8
NEW | SEMINARS
SEMINAR HIGHLIGHTS
BRINGING YOU AN ESSENTIAL ROUND-UP OF DISCUSSION POINTS, QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM YESTERDAY'S SEMINAR PROGRAMME
AVIATIONALIVEAND KICKING "If aircraft sales are anything to by, the MENA aviation industry is alive and kicking," said Habib Fekih, President Airbus Middle East and Airbus Corporate Jets, at yesterday's panel discussion on aviation in the region. According to Fekih, 2011 was Airbus' best year yet in the region and the future looks just as promising as the Middle East is set to absorb around seven percent of world fleet over the next two decades and North Africa around 6.4 percent. Fekih was joined by Will Lšfberg, Senior Manager Public and Environmental Affairs, Emirates Airline and Adel Abdullah Ali, CEO Air Arabia, who agreed that African markets present huge opportunities for the airlines. "We moved into the African market early and are expanding our Africa routes,"said Lšfberg.
Taken from 'The challenges facing aviation growth in the Middle East'
'SNOWBALLING' POPULARITY OF SMART PHONES
Paul Richer, Senior Partner, Genesys, a travel technology consultancy, encouraged travel companies to interact with customers through social media at his seminar yesterday morning.
He suggested that essential channels, such as websites, should not be pushed aside, but used together with other online channels. He pointed out the 'snowballing' popularity of smart phones and the age of instant information. "Consumers share everything," he observed. "If a customer checks into your hotel, all his or her friends will hear about their experiences. A total of 78 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14 percent trust advertising." Taken from 'Winning online'
SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICE Mark Frary, Co-founder of the WTM Social Travel Market (a fringe conference dedicated to the industry's use of social media), gave a fascinating insight into best practice at Arabian Travel Market yesterday. Highlighting the good work by Dusit and Atlantis in Dubai, Frary used video, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ examples to highlight his views on what makes or breaks a social media campaign for a hospitality company.
"The year 2005 was a watershed," said Frary. "The voice of the guest could no longer be ignored." Taken from 'WTM Vision conference'
SECRETS OF AN INTERNET GIANT
At Arabian Travel Market, Marie de Ducla, Gulf Travel Industry Head at Google, gave an overview of the Internet giant, as well as offering insight into Internet usage specific to the travel industry. She also showcased two impressive travel verticals currently in experimental stages Ð Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search. Both verticals offered intuitive results and information focused on the user experience and excited attendees eager to know more about these potential game-changers in the search-engine space.
Taken from 'The Google perspective: Making the web work for you'
FISHING INNEW WATERS With a panel of speakers comprising: Cathy Mead, i4detail; Jerad Bachar, Dubai Convention Bureau; Oscar van der Veen, Concierge Manager for the Burj Al Arab; and moderated by Rob Nicholas, Managing Director, Nicholas Publishing International, the emerging Chinese, Russian and Arabic source markets were discussed at length having produced exponential growth for the UAE.
'Understanding the unique demands and tourism drivers for each market is essential,' commented Bachar. 'It is essential to diversify and have a product offering that appeals to different audiences, whether they are Chinese, Russian, Arabic or any other nationality.' Taken from 'Tapping the tourism source'
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