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NEWS


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AIR ARABIA HELPS TO DEFINE BUDGET TRAVEL


IQPAD: ADDING INNOVATION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT


Hotel IQ, a company that has been providing quality assurance and consulting services to hotels worldwide since 2001 – including 40 in the Middle East – is about to unveil the IQpad, a new platform for collating and quantifying data from social media channels, comment cards, mystery shoppers and customer feedback. Already undergoing trials by a leading European hotel group, it is available for pre-order for 2015. Data from such providers


Adel Ali


Air Arabia has helped reshape the nature of air travel in the Gulf since it began operations in October 2003. In little more than a decade, the low-cost carrier based in Sharjah has increased its fleet to 37 aircraft, expanded its route network to 85 destinations and improved its annual passenger numbers from a mere 200,000 in its first year to in excess of eight million in 2013. Perhaps more importantly,


it not only helped introduce the concept of low-cost air


travel in the Middle East, and in doing so helped greatly improve the ability of many people to travel around the region, but also elevated the service delivery associated with the sector. It is the latter point that


Air Arabia CEO Adel Ali, is particularly proud of. “People tend to have a perception of the budget experience but Air Arabia has a 32-inch seat pitch, which is comparable to many European airlines’ business class,” he says. “So you can say we’re an all-business class carrier at a budget price.


“Our customers aren’t just


budget travellers, either. We have the business community, wealthy families and many other people who can afford to pay for conventional flights. They use us because we’re good and we’re good value.” Air Arabia recently


added a new hub in Ras Al Khaimah – its second in the UAE – and also operates from Casablanca and Alexandria. See our augmented reality


video interview with Adel Ali by downloading the app from layar.com or the App Store.


LUXURY HOTELS GROUP TAPS INTO NEW TREND


Following the launch of its dedicated Middle East office earlier this year, the Luxury Hotels Group is exhibiting at Arabian Travel Market to promote its services to the regional travel trade. The company’s portfolio


represents 126 properties as part of three collections – Luxury Hotels Collection, Luxury Boutique Collection and Luxury


Residences Collection – across the world’s most popular destinations and capitals. Services offered include a state-of-the-art booking engine, website and directory listing, digital marketing and sales representation as well as accounts and revenue management services, among others.


Vice President Mark Jones says


Luxury Hotels Group – Rahul Arora, Mark Jones


Visit stand HC5676


the company’s global network and market presences in London, Dubai and New Delhi enable its hotels to reach a worldwide audience in a cost-effective and efficient manner. “According to the latest STR Global research, there are 504 hotels in the Middle East/ Africa development pipeline, with the upscale segment accounting for the largest portion of new rooms at 34.4 percent, while the luxury segment made up nearly 20 percent of the total,” he says. Commenting on new hospitality trends in the region, he added: “While many of these hotels will be managed by international brands, there is a trend for independent operations as new-age travellers demand a unique hospitality experience rather than that offered by worldwide brands. For these properties, Luxury Hotels Group offers all the support, distribution and market penetration to place them on a competitive footing with those global names.”


Azerbaijan has launched a new e-visa system that is set to encourage more visitors from the Gulf. Citizens of all nationalities, including those from the GCC, can now apply for a visa online via one of the travel agencies approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan.


totals a vast amount of material that, when successfully analysed, is invaluable to understanding how a hotel is meeting the expectations of it guests. “Most hotels, and certainly


the bigger ones, already have a number of quality assurance initiatives and tools, generating a lot of reports on a lot of paper. Our goal is to get all this data, add more channels such as social media, put it in one place and, via a dashboard, organise it, assess it and then pinpoint the


required solutions to improve it,” says Paul King, Managing Director of Hotel IQ. “Basically, we’re using technology to take the effort and the delay out of noticing something that a hotel GM really should know about.” Available as a white-label


solution, hotels can subscribe to the platform and begin collating key data that they can use to improve their product and service offering – and


also benchmark themselves against their competitors. Also included is a self-assessment tool that department heads can use to measure performance internally and enhance training. “Most hotels tell us that they


don’t feel they pay for it as the revenue growth more than outweighs the cost,” says King. “In this industry, improving performance by just one percent can make all the difference.”


The Hotel IQ team Visit stand TT6278


AZERBAIJAN E-VISA SYSTEM PROMISES VISITOR BOOST


Applicants are charged US$10 for the visa, which is processed within seven to 10 days. “This gives us a competitive


advantage over other countries,” said the Ministry’s Head of Tourism Department, Aydin Ismiyev. “It is too early to determine the


new visa system’s impact, but once it has been up and running for a few years, we expect it to improve tourism to Azerbaijan.” Ismiyev said efforts to drive


more GCC-based tourists to Azerbaijan are focused on promotional campaigns and the continued participation at Arabian Travel Market. “The number of Gulf visitors


is small – they mainly travel for business or conference purposes – but we are trying to promote our


other attributes such as cultural and eco-tourism attractions.” Negotiations were also


underway to develop more air connectivity between Azerbaijan and the Gulf, Ismiyev added, building on the direct flights from Dubai and Doha to the country’s capital, Baku, already in operation. He also noted how Baku’s


tourism-related infrastructure had improved over the past three years, with six new hotel brands opening properties in the city, operated by hospitality firms “recognised by Arab travellers” including Hilton, Four Seasons, Jumeirah, Kempinski and Fairmont. Azerbaijan is represented


in the Gulf market by Dubai- based Atlantis Holidays.


Visit stand EU8268


Number of Chinese households able to afford overseas travel in the next 10 years


220 million Source: Amadeus/Oxford Economics


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