flydubai announced the launch of flights to Cluj-Napoca in Romania. The airline will operate twice-weekly flights between Dubai International (DXB) and Avram Iancu International Airport Cluj (CLJ) starting from 20 March 2021. flydubai operates a double daily service between Dubai International (DXB) and Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP). With the start of flights to Cluj-Napoca in March, the carrier will serve the Romanian market with a total of 16 weekly flights. Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai, said, “We first started operating to Bucharest with four flights a week in 2012. Since then, flydubai has more than tripled its operations to the market as demand has grown for commercial and cargo traffic between Romania and the UAE. We are excited to offer more options for convenient direct air links to the market with the start of our flights to Cluj-Napoca and we look forward to further stimulating travel and trade flows in both directions.” Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations and E-commerce at flydubai, added, “flydubai’s new service will offer more than 3.5 million people, living within a few hours drive from the airport, the convenience of direct airlinks to Dubai. There is also the opportunity for passengers to connect travel beyond on our network to popular destinations like Colombo, Malé and Zanzibar. The twice-weekly service will also benefit the Romanian expatriate population in the UAE to travel home more easily.”

Kathryn Moore, Founder and MD Spa Connectors, Global shares her ideas about the present and the many missed opportunities that could have benefited a lot more and still not late to implement is the correct understanding of the importance of creating a wellness package. “If I’m to talk about from an operational perspective we certainly need to look at how to implement wellness across all sectors, its’ not just an offering for people with money and I’m seeing so many opportunities in the GCC market, as I’m based in Dubai at the moment. We are seeing opportunities in hotels, in stand-alone wellness facilities, able to take on retreats even individual day packages, or what have you, there are so many opportunities that we encounter as wellness services. So whilst knowing what is required in the industry executing it and having the funds or the people on the ground understanding what to do is the biggest challenge that we saw hotels open up here in Dubai mid last year and it took probably 4 or 5 months for any hotel to start offering a wellness staycation every weekend people would do staycations in Dubai because they couldn’t travel anywhere but no hotel got around to creating a package for wellness to me, there is a lot of expertise here on the ground that could have been utilized for me its yes we know that wellness is so important to the longevity of health but how are we able to implement is because we don’t have the understanding at the ground level.”

Laszlo Puczko, CEO & Co-founder, Health Tourism Worldwide stated that the importance today is the adaptation according to local availability. He further said, “at the moment it is not necessarily how wellness is or what it may mean but more like how to adapt it to local situations and regional differences. When you talk about wellness or wellbeing you need to look at what is available locally, who we are talking to, and how we can adapt it not saying that this is a global thing so therefore it has to be applied to every single occasion. Also, it does suggest that we have more options because every destination, every region, every country, even property can have its very own response to the main challenge and that is a good thing, especially from a leisure perspective. Another important thing is the availability of options so far wellness is very much linked to GCC that’s very much a high-end understanding of what the product is typically not exclusively but given the global pandemic we need to think of alternatives to very different segments and provide available solutions to less affluent markets and that certainly is a challenge how to do that across societies, populations and cultures we need to be able to provide alternatives, less in thinking and wellness service so far as you have those foundations that can help us. For me the next year or so it’s very much how we look at local situations and come up with competitive valuable and affordable solutions not excluding the high-end market but more like thinking about the market as such and coming up with solutions at different levels and in a …

TravTalk digital conclave 2021 concluded with 6 experts sharing their valuable insights on some of the key areas faced by the industry. Health and wellness tourism is an integral part of the Middle East the second session focused on finding happiness through wellness tourism. Linda Abdulla – CEO and Founder – Oryx Healthcare Consultancy shared that the pandemic was a wake-up call to world normalcy which overturned every single part of the world making them take precautions and locking down nations in a bid to protect each of their citizens from the sufferings as much as possible. She opined that never before has health and well-being changed so rapidly with so many sufferings, anxiety, and despair, yet people were resilient especially in the Middle East region. “We all believe that covid 19 was a wake-up call to the world, so one moment people were going about their normal lives, jobs, school activities and in a matter of weeks, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, millions were infected and half the world’s population were on some sort of a lockdown, never before has health and wellbeing declined so rapidly and so simultaneously for so many people around the world. There was so much suffering going on for many from millionaires, isolation, heartbreak some had got anxiety, anger, and despair but our resilience as individuals and our society is very vital for survival and we all realize it all starts from our health and well being so healthy minds, healthy habits, even strong family ties carrying some trends it all strengthens our fortitude to cope with this pandemic and its repercussions and wellness is becoming the language in years before …

Travelport launched a bold and distinct new visual identity, which has been created as part of the company’s first-ever end-to-end rebrand. “Travelport has transformed”, said Greg Webb, Chief Executive Officer. “We are now fully focused on what we do best – connecting buyers and sellers that share our passion for delivering exceptional travel experiences. We are also embracing our strengths – our agility, our independence and our ability to make the bold long-term decisions needed to simplify travel’s complex ecosystem. Our new brand reflects all this – who we’ve become, through our investments in the right people, products and technology and our vision for the future, as we get ready for a year of significant advances for Travelport. We’re proud to show it to the world today and are looking forward to following it up very soon with the launch our next-generation platform, which will change the game in travel retailing.” “This is a holistic rebrand”, said Catto. “While we’ve kept the essence of what makes Travelport great, we’ve refined our vision, what we stand for, how we act, how we look and how we market our business. Most importantly, this is a new promise we’re making to our customers; we’ll work harder for you than anyone else to build a better, simpler and smarter future for travel retailing.” Travelport’s new visual identity can already be seen on its website and social media channels, which now include Instagram. The full rebrand of all assets, including products and office spaces, will be completed in the coming months.

Ramsumesh Menon reiterated, “over the past months we have been going through many changes but we have also seen the emergence of a different kind of audience. Some fight old systems whilst another school of thought accept change, prudent people know how to adapt for new scenarios.” He further stated the relevance between a travel agent and OTA spaces although he runs a typical Travel Management Company with more offline services as well as processors are digitalized. He mentioned that technology can be relevant as today there is ample information available over the internet. “Travellers are exposed to so much information through the internet. If you are looking at ICAO guidelines there are more than five stages of the recovery process with normalized operations. Many airports have adapted touchless solutions such as Bangalore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Heathrow. Digital integration to smartphone applications is one of the key drivers to ascertain authorization to travel, PCR tests, or information on vaccination. IATA travel pass used by Etihad, Emirates, and other airlines will be another new way for authorization. Augmented reality and AI will provide a new journey as a customer experience. Never has there been a period where the travel agent has become important in terms of disseminating information, giving the right advice, etc. Travel agents can use technology to enable the services to make it seamless and efficient to enable the processes but never can the human factors cease to exist, it will remain.”      

Mamoun Hmedan in his remarks stated how through their 54 million users they had researched on the traveller trends and behaviours over the past 13 months and found that the longer period of vacations by bigger families would take more time to return instead the travellers in the new world of today consist more of millennials, couples etc. the travel period shift from longer  2 to 3 week holidays to shorter holidays; multiple destinations turned to single destinations with a much shorter travel time and fewer days on vacation such as 3 to 4 days and outdoor destinations. The momentum for travel still exists but outcome or trends have changed. “UAE winter campaign was a good example that drove in tourists during the festive season, this approach resonated very well with travellers. I feel that 2021 will end on a better recovery close to 50% of 2019 but potentially we see early 2022 or 2023 to be more akin to 2019 over the research that is currently being passed on. With vaccinations happening we are going to see it happening faster but it all depends on the governments, travellers and bookings. Earlier on in the pandemic, they predicted a totally different picture of how to post covid will be with aircraft and how they will attend to passengers but now things are different. For us in metaspace where we work with everyone in the industry we ensured that provided the customers with the right information. It was necessary to keep our customers informed of all the necessary protocols, procedures, health passports etc – we provided relevant content for them.”

First 2021 TravTalk digital conclave concluded with 6 experts sharing their valuable insights on some of the insights on the industry. The first session focused on Vaccination and the second wave of covid; where is travel headed consisted of Mamoun Hmedan – Managing Director EMEA- Wego, Arijit Munshi- General Manager EMEAI -Tune Protect and Ramsumesh Menon – Chief Executive Officer -Go Gosaibi Travel  – Bahrain. The second session focused on Happiness through Wellness tourism with Laszlo Puczko -CEO & Co-founder – Health Tourism Worldwide, Linda Abdulla – CEO and Founder – Oryx Healthcare Consultancy and Kathryn Moore – Founder and Managing Director Spa Connectors, Global. In his opening remarks, Arijit Munshi, General Manager, Tune Protect EMEAI stated that change has been a constant factor over the past almost 13 months with the environment changing every single day. He also opined that in order to obtain customer confidence it is important to note that the travel industry plays an integral part as it works on an ecosystem where each one plays his/her own part which impacts on the traveller from the time of making the booking to the time the traveller reach home. Booking has become easier and it is important to educate themselves as well as their customers. “We live in an era of QR code, if you order food you can opt for contactless delivery these are good initiatives overall and will remain for a longer time.” He further stated how quickly one should adapt to the needs of the customer especially at this point in time when the world will look at new trends and travel behaviours. He further reiterated the importance of technology; firstly the collection and …

General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai) has launched a new fast-track passport control service that uses face and iris-recognition technologies. Director-General of GDRFA-Dubai Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Deputy CEO of Dubai Airports Jamal Al Hay, Chief Operating Officer of Emirates Airline Adel Al Redha, Assistant Director General of the Airport Immigration Department at GDRFA-Dubai Colonel Talal Al Shanqeti, and several senior officials attended the launch event for the new service. New biometric systems deployed at 122 smart gates at arrival and departure terminals in Dubai airports enable passengers to complete passport control procedures in five to nine seconds depending on the movement and steps of the passenger. Pre-registration is required to avail of the service. GDRFA-Dubai organised a tour for media at Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 to introduce the new smart service. Outbound passengers can avail themselves of the new fast-track service at the smart gates located at the departure terminal after obtaining their boarding pass and completing pre-registration. Using advanced artificial intelligence (AI), the new service enhances passengers’ travel experience by expediting immigration procedures. The newly developed system is part of GDRFA-Dubai’s efforts to develop innovative smart services in line with the leadership’s directives to integrate advanced technologies into all government services to enhance people’s quality of life. Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri said GDRFA-Dubai is keen to launch new projects and initiatives that use state-of-the-art technologies to transform service efficiency. He said the department will continue developing its services to enhance customer experience, as part of efforts to contribute to the leadership’s vision to make Dubai one of the smartest cities in the world. Al Marri noted that GDRFA-Dubai is …

In a few hours from now, you can join in the conversation with six key industry leaders who would discuss the future of travel in this part vaccinated era in TravTalk Digital Conclave at 11.30 am UAE time. According to reports from various countries every day there is quite a number of people being vaccinated across the globe, from developing to developed countries. At this time of the pandemic the whole world has embraced the importance of protecting citizens and visitors hence the drive and motivation to encourage safety has become a key element in today’s context. The first session will focus on Vaccination and the new variants of covid; where is travel headed? From 11.30 am to 12.30 pm (UAE time) with Mamoun Hmedan – Managing Director  EMEA- Wego, Arijit Munshi- General Manager EMEAI -Tune Protect, and Ramsumesh Menon – Chief Executive Officer -Go Gosaibi Travel  – Bahrain. Wellness tourism is an integral part of the Middle East the second session will focus on finding happiness through wellness tourism. The session starts at 1 pm (UAE time) until 2 pm with Laszlo Puczko -CEO & Co-founder – Health Tourism Worldwide, Linda Abdulla – CEO and Founder – Oryx Healthcare Consultancy and Kathryn Moore – Founder and Managing Director Spa Connectors, Global TravTalk has been instrumental in keeping the industry positive with its signature Digital conclaves. As we embark on a new year with a novel line of thought consisting of a set of brand new trends, vaccinations, and digital passports spreading its hope once again in the industry, we will have a tête-à-tête with stalwarts in the industry about an exclusive update.