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The Merchant House in Manama, Bahrain, is set to open doors in September this year. Located next to the vibrant Bab el-Bahrain Souk, the hotel development comes at an exciting time as the surrounding area is currently being regenerated, re-establishing the prominence of the old Souk and original heart of Manama. The Merchant House will be an all-suite boutique hotel with 47 suites in total, each featuring an open plan kitchen and dining area, as well as open plan sitting rooms which have been designed to be ideal for both business and leisure. As with all Campbell Gray Hotels, artwork will be a prominent feature of the interior design and Gordon Campbell Gray has, over the past year, been putting together an exciting art collection comprising of well-established Bahraini artists as well as new and upcoming young talent from both Bahrain and the region. The design is, as with all Campbell Gray Hotels, completely original and has been created specifically for The Merchant House. The rooftop – another Campbell Gray speciality – is where you will find the main restaurant and the bar with options to eat indoors or outdoors. Commenting on the project, Gordon Campbell Gray, Founder, Campbell Gray Hotels said, “We are so looking forward to bringing our special brand of hospitality to Bahrain this year with the opening of The Merchant House in Manama. We are confident that with its central location, beautiful facilities and comfortable all-suite accommodation, it will be rather special, and we are eager to welcome our first guests through the door.”

Muslim travellers will spend $157 billion by 2020, as revealed at the Arabian Travel Market 2018 and the top outbound market remains Saudi Arabia, which will grow 17 per cent over the next three years alone, to reach $27.9 billion. During the first seminar, entitled ‘Halal Tourism – How far have we come?’ Faeez Fadhlillah, Founder and CEO, Salam Standard and Tripfez, highlighted the growing importance of Muslim millennial travellers illustrated by the changing global socio-economic trends and underscored the potential pent up demand. “The biggest countries and some of the fastest growing economies in the world are found in Asia and the Middle East. These regions typically have large Muslim populations which are young with prosperous middle classes. In addition, second and third generation Muslim communities in developed economies such as Europe and North America now have far more purchasing power and overall, their combined growth generates increased demand for faith-based travel and tourism,” Fadhlillah said. During the second seminar, ‘Halal travel becomes mainstream’, Omar Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Sociable Earth, revealed some of the key results from a recent survey, in which 35,000 Muslim travellers participated. “Certainly, the halal travel market has graduated from its niche status to become an industry-shaping force, in its own right. It has become mainstream,” said Ahmed. “It is also clear that mainstream travel and tourism organisations will now have to become far more pro-active, if they want to attract increasing numbers of Halal travellers and tap into the potential of this massive market,” added Ahmed.

The recent partnership between Royal Jordanian (RJ) and Tanasuk Technologies is based on producing an unprecedented performance-based enhancement on RJ’s site. Phase 1, which lasted for 10 weeks, saw a complete migration from Royal Jordanian’s previous content management system to the new and improved Sitecore Experience platform. RJ can now satisfy its customers with many flexible online touch-points. Additionally, it integrates extremely well with RJ’s marketing and digital tools, enabling customers to access an advanced website. So far, the Tanasuk team migrated over 200 pages across six different languages on RJ’s website. The next phase will consist of a complete data migration process, whereby all of RJ’s historical data from various sources and platforms will be consolidated and migrated using different Sitecore omnichannel experiences. Stefan Pichler, President/CEO, RJ said, “We are glad to work with Tanasuk Technologies which provides us with this highly customisable platform that helps RJ achieve its short- and long-term future plans to adopt a dynamic Content Management System, while integrating powerful tools, being in sync with IATA’s standards and systems.” leath Arensen, Founder, Tanasuk said, “As the first Jordanian entity to implement Sitecore, RJ is leading the way in digital transformation.Working closely with the RJ team just confirmed to us how committed they are to their customers—being one of them myself!.”

Rehlat, an online travel agency, has renewed a long-term agreement with Sabre Corporation to continue using its technology to power its online platform, Rehlat.com. For the past two years, Rehlat has been using Sabre’s technology and travel management services to help increase its online conversion performance, grow revenue, improve customer satisfaction levels and personalise its services offered to customers. “We have witnessed strong double-digit growth since we launched in 2015,” said Bader Al Bader, President and Founder, Rehlat. “Sabre’s global expertise in online travel, impressive dedication and cutting-edge technology have enabled us to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace and tap into the growth of the online travel industry. We have also used Sabre’s APIs to roll out new capabilities in mobile to meet the growing expectations of our tech-savvy travellers.” “Consumer behaviour is rapidly changing in the region, and this is fuelled by personal technology that is faster and more accessible,” said Raymond Vrijenhoek, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “Online travel agencies have been quick to respond to this, using the latest web service and API technology to give travellers what they want – the right product at the right time and in the right context. Rehlat shares our passion and trust that technology can simplify the complexity of today’s travel.”  

Smartotels Hospitality is set to open its flagship property, Form Hotel Dubai- a technology-driven upscale design concept hotel in the upcoming neighbourhood of Al Jadaf and Culture Village. Form Hotel Dubai presents a timelessly-designed environment built around brand obsessions and curated add-ons to deliver all that guests value. With a strong visual art and design narrative, and emphasis on wellbeing, Form Hotel Dubai is conceptualised as a sanctuary from the city, in the city, whilst being conveniently located near to major cultural and commercial hubs. The Dubai project has been delivered with the collaboration of Dubai Contracting Company and firm Architecture Studio. Tarek M. Daouk, Founder, Smartotels, comments, “We announced our intention to bring a technology-driven design hotel concept to the UAE precisely one year ago. Today, we’re delighted to be able to confirm that we will be delivering this landmark project to guests both on time and under budget. We believe Dubai’s maturing hotel market is now prepared to welcome a creative hotel offering like ours, and that it is the ideal time to deliver Form, a novel and design-focused boutique hotel aimed at forward-thinking travellers.”

Musafir.com, UAE’s first home-grown, premium-experience travel website, has signed a new regional GCC agreement with Amadeus, a leading technology partner in the global travel industry, to further enhance its e-commerce offering. The agreement will see Amadeus provide the company with its industry-leading business intelligence technologies and access to global travel content through the Amadeus system, for the benefit of Musafir.com’s customers across the GCC region. The company’s website will be powered with Amadeus’ latest advanced solutions such as Master Pricer, Business Intelligence, Fare Optimiser and Productivity Tracker to make the booking experience more efficient and convenient. “Forming strategic agreement with global industry leaders such as Amadeus allows us to access premium travel products and further boost our technological progressions, which is something that matters most to our customers and partners. We are therefore delighted to be partnering with Amadeus who will lend us their extensive expertise and consultancy and fuel our future growth,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, Chairman of the Department of Statistics and Community Development and co-founder of Musafir.com.