Tag Archives: Kuwait

With an aim to bring greater efficiency in visa processing services for residents of Kuwait, the Embassy of Italy in the State of Kuwait has signed a contract with VFS Global to launch a proficiently managed and modern Italy Visa Application Centre in the city. VFS Global recently won the four-year contract after participating in an official tender published by the Embassy of Italy, Kuwait earlier this year. The contract was officially signed by H. E. Mr. Giuseppe Scognamiglio, Ambassador of Italy to the State of Kuwait, and Vinay Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer, Middle East & South Asia, VFS Global, at a signing ceremony held at the Embassy of Italy in Kuwait, on September 6, 2017. Also present at the signing was Patrizio Dell’Arte, Head of the Consular Office of Italy in the State of Kuwait and Marita Bachhav, Head of Operations – GCC, Lebanon, Jordan & Iraq, VFS Global. The new centre, scheduled to launch in November 2017 will be located at Level 54, Arraya Tower, Al Shuhada Street, Sharq, Kuwait, and will allow travellers to Italy from Kuwait submit visa applications and enrol biometrics in a comfortable, convenient and professionally managed environment. At the centre, in addition to their visa application process, applicants will also have access to a dedicated tourism space, which will offer tourism information on a range of hand-picked tours in Italy.

Azerbaijan has simplified its visa process by granting it online for citizens of 93 countries. Travellers will now be able to obtain visas to Azerbaijan within three hours, be it a weekend or a holiday. “This resolution will increase the tourists flow to the country not only for the beautiful autumn season but also for the rest of the year.” Rashid AL Noori, Chairman, Representative Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan in GCC Chairman said. He noted that the influx of tourists to Azerbaijan increased by 15 -20 percent this summer, compared to the same period of last year. Arab tourists take the first position among tourists visiting Azerbaijan, followed by travelers from Russia. In July only, 330,000 people visited the country, and we anticipate that the figure will go up significantly, considering we have direct flights from Kuwait, Qatar and Dubai and we expect to inaugurate direct flights from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Baku soon.” The decision comes as a positive gift to the visitors in GCC who love the country for its proximity and wish to visit more often on different purposes beyond its exquisite nature and Culture.

Turkish Airlines has launched new flights from various cities in the Middle East and Germany to key tourist destinations in Turkey. The national carrier will launch direct flights between Turkish cities such as Bodrum, Antalya and Trabzon and the Middle East, beginning from this month. The airlines will be providing a total of 16 weekly flights between Jeddah, Kuwait, Riyadh, Al Qassim, Yanbu, Medina and Trabzon. Furthermore, they will also be providing 13 weekly flights between Jeddah, Baghdad, Erbil, Riyadh, Amman, Kuwait, Sulaymaniyah and Antalya during this summer. Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart are other cities benefitting from the new direct flights, connecting travellers from Germany to Izmir. Additionally, passengers from Kuwait will also be able to travel directly to Izmir. Commenting on these direct flights, Turkish Airlines’ Deputy Chairman and CEO, Bilal Ekşi, said, “We are always looking to provide our passengers with the most convenient and time-efficient way of travel. Tourists worldwide have been continously increasing due to the fantastic attractions and features provided by all our Turkish cities. As we move forward, our goal will be to create these direct flights from all the markets, we operate globally so that travellers can now fly directly to their destination of choice.”  

As a follow up to the MOU signed between Emirates Airlines and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia in April 2016 for tourism cooperation between the two countries, the first roadshow was conducted in Kuwait and Dubai. There were five top destination management companies (DMC’s) and three top hotels from Indonesia and over 80 travel and tourism partners from the UAE. The event was graced by H.E. Arzaf Fachrezy Firman, Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia. He stated, “the idea of this event is to promote Indonesia for both sides including the sellers and buyers. There are six sellers from Indonesia and we hope that they can sell for the upcoming Ramadan season and the summer holidays. Indonesia is a diverse country within hours you can see the pristine beaches on one side and snow atop the mountains on another within just a few hours’ drive.” Nia Niscaya, Director of International Tourism Promotion in Europe, Middle East, America and Africa stated, “it is a follow up of the MOU signed by Emirates Airlines and the Government of Indonesia last year at ATM. Today we are joining together with Emirates Airlines to promote our destination and the second Emirates flight to Bali. We are aiming to promote the packages with Emirates for Ramadan and summer holidays for the Middle Eastern and expatriates in Kuwait and UAE, we earnestly hope that this industrial gathering will yield networking and results between tourism industries in the two countries. ”

Cebu Pacific Air will soon suspend its service to and from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Doha, Qatar. CEB will fly the last of its four-times-a-week service from Manila to Kuwait on June 13, 2017, and its Kuwait-Manila flight on June 14, 2017. The thrice-weekly Manila-Doha-Manila route will have its last flight on July 1, 2017; while CEB’s last flight from Manila to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will depart on July 2, 2017, while the Riyadh-Manila flight will leave on July 3, 2017. CEB will retain its other long-haul services to and from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Sydney, Australia, with a view to increasing frequencies to these destinations in the future. The airline also flies to 24 other international destinations across Asia and USA; as well as 37 domestic destinations. Passengers affected by the suspension of CEB service in Doha, Riyadh and Kuwait are being contacted. Options are being provided to minimize the disruption, which include rebooking passengers on flights with other airlines or on earlier travel dates with CEB; a full refund; or placing the full value of the ticket in a travel fund for future use.

Travellers from Arab countries account for more than one third of the total tourist traffic to Egypt in 2016, and forecasts for 2017 are positive and are in continuous growth. H.E. Yehia Rashed, Minister of Tourism in Egypt, said: “Arab tourism to Egypt in 2016 represented 36.3 percent of the total tourist traffic to Egypt, which is more than one third of the total traffic. Saudi Arabia ranked first amongst incoming Arab tourists, with a total of 507 thousand tourists visiting Egypt, followed by Jordan, with 180 thousand tourists, and Kuwait with about 150 thousand tourists and Lebanon with nearly 86 thousand. The total number of travelers from Arab countries to Egypt reached 2 million tourists in 2016, compared to 1.7 million Arab tourists in 2015, which marks an increase of 13.2 percent, whereas in the first quarter of 2017, the number of Arab tourists increased by 38.8 percent when compared to the same period last year.” The Ministry of Tourism of Egypt and Egyptian Tourism Authority announced their participation at the Arabian Travel Market, taking place in Dubai from April 24-27. The participation is in line with both of their efforts to highlight Egypt’s enormous tourism potential and focuses on the various destinations that attracts tourists from all over the world, especially Arabs. “Our participation at the Arabian Travel Markets primarily aims at engaging and communicating effectively with our partners and stakeholders in the region and to enhance the efforts to attract Arab tourists to Egypt. The Arab market represents one of the most significant markets exporting tourism to Egypt. This is due to several reasons, most importantly because of the proximity to many Arab countries and similarity of …

Starting February 13 to March 15, 2017, all passengers originating from Doha, Dubai, Kuwait and Riyadh travelling to Manila with pre-purchased baggage allowance of 40 kilograms will be receiving additional 25 kilograms baggage allowance, free-of-charge on the Philippine carrier, Cebu Pacific. The extra baggage allowance will be given upon check-in of the guest at the airport. For those guests with connecting flights to other domestic destinations, the additional 25kg will be carried over up to their next flight, given that their flight itineraries were booked under one reference number only. This promotion is not valid on return flights from the Philippines to the Middle East and on bookings with Cebgo connecting flights. “With the launch of this special promotion, CEB opens up more opportunities for its travelers across the Middle East region, most especially the Filipinos, to maximize their trip to the Philippines by allowing them to bring more items for their families and friends back home. Not only is CEB able to continuously make travel accessible and affordable to everyone through our  trademark low fares, but now providing another avenue for them to get the best out of their travel,” Atty. JR Mantaring, CEB Vice President for Corporate Affairs. CEB currently offers flights to a total of 37 domestic and 29 international destinations, operating an extensive network across Asia, Australia, USA, and the Middle East. Its 58-strong fleet is comprised of four Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, seven Airbus A330, eight ATR 72-500, and three ATR 72-600 aircraft. Between 2017 and 2021, CEB expects delivery of one more brand-new Airbus A330, 32 Airbus A321neo, and 13 ATR 72-600 aircraft.

Kuwait-based agency Rehlat has selected Sabre Corporation to power its online platform, rehlat.com. Rehlat opted for Sabre’s industry-leading technology and travel management services to increase its online conversion performance, revenue and customer satisfaction as well as personalize its offering, Bader Al Bader, President and founder of Rehlat Travel said, “It’s only been a couple of months since we launched our operations on Sabre, but we have already seen the positive impact on our sales and performance. Sabre’s global expertise in online travel, impressive dedication, and scale of cutting-edge technology made them an easy choice to help us provide a personalized travel experience for our customers. We look forward to rolling out new capabilities in mobile and social media to meet the expectations of our tech-savvy travelers.” Daniel Naoumovitch, CEO Sabre Travel Network Middle East stated, “Online travel has doubled in the Middle East since 2013 and online travel agencies, like Rehlat, are exceeding growth expectations as more and more consumers head online to shop for travel. We share Rehlat’s passion to provide a seamless travel experience and believe that technology can simplify the complexity of today’s travel, and unlock greater value, revenue and efficiency.”

Hotels.com has recently refurbished and improved the functionality of its Middle Eastern websites, in both English and Arabic, to improve both usability and performance. Hotels.com already serves millions of customers globally through 89 localised websites in 39 languages, and is continuously building its portfolio of properties with the latest hotel deals for popular destinations like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Hotels.com offers an unsurpassed hotel booking experience and unbeatable Secret Prices to Hotels.com™ Rewards members, making it ideally positioned to cater to the hotel booking needs of the regional market. “We know that speed is important to our customers and we want to provide fastest booking experience possible in all languages on desktop and mobile. In fact, one in every three bookings on Hotels.com globally is now made on mobile. Speed and convenience are crucial to delivering unsurpassed experiences for our customers,” commented Michael Korkia, Senior Marketing Manager EMEA for the Hotels.com brand.

Air Canada is expanding its reach within the Middle East and aims to tap new markets such as Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The only four star international network carrier in North America, Air Canada celebrated one year of their operations in Dubai recently in the presence of Margaret Skinner, Director Sales EMEAI, Air Canada. Skinner says that the Dreamliner is a game changer for them, but now they have upgraded it to a Boeing 777 for the convenience of the passengers travelling from Dubai – Toronto route and vice versa. Deepu Cyriac, Country Manager for UAE/GCC, Air Canada, stated that they recently opened BSP in Kuwait. They are further expanding their services to have SPA partnerships with Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways, Oman Air and Saudi Arabian Airline to travel via Dubai and London to more destinations in Canada. This flexibility has seen a very good growth from the region. They are currently serving a very good mix of markets around the region.