Vital statistics

This year’s ILTM will take place from December 7 to 10 in Cannes.

basis, show evidence of past and future business placed

in luxury travel and be an established player in the market place.

ATN: What kind of prod-ucts are the luxury buyers demanding this year? The luxury travel market is changing, with authentic-ity and the quality of experi-ence becoming increasingly important to group and indi-vidual travellers. Our feed-back shows buyers are look-ing for customised, unique experiences with adventure travel high on the list together with luxury safaris, niche boat cruises and themed holidays taking in cooking courses or art tours. They are also look-ing for more suppliers rep-resenting luxury and bou-tique hotels as well as beach resorts. In terms of destina-tions, Eastern Europe is mak-ing its mark, as are countries in the Middle East, Africa and South America..

ATN: How, in your opinion, has the economic slowdown impacted luxury travel?The economic slowdown has not stopped travellers book-ing holidays and luxury expe-riences. Luxury travellers are demanding extra value; they want seamless, quality ser-vices that refl ect the price they are paying, tailored to their requirements.

ATN: What luxury travel trends do you predict?I think a continued focus on authenticity and the quality of experience will continue to be a primary issue that the industry will keep front of mind in 2010.

• Tiara Hotels & Resorts• Mardan Palace Hotel, Turkey• Tourism boards of Saint-Barthéle-my, Jamaica and Dominican Republic• Royale Indian • Soho House Grp• Domaine de Luxe• Ayana Resort

ILTM and Ultratravel (Ultratravel maga-zine and www.ultra.travel) have launched the ILTM Ultratravel Forum.

Taking place on Monday December 7, two panels fea-turing some of the industry’s leading movers and shak-ers will discuss ‘Keeping Luxury Relevant’ and ‘The Future of Luxury’.

The partners will also run the ILTM ultra.travel Awards, which recognise the best luxury trav-el experiences from around the world, as voted for by the www.ultra.travel users and ILTM par-ticipants. These will be awarded at the forum. ILTM is also introducing speed networking ses-sions giving exhibi-tors 12 four-minute meetings with VIP buyers interested in specifi c categories, from gastronomic experiences to boutique hotel get-aways, as well as Focus Forums — a private network-ing opportunity for exhibitors to inform and market to a se-lect group of luxury buyers.

What’s new for 2009?

First-timers

“The economic slowdown has not

stopped travellers booking holidays and luxury

experiences”

Debbie Joslin: the ILTM format delivers.


REGIONAL NEWSLuxury trends

The Chic Collection’s head of global travel, Jessica Hudson, identifi es luxury travel trends

Small but perfectly formed and a million miles away from the cookie-cutter con-cept of the large hotel chains, bijou chic is setting new stan-dards in luxury travel.

Bijou chic is for travellers who adore unique style and exclusivity. One of our long-term favourites in this cat-egory is Malabar House in Fort Cochin, Kerala, a heri-tage hotel with 17 rooms and suites that has been owned by tradesmen, spice merchants

Trendwatch

Six Senses property Soneva Fushi in the Maldives is looking to go carbon neutral in 2010.

For cost-effective boutique chic offer the Pudi Boutique Hotel in Shanghai or Hillside Su situated close to Anta-lya, Turkey. Both are design-focused hang outs of the hip.

Syria is now the Mid-dle East’s hottest destina-tion with Vogue magazine recently holding a fashion shoot of supermodel Stella Tennant in the city. Offer The Art House, a converted stone mill and the city’s only art hotel, hosting regular art exhibitions and concerts.

India — fl y with Air Ara-bia from Sharjah to Jaipur and stay at Samode Haveli.

Istanbul is a heady mix of east meets west and Ajia Hotel or Hotel Les Otto-mans are über-chic.

Soneva Fushi in the Mal-dives is looking to go car-bon neutral in 2010 and new property Scarlet in Cornwall has embraced green tech-nology, carbon offsetting, natural power and rainwa-ter harvesting. Other eco- chic options include Zafara Camp, Botswana; Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef, Australia; La Casona Cusco, Peru (the country’s fi rst carbon neu-tral hotel); and the new Casa La Siesta, located just out-side Vejer de La Frontera, which is made entirely from reclaimed materials and manages to be both exquisite and affordable.

and tea traders. Another of our favourites is Dar Les Cigognes riad in the bustling souks of Marrakech with its own boutique and a library fi lled with books on Moroc-can handicrafts.

Located on Kenya’s South Coast, Msambweni House is lovingly run by a local fam-ily. With only three suites, two villas and one luxury tent, it is fully staffed and can be rented in its entirety for the perfect hideaway retreat.

Wilderness chic is for adven-turous clients seeking off-the-beaten-track experi-ences but these days, an ‘Out of Africa’ sojourn no lon-ger means camping out in the wild. Ol Seki Mara Campis one of the most luxuri-ous tented camps you can fi nd, with huge beds, en-suite bathrooms and private plunge pools.

Singita Grumeti Reserves in Tanzania’s Serengeti offers guests an eco-safari adven-ture in style. It’s on the migra-tory route traversed annually by more than a million wilde-beest and there are three lux-ury properties from which to choose including Fundu Lagoon on Pemba Island for the ultimate Robinson Cru-soe island hideaway experi-

ence and just a short air hop from Zanzibar.

South Africa is good value at the moment and can be combined with a beach add-on to Mozambique with its unspoiled islands and unrivalled diving spots. Azura and Londo Lodge are our favourites there.

Bhutan is another hot wil-derness chic destination.

It’s an online travel service dedicated to independent top-end travellers. Visit www.chiccollection.travel

Bijou chic

Cheap & chic About The Chic Collection

Wilderness chic

Long weekend escapes

Eco chic

The Serengeti in Tanzania offers the ultimate in ‘wilderness chic’.

INTERNATIONALTOURISM EXCHANGE

18-21 february

2010

30°

www.bit.fieramilanoexpocts.itO

Travel instinct.


REGIONAL NEWSQ&A CELEBRITY CRUISES

UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai talks about his thoughts on climate change and why the UK government isn’t getting a Christmas card this year

Do UNWTO others

Q&A

The World Tourism Organisation UN-WTO is a specialised agency of the United Nations. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how.The organisation encourages the implementation of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, with a view to en-suring that member countries, tourist destinations and businesses maximise

the positive economic, social and cultural effects of tourism and fully reap its benefi ts, while minimising its negative social and environmental impacts. Its membership includes 161 countries and territories and more than 390 affi liate members represent-ing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.

About UNWTO If people

insist on working the same way as they did in the last 40 to 50 years they will fi nd themselves out of the market very soon ”

ATN: What is your stance on climate change and the travel industry? The travel and tourism industry is both a victim and a victor of climate change. The very lifeline of our industry is subject to cer-tain climatic factors such as ris-ing sea levels, desertifi cation and less snowfall in mountains. These things are very devastat-ing to established destinations and the livelihood of communities that depend on the arrival of tourists.

We therefore have a vested interest in being part of the adaptation and the mit-igation efforts vis-à-vis climate change.

ATN: Is travel and tourism responsi-ble for these climate problems?We need to put this into context. The UN has acknowledged that the entire tourism sector contributes about 5% of the world’s carbon footprint. Avia-tion obviously occupies the majority of the 5%, but we are talking about 2-2.5% of the total carbon footprint — that’s 2.5% too many, but still we need to keep it in that per-

Green tourism will be the future of the travel industry said Rifai.


REGIONAL NEWSCELEBRITY CRUISES Q&A

UNWTO assistant secretary general Geoffrey Lipman will be addressing the issue of climate change at this month’s inaugural Middle East Tourism Marketing Summit (METMS) in Dubai. MET-MS is a specialist event aimed at providing a platform for focus on travel and tourism trade and con-sumer marketing in the Middle East. See pages 28-29 for more.

In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming runs out.

To keep the process on the line there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol and at the conference in Copenhagen 2009 the parties of the UNFCCC meet for the last time on government level before the climate agree-ment needs to be renewed.

Governmental representatives from 170 countries are expected to congregate in Copenhagen for the conference.

UNWTO AT METMS

About the Copenhagen climate conference

Anyone who thinks it is a good idea to behave the same as in the good old days is wrong ”

spective. It’s very important not to arrive at the point where we start punishing particular sec-tors and subsectors because they are easy tar-gets. When people are asking for a ban on air travel, it’s really unfair and disproportionate — nobody is asking to scrap one out of every fi ve cities to reduce carbon emissions.

ATN: Do you think the Middle East is less ‘green’ than other regions of the world?I happen to be from the Middle East and I can speak with a little bit of an insight.

To start with, I’m not sure the region is so different from many other regions around the world. The lack of awareness (about climate change) was universal and growing econo-mies tended to get caught up with the race towards development in the last two or three decades, which may have led to a loss of sight with regard to these issues.

Trends for the future in terms of investment are going to be affected by the transforma-tion towards a green economy and the Mid-dle East is not going to be able to escape that.Anyone who thinks it is a good idea to behave the same as in the good old days is wrong. We need to move towards smarter investments, become more energy effi cient and be increas-ingly sympathetic with the environment.

ATN: What are UNWTO’s major challenges?Our challenges are the challenges of the tour-ism industry and we are mandated to pro-mote this industry.

The immediate economic challenge is affecting us tremendously. That is why we have developed in the last six months what we call the roadmap for recovery.

It’s a fantastic document and I have asked [assistant secretary general] Geoffrey Lip-man to articulate this in his keynote speech at METMS in Dubai.

issues, it’s going directly into the government budget. It’s an example of how things like this are used sometimes to deal with other prob-lems and this must never be tolerated and we should be very vigilant.

ATN: Despite challenges, is this is an exciting time for the travel industry?Absolutely, it’s a common fact that challenges create opportunities and we are at the brink of a wonderful opportunity summed up by the transformation into a green economy.

Travellers’ profi les are changing very quickly; they are educated, they are choosy and they are demanding more cultural stim-ulation. They are not going to be satisfi ed with what I would call empty luxury.

We need to start being smart about what we supply and what our product is about — this is our opportunity.

If people insist on working the same way as they did in the last 40 to 50 years they will fi nd themselves out of the market very soon.

The second challenge is the environment. Our industry will be terribly affected by all measures regarding environmental pres-ervation — we need to be at the forefront of fi ghting climate change and in the heart of all deals, policies and decisions that are being taken in that regard.

The third challenge is the social issue. We are still struggling to ensure the income travel and tourism generates is contributing to social wellbeing, poverty alleviation and the creation of more jobs. We need to make sure revenues are more fairly distributed, because we believe tourism is probably the largest vol-untary transfer of capital and wealth between the haves and the have-nots of this world.

ATN: How important is the Copenhagen cli-mate conference for the travel industry?As an industry we met in Sweden, Switzer-land and in New York with all of these meet-ings leading to Copenhagen. There will be a couple more meetings aimed at ensuring we do not allow a failure to happen at Copenha-gen. We must ensure it is a turning point in our human history with regard to the climate.

ATN: Are you worried some nations will use this as an excuse to impose a green tax?I am worried and I must bring in a specifi c example of the UK and the environmental departure tax that will become effective there at the end of the year.

It’s a horrible tax. First of all it is not going to any particular fund to tackle environmental

Rifai: tourism revenues must be fairly distributed.

www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/travel

REGIONAL NEWSMETMS 2009

Inaugural METMS 2009 event to address how best the Middle East’s travel, tourism and leisure industries can market themselves globally

Tourism marketing summit kicks off

As ATN went to press, METMS organiser Fusion Marketing confi rmed that the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism’s direc-tor general, Dr Nada Sardouk Ghandour, had confi rmed her attendance at the event. For more information on METMS

visit www.metms.com

METMS 2009 keynote speaker, international author and ‘trend hunter’ Daniel Levine, will reveal to event delegates, the motivat-ing force behind travellers’ lei-sure and lifestyle decisions and provide straightforward strategies for the Middle East tourism in-dustry to thrive.

The author’s latest work, The Meaningful Economy, is the ba-sis of his presentation, providing an insignt into his research on how changing economic times have affected consumers’ values and attitudes, while offering straightforward strategies to take advantage of these develop-ments. Levine is the executive director of Avant-Guide Institute, the New York-based trends con-sultancy with an international team of ‘cool-hunters’ who track ideas and experi-ences from around the globe.

LATE EVENT NEWS:

Practical strategies to beat the crunch

he fi rst ever Middle East Tourism Mar-keting Summit (METMS 2009) kicks off this month in a bid to bring together

the decision makers from the region’s travel and tourism industry to discuss how tour-

ism promotion can be executed most effectively. The one-day event, which will

take place at Shangri-La Dubai on Thurs-day November 5, will see a line of up infl uen-tial speakers and panelists address an equally impressive audience of CEOs from many sec-tors including travel, tourism, hospitality, MICE, aviation, leisure and retail.

Presented by Dubai-based Fusion Mar-keting Management under the patronage of Dubai Tourism and Commerce Market-ing Authority (DTCM) and supported by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), the summit will provide an oppor-tunity for tourism industry professionals to identify new ways to market both individually and collectively.

“The summit is a proactive move by the Dubai Government, which has backed the

event, to ensure that the Middle East maximises its position in the

global travel and tour-ism arena so that

the region

receives its share of global travel revenue,” said METMS director Nicki Page of Fusion Marketing and the brainchild of the summit.

“I have always maintained that it is in times of greatest challenge that the greatest oppor-tunities lie.”

The summit speakers will cover a wide range of topics, from the benefi ts of investing in envi-ronmentally responsible tourism practice and an in-depth look at how to market against competing markets, especially in a downturn, to how much companies should look to spend to make their marketing really matter and how to market upscale brands.

METMS 2009 is supported by ITP Business Publishing titles ATN, Hotelier Middle East

and Leisure Manager.

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LATE E

Presented by Dubai based Fusion Marketing Management under the patronageof Dubai Tourism and Commerce Market-ing Authority (DTCM) and supported by theDubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), the summit will provide an oppor-tunity for tourism industry professionals toidentify new ways to market both individually and collectively.

“The summit is a proactive move by theDubai Government, which has backed the

event, to ensure that the Middle Eastmaximises its position in the

global travel and tour-ism arena so that

the region

receives its ssaid METMSMarketing an

“I have alwof greatest chtunities lie.”

The summof topics, fromronmentally and an in-depcompeting mto how much to make their to market ups

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28 Arabian Travel News – November 2009

METMS 2009 keynote speaker Daniel Levine.

Page: in challenging times, the greatest opportunities lie.


REGIONAL NEWSMETMS 2009

METMS 2009 Programme of EventsTime Event Description

9:00 – 9:20 Opening ceremony

Offi cial Welcome Offi cial opening by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and conference Chairwoman and summit Director Nicki Page

9:20 – 10:00

Opening keynote address(Session for all delegates)

‘When Things Get Hot’Speaker: Geoffrey Lipman: Assistant Secretary General, United Nations World Tourism OrganisationTopic: Eco-tourism and its relevance to marketing in the region. The benefi ts of invest-ing in environmentally responsible tourism practices and examples from current practices within the region as well as globally.

10:00 – 10:50

Panel discussion(Session for all delegates)

Marketing the Middle East as a region: Intra-Regional Tourism Working Together Panel participants: Middle East Tourism Leaders Topic: The Middle East’s tourism leaders look at the merits, opportunities and challenges that could be faced in marketing the region collectively.

10.50 – 11.20 Coffee break

11:20 – 12:00Workshop Stream 1(Break-out session)

How much can I spend because Marketing Matters? Sector representatives: Stephen Banks, Marketing & Sales Director, Al-dar Hotels & Hospitality and Tim Wise, Senior Vice President: Finance - Atlantis, The Palm

Topic: CFOs and marketing directors ask ‘How much can I spend?’ From a senior-level mar-keting and fi nancial perspective, an in-depth look at how to market against other challeng-ing markets, especially in a downturn, and how much to spend to make your marketing really matter.

11:20 – 12:00Workshop Stream 2(Break-out session)

Social media & marketing Presented by: Digital DrumsTopic: The use of digital and social marketing tools in today’s business and social environ-ments; the pros and cons; the do’s and don’ts.

12:10 -13:00Workshop Stream 1(Break-out session)

Marketing Luxury in LossSpeaker: Ian Michael, Professor of Tourism & Travel Marketing, Zayed University Topic: How to market the upscale during a downturn Dr Michael will look at the challeng-es luxury brands have faced during this global recession as well as strategies that have been followed by the region and globally.

12:10 -13:00Workshop Stream 2(Break-out session)

Marketing Medical Tourism in the Middle East Speaker: Dr Prem Jagyasi, Managing Director & CEO ExHealth, DHCCTopic: The future and growth of medial tourism in the region.

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

Time Event Description

14.00 – 14.40Speaker Stream 1(Break-out session)

Middle East Meets Middle Kingdom Presented by: Tarun Panda, Associate Director – Consumer Research: The Nielsen CompanyTopic: Marketing tourism to the outbound travel markets in China and India

14.00 – 14.40Speaker Stream 2(Break-out session)

Ladies First – Marketing to Women in the Middle EastPresented by: Sevil Ermin, Managing Director: The Nielsen CompanyTopic: How to market to women who are now the decision-makers when it comes to travel purchasing

14.45 – 15.35Panel discussion 1(Break-out session)

The PR Probe – a journalist’s perspectivePanel to include: • Sayidaty Editor in Chief Mohamed Fahad Al-Harti• Hotelier Middle East Editor Louise Oakley • The National Business Editor Tom AshbyTopics: Give me the tourism news! How can marketing support the media and how can the region’s PR improve to boost tourism informa-tion and marketing from an editorial point of view?

14.45 – 15.35Panel discussion 2(Break-out session)

Executives in the Hot Seat! Participants:• PR Representative – MEPRA’s Rebecca Hill• Advertising Media Representative – Omnicom• Online & social media representative: MaktoobTopic: Dissecting the integrated approach to Tourism Marketing

15.35 – 16.00 Coffee break

16.00 – 16.40Speaker presenta-tion (Session for all delegates)

Re-Branding the Middle EastSpeaker: Brand Dubai Topic: The challenges of re-branding a loca-tion in the Middle East.

16.40 – 17.20Speaker presenta-tion (Session for all delegates)

The Meaningful Economy: How will Middle East Tourism Thrive?

Speaker: International author Daniel Levine will look at how Middle East tourism will thrive from economic change and shifting consumer behaviour. How have changing economic times affected consumers’ values and attitudes? What is motivating them to make tourism, leisure and lifestyle decisions? Based on thoughtful new research from his forthcoming book, Daniel will demonstrate how successful retail businesses will not just survive, but thrive, by embracing change to turn current economic challenges into profi t-able opportunities.

17.20 Closing address Closing and thanks

18.00 – 20.30 Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai

METMS Cocktail Networking Reception


REGIONAL NEWSComment Comment

How does pricing on cruises work?Cruise Master Middle East director of business development Ashok Kumar

All cruise lines issue nice glossy brochures with ‘sam-ple’ pricing, which are as good as those per-day rack rates posted on the back of hotel room’s door.

Pricing on a cruise is a lot like that of an airline ticket – the fares go up and down con-stantly based on demand and supply of each sailing date and are constantly updated on the cruise line’s web site.

Unless it is a very special and well-sold out date where demand is higher than sup-ply, there are various type of promotional rates.

As a general rule the earlier you book, the better the price and the type of accommoda-tion on offer. This also gives your clients time to process their visas for destinations visited on their cruise.

lent fares and throw in other-wise expensive upgrades. For example, Princess Cruises offers a balcony stateroom for the price of an outside cabin for early-bird bookers.

Cruise lines in the deluxe category offer very good value to their published prices in the brochures rather than lowering the prices. These value-added offers include discounts of up to 60% off or free unlimited shore excur-sions or onboard credits.

As a general rule the earlier you book, the better the price and the type of accommodation on offer ”

If your clients are willing to travel at very short notice (in the cruise business, any-where between three to six weeks before departure), they may get the best fares. How-ever, these fares have a lim-ited window for booking and may not offer the fl exibility to choose desirable accommo-dations. Many cruise lines offer ‘advance planners’ — those who book a cruise and pay a deposit six months to one year in advance — excel-

APPLAUSE FOR GTTACWith regards to ‘Gulf travel agent body formed’ in the September edition of Arabian Travel News, this is a very im-portant step towards looking after the interests of all travel agents in the region.

The role of such a body is very important to leverage the quality of service provided by agents and to protect the interest of all people working in this sector from the threat of the recent changes in the travel and tourism industry.

The travel agents should and will survive despite all challenges they are facing.

Ibrahim Kamal

OMAN AIR PRAISEWith regards to the ‘Lid lifted on poshest plane toilet in the world’ (posted on www.hoteliermiddleeast.com on October 6 and on page 12 of this issue) — I was fortunate to be taken for an inspection (of Oman Air’s new A330-300) and have to admit, the airline’s claims are factual.

The aircraft, especially in economy class, is unusually spacious, has great seats, great in-fl ight entertain-ment equipment/pro-grammes and it will be a breeze to travel with families on this aircraft.

Raji Demonte

WELL DONE EKIn response to the story ‘EK Hols ups training in response to mystery shop’ (ATN October and www.hoteliermiddleeast.com on October 4) – it’s good to see Emirates Holidays’ response to the mystery shopping exercise. Too often the reaction is to shoot the messenger rather than

take the opportunity to review processes

and practices and look to improve services no mat-

ter how good they are in the fi rst place.

Leo Fewtrell

AMEX COUPIn response to the ‘AMEX coup for KSA travel fi rm’ (ATN October and www.hotelier-middleeast.com on October 5) — I wonder why Kanoo Travel could not retain its lei-sure franchise in Saudi Arabia where it has a very strong base? The fi rm almost had the monopoly in the market for leisure. Is loss of focus or the inability to retain qualifi ed personnel in the leisure divi-sion the reason?

C Rider

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• Allows best available fares• Allows suffi cient time for your clients to process the required visas• Allows you to choose their preferred accommo dation type and location• TIP: Always check the offi cial site of the cruise line for the most up-to-date and accurate pricing applicable at the time of booking.

The benefi ts of booking a cruise well in advance:

Early birds catch the worm and get the best deals on cruise holidays.

“It’s good to see Emirates Holidays’

response to the mystery shopping exercise”

Fewtrell gives the thumbs up

to EK Hols

REGIONAL NEWSComment

.In its capacity as mouthpiece of the Middle East travel trade, ATN is eager to hear your news and views. Email [email protected]


News and analysis for Middle East travel agents and tour operators

Arabian Travel NEWS

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Oman Air ups the stakes

Last month I was lucky enough to be a passenger on board the very fi rst fl ight on Oman Air’s brand new A330-300.

The idea was for the Muscat-based carrier to showcase the aircraft featuring its brand new fi rst-, business- and economy-class products to the region’s media.

I have to say, I was impressed. We started the journey in economy class where the most noticeable selling points were space and comfort — it was certainly one of roomiest, if not the roomiest economy class cabin I have experienced.

The seats were comfortable; there was plenty of legroom; and the entertain-ment screen was one of the biggest I have seen in this class of cabin.

Moving into the business class cabin and this was arguably comparable to the fi rst-class cabin on many competing airlines in terms of space, length of seat and in-seat facilities and amenities. A standout feature was the meal seat-up — no more mini crockery fi t for Barbie and Ken only, but life-sized plates, cups and cut-lery in tasteful colours that would not look amiss at an upmarket dinner party.

In fact, this business-class product was so good that I actually wondered why you would need to pay any extra to travel in fi rst class.

Of course, the front of the plane offered yet more space again - the First Class Suite features a 82-inch long, fully-fl at bed within a pitch of 85.5 inches, a seat width of 25.5 inches and in-seat gadgets such as an eight-point massage system, a 23-inch in-fl ight entertainment monitor with wireless handset and various USB, Ethernet and power plugs.

There’s also a cosy-looking sofa where fi rst-class passengers can chill out and chat to fellow travellers. However, the feature that really caught my attention — and hit the headlines as a result — was the fi rst-class toilet!

Apparently, it’s the fi rst aircraft loo to feature a bidet, plus the luxury fl ooring is custom made, designed to imitate a sandy beach.

Well, this was something worth writing about and as soon as my ‘Lid lifted on poshest plane toilet in the world’ was posted on ATN’s current online hub — www.hoteliermiddleeast.com — the story was immediately picked up by news websites all over the world. It proved two things — fi rstly, people love a ‘posh loo’ story, par-ticularly when it relates to an aircraft and the call of nature one mile high, and sec-ondly, consumers never cease to be amazed at the constant improvements to air-craft and air travel in general.

However, having seen Oman Air’s new product — one to defi nitely rival the likes of Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways — it does leave you thinking, what next?

We’ve seen showers on Emirates’ A380s, now a bidet on Oman Air, while Virgin Atlantic fi rst brought the ‘spa treatment in the skies’ concept some time ago.

How will the airline industry keep pushing the boundaries? Airlines are already offering WiFi and mobile phone services on board,

as well as live satellite TV, so what else can they do to make sure we have all the facilities in the sky that we have at home or in the workplace? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Whatever comes next, one thing is for sure, these innovations pro-vide travel agents with some great products to sell.

Where do we go from the poshest loo in the skies?

Gemma GreenwoodSenior Group Editor

,haveI’d

-


REGIONAL NEWSSKILLSET REVIEW

ATN reveals the fi ndings from this month’s mystery shopper survey of travel agencies in Sharjah, UAE

Agencies uncovered

Skillset

Scenario 1: You are planning a seven-night hol-iday to Jordan in December. You will be travel-ling with your parents who are senior citizens. Ask the agent for suitable hotel options. Also ask what type of activities they suggest for you. Take note of any questions the travel advisor asks to help them determine your interests and hence suggest appropriate activities.

Scenarios

As

Each month ATN and Ethos choose four UAE-based travel agencies to mystery shop and fi nd out how satisfi ed your customers are.

The purpose of this exercise is to fi nd out the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to travel agencies’ customer service and sales execution performance.

What are the mystery shoppers looking for?1 AGENCY APPEARANCE• Outlet easy to fi nd?• Opening/closing hours displayed?• Outlet clean and tidy?• Travel brochures and related literature placed in a good orderly manner?• Comfortable temperature?

2 TRAVEL ADVISOR• Were the employees well groomed?• Were employee name tags clearly visible?• Enough employees available to serve?• Did the travel advisor make eye contact to acknowledge your presence at the desk?• Did the travel agency you visited have a formal customer queuing system in place?• How long did it take for you to be served?• If you waited, did an employee apologise?• How were you greeted by the agent?• Did the agent provide relevant info?• Was the agent friendly?• Did they give you their full attention?• Were they knowledgeable?• Did the agent provide you with information in an easily-understood format?• Were you satisfi ed with the information you received from the advisor?

3 THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE• Overall, based on your experience at this travel agency, would you recommend it to your family and friends?• How satisfi ed were you with the outcome of your visit to this particular travel agency?

Mystery shopping explained

Originating in the UK in 1995, Ethos Consultancy relocated to Dubai in early 2003. The fi rm’s consultants have been handpicked from some of the most mature customer service markets in the world to ensure experience and best practice is built into the mystery shopping process. Based on its years of expertise in the mystery shopping fi eld, Ethos has developed a combination of products and services to help organisations of all shapes and sizes understand exactly how their business is performing through the eyes of both their customers and employees. Contact: +971 4 332 6315, visit www.ethos.ae or email [email protected]

About Ethos Consultancy

Star advisorStWell done Maher Azizi from SATA, Sharjah. Out of all eight agents mystery shopped this month, Maher was the only one who wore a name tag. Maher provided detailed, struc-tured information to his customer leaving

them completely satisfi ed with the infor-mation received. Maher was able to provide estimate pricing on the spot — this encour-ages the customer to make a decision on the spot, resulting in a quick sale.

Scenario 2: Ask about packages to Egypt in December. The package should include fl ights, accommoda-tion and tourist activities. You would like to stay for seven nights. Take note of any questions the travel advi-sor asks to help them determine your interests and hence suggest appro-priate activities.

Mystery shoppers made enquiries about Jordan.

Shoppers asked about packages to Egypt.


REGIONAL NEWSMYSTERY SHOPPER SKILLSET

Mystery shopper

Orient TravelAl Aroob Road

85%

SATAMina Road

79%

DNATARolla Road

58%

Kanoo travel

43%

Comment: The premises were clean and tidy and brochures were clearly displayed. Advisors were well groomed, but not wearing name tags. The advisor was visited twice at this agency and both times displayed good product knowl-edge and asked the right questions to determine her customer’s needs. This advisor was more than willing to help the customer put the per-fect package together. Advice: Always wear a name tag. Introduce a queuing system as there was a little confusion in the waiting area.

Comment: The premises were clean and tidy and brochures were clearly displayed, but only one advisor wore a name tag. Both advisors displayed good prod-uct knowledge and asked the right questions to determine the customer’s needs. SATA had a priced-up package to Egypt ready and when asked about packages to Jordan, the advisor said they would email an option within 48 hours. Advice: Always wear a name tag, introduce a queuing system and it’s always nice to offer a polite apology if your customer had to wait.

Comment: The outlet was crowded and messy, but brochures were clearly displayed. Advisors were well groomed but displayed poor product knowledge. The tour package advisor was not available during one visit, but another did offer details on Egypt and said they could extend the Eid offer to early December. This is a great way to make your customer feel valued. Advice: If you have just one pack-age advisor, make sure other advi-sors know their timings. The shop-per called in twice and there was no relevant advisor available.

Comment: The outlet was tidy but crowded and parking was tricky. Advisors were not professionally groomed and on both visits made it clear Kanoo Travel did not offer holiday packages. This is fi ne, but one advisor lost points for the way this information was communi-cated; not friendly or helpful at all. On the other hand, the other advi-sor offered to contact their Dubai branch on behalf of the customer. Advice: If your agency does not offer a particular service, make sure staff are trained to politely and consistently deal with enquiries.

ORIENT TRAVEL SATA DNATA KANOO TRAVEL

Rolla Road

Arabian Travel News provides a round-up of the latest hotel and resort openings, new airline routes and all other travel-related announcements...


REGIONAL NEWSSkillset

What’s new...IN ACCOMMODATION: IN TRANSIT:

WHAT’S COMING SOON:

• Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Australia — The fi rst lux-ury conservation-based resort in Australia opened its doors to an expectant public last month. Built to combine the expecta-tions of the high-end traveller with a commitment to ecologi-cal and environmental sustain-ability, the resort marks the fi rst development outside of Dubai for Emirates Hotels and Resorts.

• Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Abu Dhabi — Fairmont’s very fi rst property to open in the UAE capital is located on the beach/creek and boasts 369 guest-rooms, a variety of restaurants, a Willow Stream Spa and two outdoor pools.

• Le Gray, Beirut — Camp-bellGray hotels has opened its fi rst hotel in the Middle East in the Lebanese capital.

• Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort and Spa, UAE — The 475-room Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort and Spa opened last month. Sitting in the shadow of the spectacular Hajar Moun-tains, the resort is Hilton’s sec-ond property in the emirate and overlooks the Arabian Sea.

• Fairmont Nile City, Egypt — Built within the Nile City corpo-rate complex, this 567-room hotel, which opened last month, comprises more than 11,000ft² of indoor space and more than 5000ft² of outdoor space. The property also features the larg-est spa in Cairo.

• Russian service for Air Arabia — Air Arabia has launched a twice-weekly service (Mondays and Fridays) from Sharjah to Samara, Russia.

• Easier entry to Malaysia — Afghan, Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan nationals will now be considered for a Visa on Arrival (VOA) when entering Malaysia. Visas will be valid for 14 days and priced RM 330 (US $97).

• Qatar Airways’ new Indian route — Qatar Airways now fl ies from Doha four times weekly — on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays — to the holy city of Amritsar, India.

• Abu Dhabi information station — Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority has opened the fi rst of six new visitor information centres in the arrivals hall of Abu Dhabi Inter-national Airport.

• Four Seasons Hotel Beirut, Lebanon — Four Seasons Ho-tels and Resorts will open its Beirut property in December. The hotel features over-sized furnished terraces in all 230 rooms and suites and boasts views of the Mediterranean.

• Etihad Airways’ World Cup link — Etihad has launched fl ights from Abu Dhabi to Cape Town. The new fl ights operate via the airline’s current daily Airbus A330 service to Johan-nesburg. The daily service will continue through to next year’s 2010 FIFA World Cup.

• fl ydubai launches fi rst intra-GCC service — fl ydubai has launched twice daily fl ights to Doha. A one-way fare is priced from AED 200 (US $54).

Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Australia.

Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort and Spa.

Air Arabia now fl ies to Samara.

Access to Malaysia is now easier for some nationalities.

Four Season Hotel Beirut promises guests stunning views.

fl ydubai now fl ies to Doha.


REGIONAL NEWSSkillset Package planner

Package planner ATN asked Kanoo Holidays to create a two-week winter sports holiday for fi ve male friends based on our detailed brief

Option 1

Synonymous with swank, Vail is a winter playground for the rich and famous. This is where the movie stars

ski, while it’s not unusual to see Texans in 10-gallon hats and ladies in mink coats on the slopes. Vail is a resort with restaurants, bars and bou-tiques, plus the terrain suits skiers of all abilities.

Vail, Colorado, USA

The package• 10 nights at Lion Square Lodge, Vail, on single room basis• Return economy-class air passage from Bahrain including domestic airfare to and from Denver airport• Rental of high performance white- glove ski package (includes boots, skis and poles only) for entire stay• Lift tickets valid for 10 days• Private transfers for fi ve adults and 10 pieces of luggage • Travel insurance with accident coverage for fi ve adults

The package price for the group of fi ve adults starts from US $27,000 excluding taxes and surcharges.

AccommodationLion Square Lodge is a four-star deluxe resort at the base of Vail Mountain comprising hotel rooms and condominiums. The resort is walking distance from the shops and nightlife. of Lionshead Village.

Air productEconomy-class return airline tickets from Bahrain to Denver via London

Option 2

Vancouver: You are liter-ally just minutes from the slopes when you land at Vancouver International Airport. The city rests at sea level with mountains abutting suburbia right in the path of north Pacifi c storms known for dropping voluminous snows.

Calgary: The Canadian Rockies are famed for ex-traordinary rugged beauty.

The brief:The customer: a group of fi ve friends — all men — want to go on a winter sports holiday in December.Preferred destination: They want an alternative to Europe and don’t mind travelling long-haul.Departure destination: Bahrain.Length of stay: two weeks.Budget: US $7000 per person.Requirements: good nightlife and need insurance.

Vancouver and Calgary, Canada ‘combo’ package

on travel during fi rst week of Decem-ber 2009.

Winter activitiesIn addition to being one of the best alpine skiing resorts in the world, Vail offers a multitude of winter activities, such as alpine skiing, cross-county skiing, sleigh rides, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ice skating, dog sledding and more.

The package• Five nights at The Westin Resort & Spa, Whistler on a single room basis including breakfast • Five nights at Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge on single room basis including breakfast• Return economy-class from Bahrain to Vancouver and Calgary.• Rental of high-performance white-glove ski package (includes boots, skis and poles only) for entire stay• Whistler — Blackcomb lift tickets for skiing valid for fi ve days• Calgary lift tickets for skiing valid for fi ve days• Daily transport by shuttle to the ski fi eld• Private airport transfers for fi ve adults and 10 pieces of luggage on arrival and departure• Travel insurance with accident coverage for fi ve adults during entire journey

The package price for the group of fi ve adults starts from US $ 33,600 excluding taxes and surcharges.

Vail Mountain sets the industry standard when it comes to skier and snowboarder safety. The Na-tional Ski Areas Association award-ed the resort its eighth Best Overall Skier Safety Award, recognising Vail’s commitment to educating employees, locals and guests about the “rules of the road” and raising awareness about personal respon-sibility on the slopes.

Optional extrasVail Dogsled Tours through the scenic Pando ValleyTigiwon Snowmobile Tours in the White River National ForestVail Gondola & Adventure Ridge for ski biking, tubing and more.

Vancouver hotelThe fi ve-star Westin Resort & Spa, Whistler, is just steps from both mountain gondolas, the excite-ment of the pedestrian-friendly vil-lage of Whistler and literally a chip shot from the driving range. It has been twice-named by Condé Nast as the top ski resort hotel in North America and is truly a stunningly beautiful mountain destination.

Calgary hotelThe four-star Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge is a year-round destination — close to Bow River for whitewater rafting excursion and the Banff Springs Golf Course, many ski slopes and Lake Louise.

Air productEconomy-class airfare from Bah-rain to Vancouver and Calgary via Frankfurt based on travel during fi rst week of December 2009.

Optional extrasSpa treatment at The Westin Resort & Spa, Whistler.

Adventure in Calgary.


REGIONAL NEWSSkillset Tried and tested

Evason Ma’in Hot Springs & Six Senses Spa

BACKGROUND: Evason Ma’in Hot Springs & Six Senses Spa opened on Febru-ary 14 following a huge refurbishment. Six Senses also manages the public hot springs area adjacent to the resort.

THE ARRIVAL: A Six Senses representa-tive meets customers from the plane and organises visas. Guests are escorted through passport control and customs and their lug-gage attended to until it is loaded into the back of one of the chauffeur-driven 4X4 vehi-cles. From Amman’s Queen Alia Interna-tional Airport, the journey takes you around the outskirts of Amman, through the city of Madaba and then high in the mountains above the Dead Sea before you wind down to 264 metres below sea level to the resort.

THE ACCOMMODATION: The prop-erty comprises 94 rooms and suites, plus two Royal Suites and the Honeymoon Suite, which is where we stayed. Located on the top fl oor of the resort, the suite boasts views of the waterfall, valley and in the distance

through the crevice between cliffs, the Dead Sea. The suite features a

bedroom with door leading to the terrace; large bathroom; a living room with sofas, work station, 42-inch fl at-screen TV and CD/DVD player plus a dining table and chairs; but

the piece de resistance is the private terrace, complete with

The Honeymoon Suite terrace boasts Dead Sea views.

Evason Ma’in Hot Springs & Six Senses Spa is a versatile resort catering to all client types, from honeymooners seeking romance, to families and groups. It’s a great base from which to explore the north of Jordan, but in the unique Six Senses way. If you stay in resort, there is plenty to do, from exclusive dining experiences to spa treatments and a dip in the hot springs.

EDITOR’S VERDICT

and drinks experiences at the resort and on the cliff edge at the Panorama restaurant. Of course, there’s a Six Senses spa offering treat-ments combining indigenous products, exe-cuted by professional therapists in authen-tic and relaxing surroundings. The resort can also arrange guided trips to Petra, Jerash, the Mosaic city of Madaba.

PRICES: A three-night ‘Enchanting Jor-dan’ package including accommodation in an Evason Room on a full-board basis, pri-vate transfers and a tailor-made itinerary is priced from US $2955 for two people. Itiner-ary includes spa treatments, dining experi-ences and visits to the Dead Sea and Petra.

BOOKING IT: Tel +962 5 324 5500; email [email protected]; or use any of the four GDS systems.

fl of the

th

stTV a din

t

four-poster day bed, sunbeds and another dining table. There is also a sleeping area for security/bodyguards. The suite décor is truly Six Senses — orange and yellow linen cush-ions and upholstery and natural wood furni-ture and fi xtures.

THE F&B: This resort is a foodie’s dream come true, serving international and regional cuisine made from the freshest ingredients possible, some of which are sourced from the resort’s own organic herb and vegetable gar-dens. There’s the Brown and White Bar with daybed-style seating; a fi ne-dining Arabic restaurant offering degustation menus and fl oor-based cushion seating overlooking the waterfall; an all-day dining restaurant with outdoor terrace; a Wine Bar serving Arabic tapas and offering wine tasting; the Pool Bar serving homemade ice-creams; the ‘Zarb’ — a traditional Bedouin tent in the olive grove where local Bedouins serve their homemade dishes; and Panorama — a cliff top restau-rant where guests can take in the breathtak-ing sunsets over the Dead Sea.

REDEFINING EXPERIENCES: The tagline for Six Senses’ Evason brand is ‘Rede-fi ning Experiences’ and it certainly lives up to this objective at Ma’in Hot Springs. Some of the exclusive activities we were lucky to experience included a private picnic at the Dead Sea; a private breakfast at the top of the waterfall; wine and cheese tasting in the Wine Cellar; and private dinner

Private dining experiences are a USP at the resort.

JORDAN


REGIONAL NEWSSkillset Tried and tested

fl ydubai FLIGHT FZ-151, DUBAI-AMMAN, SEPTEMBER 19

BACKGROUND: fl ydubai is a low-cost carrier (LCC) owned by the Dubai Govern-ment, which operates from Terminal 2 at Dubai International Airport. The inaugural fl ight took place on June 1 to Beirut, Lebanon and since then, the budget airline has intro-duced fl ights to Amman, Damascus, Alexan-dria, Aleppo, Djibouti and Doha. The airline claims it has plans to expand rapidly with cit-ies within a fi ve-hour fl ying time of Dubai on its radar. fl ydubai operates a fl eet of Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft.

TERMINAL 2: Since fl ydubai took resi-dence at Terminal 2, the facility has improved with better F&B outlets plus WiFi at cafes.

CHECK IN: This was quick and effi cient. The only hurdle was that we had not paid for the luggage we wished to check into the hold — this is a requirement on fl ydubai, which all travel agents should advise their customers of. Payments for checked-in luggage can be made at time of booking. For those who for-get to pay — like us — there is a desk where the luggage bill can be settled quite quickly.

BOARDING: Like many airport terminals in the Middle East (those that until recently,

It was a pleasure to travel with fl ydubai — the aircraft was new and comfortable, the service professional and the fl ight even landed 10 minutes early in Amman. There couldn’t be a better time to sell fl ydubai given that many corporates are cutting back on travel expenses plus the attractive fares create more demand in the leisure, VFR and MICE markets that the travel trade should work to their advantage — package it up and charge a fee. I guarantee your clients won’t be disappointed.

EDITOR’S VERDICT

THE FOOD: To make sure fl ydubai can keep its unit costs down and thus its fares low, food is not complimentary. Passengers may take their own food or purchase some of the reasonably-priced snacks on board. These include soft and alcoholic beverages, sandwiches, chocolate, crisps and sweets. I tried a tasty heated chicken and zataar wrap priced just AED 10 (US $2.70) and certainly more palatable than many economy-class meals I have sampled in the past

THE PRICE: We travelled during Eid so the return price from Dubai to Amman was probably one of fl ydubai’s highest — AED 1320 (US $359) including taxes and 10kgs of hand luggage.

The cost to check-in luggage was around AED 200 ($54) return but if we had paid for luggage online this price would have been lower. Like all LCCs, fl ydubai works on a sup-ply and demand basis so the earlier you book or the emptier the fl ight is at time of booking, the better price you get.

SELLING IT: fl ydubai does not pay com-mission but the LCC says it is looking to work with “open-minded partners with strong market presence and a passion for mak-ing travel less complex and more cost-effec-

tive”. Agents who book fl ydubai are advised to charge their clients a service fee. See www.fl ydubai.com/travelagents

makwere not accustomed to large volumes of passengers), boarding the aircraft is not con-ducted by a boarding bridge as at the busier terminals one and three. Instead, passengers are taken by bus to the tarmac to board the aircraft. This can cause delays on occasions, but it posed no problems during our journey.

THE CABIN: Because fl ydubai is an LCC, there is only one class of product/cabin on board its aircraft — economy. The seating confi guration, as on most Boeing737 aircraft is three and three. However, the seats did not feel too cramped and were comfortable. Also, because the aircraft are brand new, there is no wear and tear so passengers feel more relaxed in this modern aircraft environment. The orange and blue colour scheme reminis-cent of Dubai’s ocean and desert landscape.

THE SERVICE: The cabin crew were friendly and very professional — perhaps more so than those working in the econo-my-class cabin of regular legacy carriers and some revealed they previously worked for Emirates. Nothing was too much trouble and there were smiles all round — that’s always a good sign that staff are well looked after and

obviously enjoy their jobs.

OPTIONAL EXTRA FLYDUBAI.COM AIRPORT

First checked bag (up to 32 kg)

AED 40 AED 150

Additional checked bag (up to 32 kg)

AED 100 AED 150

Seat selection AED 5 Not available

Seat with extra legroom

AED 50 Not available

Sports equipment AED 100 AED 150

FLYDUBAI EXTRAS PRICE LIST

fl ydubai started fl ying on June 1, 2009.

g p ythe luggage bill can be settled quite quickly.

BOARDING: Like many airport terminalsin the Middle East (those that until recently,

SEmwimin

t

y p yEmirates. Nothing was too much trouble and there were smiles all round — that’s always a good sign that staff are well looked after and

obviously enjoy their jobs.


REGIONAL NEWSThe ATN Power 50



THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PLAYERS REVEALED



REGIONAL NEWS

POWER


hether it is power, infl uence or success driving their ambitions,

ATN’s guide to the region’s 50 most infl uential travel and tourism pro-

fessionals in the Middle East not only recognises the individuals who have

helped shape the industry, but identi-fi es those who strive to take it forward over the next few decades.

The ATN Power 50 features individ-uals from all walks of life and from a wide range of sectors — from tourism

boards and tour operators to air-lines, congress organisers and even eco-war-riors.Together, they represent a mix of roles that has signif-

icant relevance to the continued and successful growth of the Middle East travel and tourism industry.

While the Power 50 does not include ministers of state or members of rul-ing families, ATN recognises their vital contribution to the development of the region’s tourism industry.

So who’s hot and who’s not? Com-ing in at number one is Emirates Air-line and Group executive vice chair-man Maurice Flanagan CBE who not only set up the fi rst UAE travel agency — Dnata — but has played a major role in putting the Middle East on the travel and tourism map through his involvement with one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines.

With carriers such as Emirates, Eti-had Airways and Qatar Airways — not to mention the low-cost carriers —

helping to secure the future growth and prosperity of the region’s travel and tourism industry, it’s no surprise that the CEOS of these businesses fea-ture on our Power 50 list too.

Individuals who have helped develop the region’s hotel industry into one of the most dynamic in the world, are also featured, but so too are some more unexpected names — those who helped sow the seeds many years back to create the diverse indus-try we witness today.

We should stress that the list is not scientifi c, but entirely subjective and we accept that our readers will agree and disagree on almost every name and position. In this respect, we wel-come your feedback.

Gemma GreenwoodSenior Group Editor

The ATN Power 50

POWER LIST RESEARCHERSGemma Greenwood

David InghamKathi Everden

THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY’S MOST

INFLUENTIAL PLAYERS REVEALED



REGIONAL NEWS

The ATN Power 50

41 www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/travel 50November 2009 – Arabian Travel News

Since the inception of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) in 2004, Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi has helped position Abu Dhabi as a unique destination character-ised by traditional values and conservation. Al Muhairi has established a ‘one-destination’ approach to marketing the emirate, helping the destination to develop international mindshare. He also works in partnership with the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), for which he is managing director and he was personally involved in the creation of the Cul-tural District of Saadi-yat Island. Committed to driving and growing Abu Dhabi’s hospitality and tourism sectors, Al Muhairi also sits on the boards for Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage and Abu Dhabi Airports Company.

Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, director general, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority

Maurice Flanagan, CBE, executive vice chairman, Emirates Airline and Group

Khalid Ahmed Bin Sulayem, director general, Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM)

It’s not surprising that the man whose job is to promote Dubai to the world features highly on our Power 50 list. That is precisely the responsibility of Ahmed Bin Sulayem, director general, Dubai Department of Tourism & Com-merce Marketing (DTCM).

For Sulayem, promoting Dubai is almost a life’s work. He held top management positions within

Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board (DCTPB), the forerunner of DTCM, from its establishment in the late 1980s, before being appointed chief executive in 1993.

When DTCM was established in 1997 to replace the DCTPB, he became its fi rst head and has been there ever since. Over this long period, he has tirelessly led the organisation that oversees the planning, supervision and development of tourism in Dubai, including the licensing of hotels, hotel apartments, tour operators and tour guides.

Sulayem also directly oversees the planning and implementa-tion of Dubai’s international mar-keting programmes.

Maurice Flanagan, CBE, fi rst entered the aviation industry in 1953 when he joined BOAC, the forerunner of British Airways, as a gradu-

ate trainee. In 1978, he joined the Emirates Group as the director and general manager of Dnata.

He then became managing director when Emirates Airline began operations in 1985 and was appointed group manag-ing director of the Emirates Group in 1990. Under his guid-ance, Emirates has gone from a startup airline with two bor-rowed aircraft to a global aviation powerhouse with more than 100 planes operating to all continents. Emirates Group has become a diversifi ed travel and tourism conglomerate, with successful holiday, conference and hotel divisions.

Flanagan became vice chairman and group president in July 2003 and since 2006, he has served as executive vice chairman for Emirates Airline and Emirates Group. Under his leadership, Emirates Group has been one of the key players

behind Dubai’s emergence as a top world tourism destination.

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As CEO of Etihad Airways, James Hogan’s job is to establish the air links that will help build Abu Dhabi into a global tourism and leisure hub. The airline now connects the UAE capi-

tal to almost 60 cities, with fl ights to Cape Town and Chicago added

recently. To support this expan-sion, Etihad has invested heav-ily in aircraft and infrastruc-ture. In 2008 Hogan signed one of the largest aircraft orders in commercial aviation his-

tory for up to 205 aircraft worth some US $43 billion.This alone makes him a wor-

thy candidate for inclusion in the Power 50, but then in June 2009, Eti-had’s CEO closed the biggest engine deal in commercial aviation history worth some $14 billion.

Hogan brings to the Abu Dha-bi-based airline more than 30 years of travel industry experience, hav-ing held senior positions with bmi, Hertz, Forte Hotels and Gulf Air.

Hans Haensel certainly has a lot to think about. The man who started life as a travel rep in Spain is responsible for the operations of Emirates Holidays, Emirates Hotels & Resorts, Arabian Adventures and Congress Solutions International (CSI). Revenue in Hansel’s division is set to grow by 60% over the next fi ve years. Amongst his key

objectives are to ensure the smooth opening of new hotels in the group’s portfolio and establish Arabian Adventures in other parts of the world.

An ongoing challenge for him is recruitment. The division has 17,000 staff and needs to take on 4000 more, while persuading agents to sell new desti-nations and travel experiences to their customers is also an issue. That’s a lot of responsibility for a man who only wanted to be a postman as a boy.

Selim El Zyr, a graduate of Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, co-created Rotana Hotel Management Corp in the 1990s and has built it into an international player. Rotana’s portfolio has grown to include almost 70 hotels in 12 countries, with expansion into new ter-ritories still to come.

Despite the continued fl ow of international names into the region, Rotana remains a popular brand and it has continued to innovate.

A few of its milestones include Rotana Rewards loy-alty programme; Club Rotana executive club and Zen

the spa at Rotana.In addition to the mother

brand, alcohol-free Ray-haan Hotels & Resorts was launched in March 2008 and the new business-fo-cused Centro Hotels brand is soon to make its debut.

Half a dozen hotels are pegged for opening in Abu Dhabi and deals have been signed to manage hotels in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Since joining Jumeirah Group as man-aging director in 1997, Gerald Law-less has developed some of the world’s most iconic hotel projects — the Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers and Jumei-

rah Beach have put Dubai on the map and become tourism marketing assets in their own right. Lawless’s remit when he started was to deliver a completely different expe-rience and with the aforementioned proj-ects, he quickly set standards for regional and international markets to follow.

Since appointed executive chairman in 2007, Lawless has continued to drive service standards across the group, developing the

distinctive ‘Jumeirah — Stay Differ-ent’ tagline for the brand.

James Hogan, CEO, Etihad AirwaysHans Haensel, senior vice president, destination & leisure management divi-sion, Emirates Group

Selim El Zyr, president and CEO, Rotana Hotel Management Corporation

Gerald Lawless, executive chairman, Jumeirah

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Qatar Airways’ CEO is a man of many talents. He has driven the ambitious expansion of the world’s ‘fi ve-star’ airline; has nurtured a successful group of companies that includes Doha International Airport and Qatar Duty Free Company; and is involved in the efforts of Qatar Tourism Authority to promote the peninsula nation to the world.

In 2008 and 2009, the CEO launched a number of long haul routes. This development runs

alongside the ongoing multi-billion dollar project to com-plete the New Doha Interna-tional Airport by 2012.

Akbar Al Baker, CEO, Qatar Airways 8

ent’ tagline for the brand.

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Akbar Al Baker,Qatar Airways



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The region’s low-cost king fully deserves his position on this list. Arguably more than any other individual, he has led the development of the no-frills aviation sec-tor in the GCC states.

Air Arabia is a resounding success, churning out profi ts, constantly adding new destinations and even giving its name to new start-up airlines in other Arab countries such as Morocco, with one in the pipeline in Egypt.

Air Arabia has also entered the package hol-iday business and now has its own hotel under construction at Sharjah’s international airport.

Prior to Air Arabia’s start-up in 2003, Ali held positions at Gulf Air and British Airways, but it is his current role that has turned him into a household name. He holds an MBA degree from Marlhurst University, Oregon, USA.

Adel Ali, CEO, Air Arabia

Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities (SCTA) is the body charged with driving the development of the travel & tourism sector in KSA. Saudi Arabia has announced ambitious targets to increase visitor numbers, from 47 million in 2008 to 88 million by 2020. The number of hotel rooms will rise from 117,097 to 254,310, apartment units will increase from 101,544 to 185,853 and indus-try employment is set to grow from 1.1 million to 1.5 million, according to the SCTA 2020 vision. Dr Salah Al-Bhukayyet has been responsible for monitoring the criteria for classifying and licensing hotels.

He is also overseeing tourism funding, visa regulations and the licensing of timeshare units, tour guides, operators and major tourism projects, including Al Uqair and Souk Okaz.

In addition to helping ensure that hotels and key amenities are built and up to standard, the commission is also charged with training up Saudis so that they can take jobs in the indus-try. With those kinds of goals to aim for, Dr Albu-kayyet is a worthy inclusion on our list.

Dr Salah Albukayyet, deputy secre-tary general, Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities

9 10


REGIONAL NEWSThe ATN power 50



Salim Bin Adey Al-Mamari has some ambitious targets to achieve — in 2005, the ministry said it wanted to increase tourism revenues by 7% annually over the next fi ve years. It also aims to increase the proportion of Omani nationals in the travel and tourism sector to 90% from a fi gure of 37%. While striving to achieve these ambitious goals, Al-Mamari has a strict brief to ensure that tourism development does not impact Oman’s natural beauty and environment.

Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (Rakia) is the gov-ernment body responsible for ensuring the socio-economic growth of the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. Under its CEO, Khater Massaad, it has a brief to help develop the travel and tourism sector in this northern region of

the UAE. Visitor numbers to RAK are tipped to hit 2.5 million by 2012, on the back of a tourism marketing campaign that emphasises sports and the outdoors.

The International Association of Athletics Feder-ations (IAAF) has already conferred its Silver Label status on the RAK Half Marathon, which is still only in its third year and has already witnessed one world record time. Thanks to the efforts of Rakia and Mas-saad, two dozen fi ve-star hotel groups have plans to start operations in Ras Al Khaimah within the next fi ve years. If the announced projects pan out, the emirate will have 5500 hotel rooms by 2012, com-pared with 1800 at the start of 2008.

Peter Hill arrived at Oman Air in 2008 having served as head of Sri Lankan Airlines. Following Oman’s with-drawal from Gulf Air a few years ago, the race has been on to quickly estab-lish the airline as an international player and boost the fl ow of people into the country. Hill is currently over-seeing a fl urry of activity designed to help improve Oman’s links with key international tourism feeder markets. In recent weeks, Oman Air has added services to Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, the Mal-dives and Sri Lanka. Aircraft interiors are being mod-ernised, uni-forms rede-signed and new fi rst and busi-ness products introduced.

Since taking on the role of Qatar Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (QTEA) chairman in 2007, Ahmed Al Nuaimi has worked to turn Qatar into a destination for business and leisure visitors worldwide. According to Al Nuaimi, almost 1.1 million visitors stayed in Qatar in 2008, up 10% on the previous year. The country has some major projects under development, including the Pearl Qatar, the Lusail project and Al Sidra Golf District.

The country is also now host to major sporting events, including WTA Championship tennis, the fi rst night-time Moto Grand Prix, the Ladies Cycling Tour of Doha and the Asian Cup football tournament 2011.

Lee Tabler is responsible for delivering the projects that will bring high-in-come travellers to the UAE capi-tal. In his role as

Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) chief executive, Tabler has overseen numerous devel-opments in Abu Dhabi’s tourism sec-tor and has been responsible for land acquisition and deal structuring for major hospitality and entertain-ment projects. These include eco-aware developments such as Desert Islands and high-pro-fi le project Saadiyat Island, as well as Abu Dhabi Golf Resort, Anantara Qasr Al Sarab Resort & Spa and Angsana Resort and Spa Eastern Mangroves.

An engineer by trade, Wael Al Lawati was hired in 2003 to launch The Wave, one of the country’s major tourism proj-ects, before taking up his role at Omran, the government body responsible for promoting investment in tourism and real estate ventures.

Omran is currently involved in developing a number of

resort-style proj-ects, including the Khasab and Jabal Akhdar hotels that

will signifi cantly boost the quality of tour-

ism infrastructure in Oman, while adhering to the gover nment’s brief to protect Oman’s natural beauty.

Salim Bin Adey Al-Mamari, director general of tourism promotion, Oman Ministry of Tourism

Khater Massaad, CEO, RAK Investment Authority

Peter Hill, CEO, Oman Air

Paul Griffi ths, CEO, Dubai Airports

Ahmed Al Nuaimi, chairman, Qatar Tourism and Exhibitions Authority

Lee Tabler, chief exec-utive, Tourism Devel-opment & Investment Company (TDIC)

Wael Al Lawati, CEO, Omran

11

12

13 14

15 16 17Just a year into his post as CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffi ths played his part in ensuring the glitch-free launch of Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport in October, 2008.

Next June, he has to ensure that phase one of Al Maktoum Inter-

national Airport — a nine million passenger terminal — opens smoothly and that airlines have signed up to use it. Beyond that, he has to ensure the airport contin-ues to develop towards its mind-boggling stretch tar-get of handling 160 million passengers per annum.

Prior to moving to Dubai, Griffi ths was managing director of London’s Gatwick Airport, operated by Brit-ish Airports Authority. He also spent 14 years with Rich-ard Branson at the Virgin Group.

ankfurt, he Mal-Lanka.

ors d-i-





Abdullah M Rehaimi appointment as president of the Gen-eral Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) in 2003 was designed to bring a business-oriented, outsider’s view to the run-ning of the organisation. Rehaimi since focused on three core objectives: to liberalise the domestic market, improve operating policies and procedures, and invest in airport improvement and expansion.

Industry stalwart Leo Fewtrell has dedicated 31 years to the GCC’s travel and tourism industry. After stints with MMI, Inchcape and Dnata, in 2004 he started desti-nation marketing fi rm Gulfreps, but Fewtrell is now best known as manager of Dubai Travel and Tour Agents Group (DTTAG) — a body

that has fought hard for the interests of travel agents, from buy-ing power and bonds to train-ing needs.

Ali Zaid Abu Monassar is the driving force behind Net Group, which has been a pillar of the local travel and tourism

industry since 1989. The company’s divisions include

Net Tours, Incentive Productions, Net Conference and Conventions, Net Holidays, Net Cruises, Net Golf, Plea-sure Tours, 1001 Arabian Nights and Netco Transport.

Together, the divisions provide a one-stop solution for tours & safaris and MICE (meetings, incentives, con-ferences and exhibitions) in the Mid-dle East.

Abdullah M Rehaimi, president, The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Saudi Arabia

Leo Fewtrell, man-ager, Dubai Travel and Tour Agents Group

Ali Zaid Abu Monassar, executive chairman,Net Group

18

22 23Samir Daqqaq is a stalwart of the regional travel industry and a 30-year Marriott veteran. He was recently hailed by David Townshend, Mar-riott’s senior VP of global sales, for his respect for others, sense of hon-our and excellent mentoring of colleagues.

Daqqaq joined Marriott in 1979 as an administrative assistant at the Riyadh Marriott Hotel in Saudi Arabia, focusing on guest rela-tions. Over the years, he steadily advanced through a number of key operational and sales positions, eventually becoming director of sales and marketing at the Amman Marriott Hotel in Jordan.

He worked in Marriott prop-erties in France, Warsaw and San Francisco before returning to the Middle East to establish a sales network in the region. Daqqaq is a graduate in hotel management from Cairo’s Helwan University.

Samir Daqqaq, Marriott Interna-tional’s vice president of global sales for the Middle East & Africa24

Marwan Boodai’s motivation in founding Jazeera Airways was simple: to create a low-cost airline for passengers travelling between Kuwait and other Middle Eastern destinations.

Jazeera Airways began fl ying in 2005 and now serves 24 cities across the Middle East, Iran and India. The airline claims to be profi table and aims to carry almost 2.5 million passengers this year.

After making its name as a budget carrier, Jazeera is now looking to shed the ‘low-cost’ label.

Its next big initiative is the introduction of a Busi-ness Class seat, priced, it claims, around 35% lower than current business offerings.

Marwan Boodai, chairman and CEO, Jazeera Airways19

Based on his 32 years of experience in tourism, Frederic Bardin’s job is to establish this division of the Emirates Group as a world-class professional congress organiser (PCO). CSI has handled a number of events locally for international play-

ers, including the Institute of Management Accoun-tants, the World Association of Cooks Societies and

US-based fi nancial fi rm, BlackRock. CSI aims to make its mark by handling every aspect of an event, from logistics and IT to preparation of handouts and after-hours entertainment.

Frederic Bardin, senior vice president, Congress Solutions International20

Marc-Francois Dardenne, CEO, Emaar Hospitality Group

Marc Dardenne’s name is synonymous with the establishment of luxury hospitality brands in the Middle East. His current job, as head of Emaar’s hospitality group, is to establish The Address as a new high-end hotel brand in the region.

Prior to joining Emaar in 2007, he served as vice president and area general manager for The Ritz-Carlton Hotels in the Middle East, helping to establish a chain of four luxury hotels across the region. He has also worked with the Hyatt group, spending 11 years in Asia in various properties.

21



Richard Cregan must be excited and full of trepidation in equal measure right now. He heads the organisation responsible for building and running Yas Marina Circuit, home of the forthcoming Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Cregan is a man with motor racing in his blood. He joined Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management from Toyota Motorsport, which he joined in 1984. Over more than two decades, he took on many roles within the team including rally mechanic, workshop manager and operations man-ager for Toyota’s title-winning rally programme and the Le Mans 24 hour project. In 1999 he was closely involved in the creation of Toyota’s F1 team and went on to become general manager of F1 operations in 2001. In 2004, he became team manager, responsible for the smooth opera-tion of the team and relations with F1’s governing body.

As COO of Roya International, a Dubai-based con-sultancy, Gerhard Hardick is used to giving travel and hospitality fi rms honest advice.

Occasionally, his views also appear in the public space, such as when he famously urged regional hotels to downsize their middle management.

Hardick has more than 30 years of regional and interna-tional experience in the fi eld.

Through his work with chains such as Hilton Hotels, he has amassed a swathe of experience that he uses to advise compa-nies on operations, sales, marketing and fi nance.

Mohammed Al Habbai is charged with overseeing Dubai’s largest single tourism development initiative, but also has to spend a lot of time fending off questions about the timescale of projects.

Not so surprising given that Dubailand is a truly ambi-tious undertaking, involving a series of individual develop-ments that together make up one of the largest tourism des-tinations in the world.

In his role, Al Habbai is involved in bringing inves-tors such as Universal and Hit Entertainment into Dubailand and facilitating the smooth delivery of individual projects.

Ulrich T. Eckhardt oversees the 13 Kempinski Hotels currently operating in the region, includ-ing the world-famous Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and Kempinski Hotel Ajman, which he not only launched in 1998, but continues to manage despite his regional promotion.

Since then, he has led the development from the ground-up of the portfolio and achieved worldwide acclaim for sev-eral of them, such as the inclusion of

Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea, Jordan, in the World’s 50 best hotels by Forbes Traveler (US) in 2008. Responsible now

for spearheading Kem-pinksi’s expansion in the

Middle East, Eckhardt plans to more than double the portfolio

to 30 hotels by the end of 2012.

F o l l o w i n g rapid pro-motion to the post of regional vice p re s i d e n t , Majdi Sabri implements the Inter-national Air Tr a n s p o r t

Association’s policies and promotes its services to airline CEOs and civil aviation directors in the region. He is charged with leading a ‘programme of change’ in the MENA region and is a strong advocate of strengthen-ing the region’s open sky policy. Dr Sabri earned his aviation experience through seven years spent at Royal Jordanian and before that he worked as director of planning at Jordan’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Richard Cregan, CEO, Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management

Gerhard Hardick, chief operat-ing offi cer, Roya International Mohammed Al Habbai, chief

executive offi cer of Dubailand

Ulrich Eckhardt, Kempinski President Middle East and Africa

Dr Majid Sabri, regional vice president, IATA

25 26 27

2829

ly, his views also appear in the publics when he famously urgedels to downsize

management.as more than 30nal and interna-nce in the fi eld.his work with s Hilton Hotels, he

a swathee that he compa-rations,keting

47 November 2009 – Arabian Travel News

The ATN Power 50

Olivier Louis deserves a place on this list for helping to establish Dubai as a high-end beach desti-nation. He was general manager of the One&Only Royal Mirage when it was an isolated outpost on an almost deserted stretch of beach.Nowadays the One&Only Royal Mirage is surrounded by the likes of JBR, Dubai Marina and countless international hotels

but remains at the heart of Dubai’s tour-ism offering and is still one of the most sought after places to stay in Dubai.

Through his efforts as general manager of Le Meridien Al Aqah, Patrick Antaki has helped put the UAE’s East Coast on the tourism map.

Once an isolated fi ve-star hotel on a pris-tine coastal strip in Fujairah, the property is

now surrounded by high-end tourism and leisure devel-opments as well as new resorts. Antaki is an enthu-siastic spokesperson for, and a promoter of, Fujairah

and the East Coast, focusing much of his effort on rais-ing awareness of the area’s poten-tial as a primary watersports des-tination in the UAE.

Olivier Louis, general manager, One&Only Royal Mirage

Patrick Antaki, general man-ager, Le Meridien Al Aqah

31

33

Keith Fernandez is group managing director of Destina-tions of the World (DOTW), a leading travel industry whole-saler based in Dubai.Through a network of 21 global offi ces and a sophisticated e-com-merce platform, DOTW provides more than 80,000 ground services in more than 1200 cities to whole-salers and agents around the world.

Keith Fernandez, group managing director, Destinations of the World

32

Martin Whitaker joined Bahrain International Cir-cuit shortly after the fi rst F1 event was held there in 2004. He had been closely involved in the promotion of that inaugural race as an employee of KHP Con-sulting, the international sports marketing agency.

Whitaker came to the job with a strong working knowledge of the motor sport industry. He was an integral part of the KHP team that assisted in the organisation of the fi rst race and is familiar with the workings of FIA, the Formula One governing body. He was also director of motor sport at Ford Motor Company and held positions at McLaren Racing and the RAC Motor Sports Association.

Martin Whitaker,general manager, Bahrain International Circuit

30

www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/travel





Dnata Travel Services sources, supplies, distributes, promotes and supports

the best in travel products from around the world, making them easily accessible to its custom-ers. Recent initiatives include the launch of an executive air travel division with Empire Aviation and an investment in UK-based Hogg Rob-inson Group, a corporate

travel specialist, as well as the establishment of an outlet in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Helen Beck’s tireless work has resulted in the establishment of a dedicated Arabian cruise season based in Dubai. From January to April 2010, Royal Caribbean International will introduce seven-night cruises around the GCC from a base in Dubai. The company will deploy Brilliance of the Seas, a 2501 capacity luxury vessel, on the itinerary, which will include fi ve stops around the Gulf.

An eco-warrior by nature, Tony Wil-liams is overseeing the development of a chain of luxury eco resorts for the Emirates Group, including Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, Dubai and Wol-gan Valley Resort & Spa in Australia, with Cap Ternay Resort & Spa in the Seychelles to follow in 2012. Williams is also responsible for in-house spa brand, Timeless Spa.

Alpha Tours is a leading inde-pendent destination man-agement company in Dubai, servicing both the tour man-agement and recreation plan-ning industries. It was estab-lished in 1995 by Ghassan Aridi, who has more than 25 years of experience in desti-nation management. A grad-

uate in tourism, Aridi has ambi-tious plans for the company, including the

establish-ment of s t r o n g i n t e r -

national o p e r a -

tions.

Chris O’Donnell joined Nakheel in June 2006 and spearheaded the execution of the company’s developments. He joined from Investa Prop-erty Group, an investment, management and develop-ment company that became Australia’s largest listed owner of commercial property. He has also held senior roles

with Westpac I n v e s t m e n t Property, Lend Lease Prop-erty Invest-ment Services.

Former director of special projects at the Department of Tourism & Com-merce Marketing, Chuck Heath was the driving force behind the devel-opment of cruise tourism in Dubai. With passenger numbers increasing fi ve-fold in fi ve years, he conceived and executed plans for a dedicated cruise terminal, one that not only looked good, but also met global standards for service and safety. Built in just nine months and opened in March 2001, the terminal hosted four ships and around 4000 passengers on its launch day, including the world famous QE2, whose master, Captain Warwick, nom-inated it as “one of the fi nest cruise ter-minals” he had ever seen.

EmQuest is a travel distribu-tion company that devel-ops, markets and operates technologies and services.

Under Nizari, the com-pany has signed a 10-year deal to represent Sabre Travel Network, which con-nects buyers and sellers of travel products and ser-vices. EmQuest has also developed a regional dis-tribution service (RDS) for local suppliers wish-ing to promote and sell their services.

Iain Andrew, divisional senior vice president, Dnata Travel Services

Helen Beck, regional sales director, Middle East, Royal Caribbean

Tony Williams, senior vice president, Emirates Hotels & Resorts

Ghassan Aridi, CEO, Alpha Tours

Chris O’Donnell, CEO, Nakheel

Chuck Heath Naz Nizari, senior vice president, EmQuest

34

38 39 40

35

36 37



In 1995, Sonu S h i v d a s a n i opened the fi rst Six Senses property. The group has pio-neered the

concept of eco-hotels by sourcing local, organic produce and keep-ing its carbon footprint to a min-imum. Shivdasani has declared the Six Senses group will be car-bon neutral by 2020. Regionally, the group has properties in Oman and Jordan. Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay has been hailed the region’s fi rst true eco resort.

Simon Horgan is helping to establish Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre as a world-class facility. He has worked in the exhibition and media indus-try for more than 30 years. Horgan was director of the Dubai World Trade Centre for eight years, before becoming an executive board director of The NEC Group of venues in the UK. He became chief execu-tive of ADNEC and the Capital Centre in 2005.

Rod Bogg has been a key fi gure in the establishment of Dubai as a golfi ng destination. He is managing direc-tor of Dubai Golf, which has a workforce of some 900-plus employees overseeing the courses in addition to nine food & beverage outlets, a marina, residential developments, golf academies and extensive recreational facilities.

Pam Wilby, another stal-wart of the regional hotel industry and one of its fi rst lady GMs, man-ages a combined team of more than 1000 people across two hotels. She is GM of one of Dubai’s oldest hotels, Le Royal Méri-dien Beach Resort and Spa, as well as the newer Gros-venor House Dubai in Dubai Marina.

Holiday Autos Middle East is a broker dealing with a number of car rental sup-pliers and negotiating the lowest possible rates and savings for customers and travel agents.

It provides the online car rental booking engine for several regional airline sites and offers consider-able incentives for agents and agencies.

Prior to launching Hol-iday Autos Middle East, he managed the compa-ny’s international division in the UK. Musar is also a partner in destination marketing fi rm Gulf Reps, alongside Leo Fewtrell, who is number 22 on the Power 50 list.

Lore Koenig is director of sales and marketing at the Chedi hotel in Mus-cat, which has helped in establishing Oman as a high-end destination for affl uent and cultural tourists. Conde Nast Traveller readers voted Chedi their favourite hotel in Africa, Middle East and the Indian Ocean in 2008.

Hani Khorsheed, the general sec-retary of the Abu Dhabi Travel and Tourism Agencies Council (ATTAC), has been a prime

mover in the formation of the Gulf Travel & Tourism Associations Com-mittee (GTTAC). As its secretary gen-eral, Khorsheed is encouraging co-operation and the exchange of ideas between agents across the Gulf coun-tries. In addition, in his role at ATTAC, Khorsheed he has been a keen pro-moter of the travel industry in the UAE capital while protecting the interests of the group’s agency members.

Sonu Shivdasani, chairman & CEO, Six Senses

Simon Horgan, CEO, ADNEC

Rod Bogg, managing director, Dubai Golf

Pam Wilby, general man-ager, Grosvenor House Dubai and Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort and Spa

Nazar Musa, managing director, Holiday Autos Lore Koenig, director of

sales and marketing, The Chedi, Muscat

Hani Khorsheed, general secretary,ATTAC and GTTAC

41 42

43

44

45 46 47

a otee of itsman-ined than

acrossis GM

s oldest Méri-sortas -



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Serenity and Joie de Vivre

MCI is a com-m u n i c a t i o n s and events management company pro-viding services in the fi elds of

association management, con-gresses and exhibitions, live com-munication, meetings, events and performance improvement programmes. In 2006, MCI started operations in Dubai with Isaacs at its helm. It’s the company’s elev-enth offi ce worldwide but only the second one outside Europe.

As CEO of expo@bahrain, Debbie Stanford Kristiansen plays a key role in marketing the @bahrain development to the global MICE industry. Kristiansen is a MICE indus-try stalwart, having spent six years on the Board of the

Society of Incentive & Travel Executives Great Brit-ain and I r e l a n d Chapter.

Mark Walsh deserves a place on ATN’s Power 50 for his role in orchestrating the Middle East’s largest travel trade show — Arabian Travel Market, which this next year (2010) will celebrate its 17th

edition. Walsh, who is also responsible for sev-eral B2B shows at UK-based Reed Travel Exhibi-tions (RTE) including International Golf Travel Market and City Break, took over the reins of ATM from Chris Chackal in 2007.

The 2010 installment of the show, which will take place from May 4-7 was already 50% con-tracted at the time of press.

Sumaira Isaacs, managing director, MCI Middle East

Debbie Stanford Kristiansen, CEO of expo@bahrain

Mark Walsh, Group Exhibition Director, Arabian Travel Market

48 49 50


REGIONAL NEWSNEWS MIME

ATN talks to Cathay Pacifi c’s man-of-all-trades, Clement Au, who has been appointed the country manager for the UAE and Oman

ATN: What is your travel industry background? I have been working with Cathay Pacifi c for more than 10 years in a wide range of departments from engineer-ing to marketing and cus-tomer information systems to revenue management.

ATN: What are your main responsibilities in your new role and what do you think will be the biggest chal-lenges you will face?Cathay Pacifi c has been serv-ing the UAE since 1977 and performing very well in this region. It is my responsibility

to ensure that the team keeps up the good work, especially in the exciting, but challeng-ing times we are facing.

ATN: How much opportu-nity do the UAE and Omani markets present to Cathay Pacifi c and how do you plan to utilise this potential?The UAE is defi nitely a key market for Cathay Pacifi c. From the excellent infra-structure that has been established in Dubai in the last fi ve to 10 years to the vision and the rapid devel-opments of Abu Dhabi and the potential of neighbour-

ing GCC countries, Cathay Pacifi c is defi nitely looking out for opportunities, even during these diffi cult times. Our new fl ight to Jeddah that

and how will you ensure you achieve them? I think it would be to ensure that the team is performing to its full potential. It’s the people in the company that makes or breaks the case; everything else will fall in place after that.

ATN: Does Cathay Pacifi c have any major expan-sion plans for the UAE and Omani markets at this time? We have no concrete plans yet, but as mentioned we are keeping our options open and are always on the look-out for opportunities.

Agent action

New recruit

Checkin’ in/checkin’ out

It is my responsibility to ensure that the team keeps up the good work, especially in the exciting, but challenging times we are facing ”

started last month is a prime example of this.

ATN: What are your primary objectives in your new role

HACHEM TAKES ON DUEL ROLEHussein Hachem has

taken on the new position of cluster general manager for the Dubai hotels Al Murooj Rotana and Al Bustan Rotana.

Hachem is a hospitality veteran who has worked for Rotana since the company’s beginnings. He has previously launched and operated many hotel properties across the Middle East and Europe.

MBE TAKES ON TVPaul Kennedy MBE has been appointed executive chair-

man of Meetings Review Ltd, proprietor of digital TV channel MEETINGS:review. He will be responsible for developing the digital channel and plans to work closely with the com-pany’s industry partners.

NOT A MOUTTE CHOICEGerald Moutte joins The Court-yard by Marriott Hotel, Kuwait City and the Arraya Ballroom as general manager.

Moutte brings with him a wealth of management ex-perience to the role and has worked for a selection of multi-national chains.

He leaves his previous role at the Renaissance

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, where he was general manager.

Moutte’s globetrotting career has taken him to South Korea, the US, Egypt, UAE and France. He was also part of the launch project for Disneyland, Paris.

ALL THE WAY FOR ALLVEY Oberoi Hotels & Resorts has appointed former Rocco Forte Collection global sales direc-tor Mark Allvey as new vice president of sales and market-ing EMEA.

Allvey, who will be based in London, said he

would look to recruit “the best in the business” to run and man-

age

new regional offi ces, as he aims to set up new sales and marketing regional sales of-fi ces in key European markets and the Middle East.

“The aim is to re-connect with the trade, develop close relationships and work closely and tactically with key travel trade partners,” he added.

He leaves his previousrole at the Renaissanc

ASOKA IN FORWARD GEARHoliday Autos, part of trav-elocity, has promoted former Middle East sales manager Asoka Ponnuswamy to general manager. Ponnuswamy, who joined the car rental fi rm in 2008 and has worked in the industry for 27 years, said: “We are very optimistic of the business recovery in the region and are already seeing early

signs of it. The purchase of India’s largest hotel distribution

network trav-elguru by trave-

locity, further reiterates this op-timistic view.”

London, said he would look to recruit “the best in the business” to run and man-

age


REGIONAL NEWSAgent action

I strongly believe that a sign of recovery is not far off, at least in

Oman. We have seen a lot of big and small projects announced in Oman by the government that includes a major US $1.5 billion airport infrastructure project, which involves participation from many local and foreign companies.

More and more airlines are also adding Oman to their network and the economic cli-mate here is generally very positive.

We had many cancellations due to the recession that started earlier here than in

Western countries, however the impact on the outbound holidays was mainly due to H1N1 fears. The initial drop in business was alarm-ing, but once the H1N1 issue is under control I am sure the outbound holiday market will pick up again.

My personal feeling is that next year will defi nitely show an upward trend, but it will take more than a year to fully recover to pre-recession levels.

When do you think the travel industry will show signs of economic recovery?

Burning issue

I person-ally think the market hasn’t bottomed out yet. Peo-ple are still

watching their pennies and are concerned about job security.

They are not necessarily spending less if they take one trip away, but many potential travellers are now considering a fewer num-ber of breaks in a year.

We have attempted to deal with the cri-sis by fi nding new ways to make money and by trying to offer our clients added value for their dirham. I predict that the situation will

recover to pre-recession levels by late 2010 if we are lucky.

Mark Reed, General Man-

ager, Arabian Pacifi c Travel and Tourism, Dubai

I think the travel indus-try will see signs of eco-nomic recov-ery in one year’s time.

The desti-nation that has seen the biggest fall in trade dur-

ing the economic crisis has been the US. We have had to deal with the crisis by reducing overheads and maximising staff effi ciency by enhancing the technology we use.

I don’t believe the situation will fully recover for another fi ve years.

The most we can do at the moment is to improve our services for our corporates, to maintain good relationships with them and to line up more business

in the future. We have been trying our best to attract new companies that have just started up businesses in Qatar. We have also had to be tougher when it comes to the collection of our outstanding payments from the market, in order to improve or recover from our cur-rent fi nancial situation. In my opinion, I think signs of economic recovery will shine through by the beginning of 2011.

Prasad Pillai, General Manager, Eihab Travels, Muscat

“I personally think the market hasn’t bottomed

out yet”

“The travel industry will see signs of economic

recovery in one year’s time”

Kolait Bolice, General Manager, Hori-zon Travel and Tourism, Doha Sunny Augustine, Executive Director,

Whitesands Tours and Travel, Dubai

“Once the H1N1 issue is under control I am sure outbound holidays will pick up

again ”

“We have also had to be tougher when it comes

to the collection of our outstanding payments from

the market”


REGIONAL NEWSAgent action Interview

Chit chat

Tough talk

was a job well done, as they were very satisfi ed and gave me lots of referrals too. ATN: Where do you like to go on holiday and why? Anywhere I have not been before, would be great. It is always fun to experience and explore new cities, cul-tures and sights. Top on my current list of places I would like to visit are Cairo, Petra and Kenya.

ATN: What do you like best about your job? I like the interaction with people from all backgrounds and all walks of life, as well as the job’s educational value. ATN: What don’t you like about your job? Sometimes clients have very fi xed views and are not open to considering alternatives and sometimes better desti-nations. I would really love it if someone came in and said: “Just get me to a destination where you know I will have a fantastic fi ve-day holiday.”

Currently many people are missing out on lots of excit-ing destinations and offers,

because they don’t consider the alternatives on offer.

ATN: What’s the best deal you’ve ever done? A package for a couple who went away for 30 days; they identifi ed their destinations and allowed me to pick the hotels. They stayed in suites and even had meet-and-greet airside. They trusted my judgment and really enjoyed their trip. I think it

It is always fun to experience and explore new cities, cultures and sights ”

Al Naboodah Travel and Tourism Agencies head of leisure and marketing Shibly Jowhershah discusses business challenges and his top destinations

Meet the agent…

Name: Shibly Jowhershah Age: 47Title: Head of leisure and marketing Agency: Al Naboodah Travel and Tourism Agencies Number of years at the agency: 4Number of years in the travel industry: 29Ambition: To be known as “The Specialist”

ATN: What are the biggest challenges facing your travel agency right now? Motivating staff so they feel secure and ensuring we meet our targets. ATN: What has been the impact of the economic slowdown on sales in the past 12 months? We have had to conduct a more careful analysis of spending, in particular the budgets for marketing and sales campaigns. ATN: What has been the impact of Swine Flu on sales in 2009?

People have curtailed their travel plans, not because of the fear of contracting the fl u, but because they do not want to risk the incon-venience of being quaran-tined in a foreign country for a week.

ATN: What opportunities are there to exploit in the current market?Promoting destinations that can offer more value-for-money considering the current economic sit-uation. Two such destina-tions are Malaysia and Thai-land, which have proven to be very popular in the past, but do not appear to have met their expected number of visitors this year.

ATN: What is the outlook for

your agency in 2010? We always like to keep a pos-itive outlook. People will always travel, even if they have concerns about the current situation or costs. The challenge is to promote destinations and products that will ensure travellers have a good time and main-tain positive memories; after all, that is what creates a great holiday. ATN: Do you have any travel agency news to share? Yes, our expansion plans have moved ahead and we have opened three new branches this year in Abu Dhabi, Ras al Khaimah and at the Arabian Centre, in Mirdif, Dubai. These are very positive steps to fi t in with our strategy.

Jowhershah said Kenya was one destination he’d most like to visit.

Fed-up selling the same old destinations and packages? Bored of recommending the bog standard icons — Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Giza and the Statue of Liberty — to visit?

Well, tropical North Queensland in Aus-tralia may be able to light up your working life. In 2012, the destination will experience one of the world’s great astronomical events — a total solar eclipse.

On the morning of November 14, the earth will be plunged into darkness as the moon passes in front of the sun. This remarkable event is destined to be one of life’s awe-in-spiring moments, so even the most discern-ing traveller will be excited by this prospect.

But if you want to get your clients booked, you’d better be quick as a crack team of tour-ism professionals from North Queensland - spanning restaurateurs, tourism marketing professionals, music festival specialists and coach, airline and reef tour operators — are already working on a campaign to maximise the tourism potential of the event.

Group spokesman, Todd Parker of Parker Travel Collection said: “In December 2002, the Solar Eclipse at the small town-ship of Ceduna in South Australia attracted more than 40,000 peo-ple — which as a destination was considered the prime observa-tion point.

“Given the 2012 eclipse will pass directly over areas within tropical North Queensland, we are confi dent of attracting the same number of observers at the very least. “With the possibility of coastal cloud cover affecting visibil-ity, it has believed the best place to view the eclipse will be on the Tablelands and out on the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

So, it’s time to get cracking and offer some creative corporate and FIT packages to the Solar Eclipse before hotels get sold out.

Tourism Queensland is now represented in the GCC by Andrew Oldfi eld.

Selling the Solar EclipseImpress your clients by offering an out-of-this-world experience

ATN’s travel agent of the month

ATN: How has selling and promoting Britain as a tourist destination helped you develop your talents as a travel agent? VisitBritain has been very active in market-ing the destination and is the only tourism offi ce from the west that has been in Dubai since I came here in 1995. It has been a source of inspiration, whether it’s marketing cam-paigns or events or presentations.

ATN: How highly do you rate Britain as a tourist destination? Every individual has a dream to visit the UK: the destination has options for every age and every segment, whether it’s for educa-tional groups, incentives, sports tourism or shopping. While our job as travel agents is to provide all possible information, VisitBrit-ain does a great job in providing the tools for sourcing information through its website.

I have a passion for my job and for me to sell

BCD Travel tours manager Rahul Pradhan

or promote a destination there should be support from the tourism board. ATN: What does it mean to you to be nominated for the Arabian Travel News agent of the month? I have a great sense of achievement.

Star agent: Rahul PradhanPosition: Tours managerAge: 37Nationality: IndianTime in travel industry: 20 yearsTime at Trans World: 18 monthsAmbition: “At some stage, I would like to peep into the world of marketing — for an airline or maybe for a destination develop-ment fi rm.”Nominated by: VisitBritain market-ing manager Carol MaddisonDurai says: “Pradhan is tireless in his task of ensuring that pro-spective clients know exactly what Britain has to offer, whether they have big or small budgets.”

The initiative aims to give agents a big pat on the back in recognition of their achievements. It awards agents who that go that extra mile, not just for their organisations, but for their own personal achieve-ments. It could be that you’ve shown initiative and made a big sale; completed a training programme; got promoted; or gone out of your way to achieve excellence in your fi eld. ATN takes nominations from both suppliers and agents. Email [email protected]

About ATN’s Travel Agent of the Month

North Queensland will experience the Solar Eclipse in November 2012.


REGIONAL NEWSAgent action

on thereom the

Pradhan: I’d like to get into

marketing.

arabian travel news - nov 2009

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