Tourism Breaking News
The first-ever virtual event in the region, the Gulf Travel Show 2022 ended its final day with over 2000 one-on-one meetings attended by travel agents, tour operators, tourism boards, airlines, hotels, travel management companies, international agencies and media over a period of two days for the fourth consecutive time in platinum partnership with Tourism Malaysia.
San Jeet, Director, DDP group, reiterated in his address, “Advancing connections in a changing world has never been more important. We want you to make the most of this platform and help us shape the future. Our goal is to offer a virtual show that is as dynamic and as rewarding as a physical one. We intend to build connections, grow businesses and establish long-term mutually beneficial relationships.”
Mirza Ghalib – Deputy Director – Tourism Malaysia – Dubai, ‘Gulf Travel Show 4.0 was a success for our Malaysian partners on the virtual B2B sessions with buyers from the Middle East region. We are satisfied with the contacts and enquiries that we have received, and our partners have been full with appointments since the announcement of Malaysia is re-opening on 1st April 2022. This is a good sign for us and we hope to see you in Malaysia soon.’
Sanaf Rahman – Travel Consultant – Aldar Travel & Tours Bahrain, shared, “Gulf Travel Show created a platform over the past two years to connect with suppliers from various parts of the world in one safe virtual space. Every edition of the Gulf Travel Show has brought in different suppliers to meet, engage and collaborate. Another interesting fact will be the insightful panel discussions and presentations by the experts featured in the auditorium, which we all look forward to. It is in fact a great show which keeps the whole industry going towards their goals especially post pandemic.”
The auditorium sessions consisted of discussions on the MICE and events industry under the title, The past, present and future of the MICE and Events industry. The session was moderated by Sapna Aidasani – Director – PR and Marketing- Pluto Travels, with panellists from three areas; Ayse Abbas – Marketing Manager B2B and B2C – Radisson Hotel Group, Micky Bhatia – Managing Director – Elevatetrips and Zaheer Moledina – Director – ARP Africa Travel Ltd.
It was followed by Spencer Hanlon – Global Head of Travel Payments, Head of EME (Europe and the Middle East) at Nium, sharing the tools necessary for the industry to make it more profitable. Parisa Bakhtiari – Business Development Middle East, Asia and Africa – Mabrian, was up next with her presentation on how Big data can help the tourism boards. The latter part of the year or winter time will be the first time that the region will get ready for the first ever FIFA to be played in the region. This will see an influx of visitors in Qatar and the neighbouring gulf countries. Chris Gregory Pasha – Sales Director MEA – Sojern, shared an update on travel to FIFA.
