Etihad Airways will increase frequencies on its popular Abu Dhabi to Athens route during the busy summer peak months. The additional overnight service will be operated between July 8 and August 31 by an Airbus A320 configured with eight seats in Business and 150 seats in Economy. The extra frequency complements the daily two-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner morning daytime service between the two capitals. Abu Dhabi – Athens schedule will be effective from July 8, 2020 (all timings are local). Flight EY 91 will depart daily from Abu Dhabi at 09:30 and arrive at Athens at 13.35. EY 90 will depart daily from Athens at 14:55 and reach Abu Dhabi at 20:30. EY 93, a daily, will start from Abu Dhabi at 02:10 and arrive at Athens at 06:05. Flight EY 92 will depart daily from Athens at 13:05 and will reach Abu Dhabi at 18:50.

Al Habtoor Group (AHG) is set to open a regional office in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, to service its existing European operations and scout for new investment opportunities. The group, with its wide-ranging interests in the hospitality, real estate, automotive, education and vehicle leasing sectors, plans to expand its enterprise reach in new European markets. AHG’s existing portfolio in Europe includes luxury hotels in London, Budapest and Vienna — Hilton London Wembley; InterContinental Budapest; The Ritz-Carlton Budapest; and Hotel Imperial, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Vienna — as well commercial and office properties Dorottya Udvar and Rumbach Centre in Budapest. The group has long considered the European market a sound investment destination, for its ease of doing business, risk-to-reward ratios and the vibrant economies of its various countries. In the past, AHG’s Founding Chairman Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor has praised the Hungarian and Austrian governments, crediting them with understanding the importance of foreign direct investment, provision of tax benefits and other incentives to both domestic and international investors. Along with its existing properties and operations in the UK and US, AHG now sees huge potential in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), thanks to its emerging economies, educated and skilled workforces, competitive costs, rapidly upgrading infrastructure, increasing consumer spending and lower inflation rates and corporate taxes. Al Habtoor, Founding Chairman, AHG said, “We have been very successful with our hotels and commercial properties here — which are prime and heritage assets — and look forward to upscaling our operations with other investments in the future. The less-explored markets in Europe are now gaining momentum, offering a competitive edge, an attractive investment climate and higher yield possibilities for foreign players.”

Cozmo Travel unveiled its new corporate logo and brand identity, on the occasion of opening its 37th branch of the UAE located in Karama, Dubai. The new identity upgrade, which coincides with Cozmo’s tenth anniversary celebrations, aims at supporting the company’s strategy by aligning its diversified service portfolio and in return providing added value to its customers around the world. The new branch opening in Karama is part of Cozmo Travel’s plans to be close to residents in major locations while providing a blend of travel offerings, tour services and vacation packages accessible to a wider range of travel enthusiasts from popular neighborhoods. The new branch was inaugurated in the presence of Adel Al Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia and Jamal Abdulnazar, CEO of Cozmo Travel, and other dignitaries. Jamal Abdulnazar, CEO of Cozmo Travel, said, “Now is the time for Cozmo to target new growth horizons by prioritising focus and reaching out to more communities as part of its envisioned goal to become a major destination management brand. We will continue investing in our capabilities to continue our success by expanding our presence in the market and extending our solutions as well.”

Dubai International (DXB) retained its position as the world’s number one hub for international passengers for the sixth consecutive year with annual traffic for 2019 reaching 86.4 million – 6 million more than the nearest rival London Heathrow. The year was also exceptional for DXB in terms of customer service with shorter wait time, record-breaking baggage performance and new retail and food and beverage offerings. DXB welcomed a total of 86,396,757 for the full year of 2019 (-3.1 per cent) as numbers were affected by a series of challenges throughout the year, including a 45-day closure of the airport’s southern runway to enable its refurbishment, global market conditions, as well as the worldwide grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft. During the fourth quarter of 2019, DXB welcomed 21.9 million customers (1.3 per cent), taking the average monthly passenger numbers at the hub to 7.2 million for the year. The airport also breached the 8-million customer mark twice during the year (July and August). Expressing satisfaction with DXB’s performance in 2019, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, “While customer numbers in 2019 were lower than the preceding year, the impact of the 45-day closure of the runway, the bankruptcy of Jet Airways, as well as the grounding of the Boeing’s 737 Max accounted for an estimated 3.2 million passengers over the course of the year, and indicate underlying growth at DXB.”

Sojern and Spark Foundry announced a partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). This new partnership incorporates Sojern’s real-time travel audience targeting capabilities directly into its ad-buying system, or DSP (Demand Side Platform), offering it increased transparency and control over its digital marketing campaigns. A test run in the final quarter of 2019 proved that Sojern’s hyper-targeted programmatic ads, which were delivered during key decision-making moments to audiences with travel intent, resulted in increased bookings and conversions and reduced traveller acquisition cost. Over the past decade, Sojern has built a network of global data partnerships that provide access to billions of real-time travel-intent signals. These intent signals are analysed using proprietary data-science methodology to better understand travellers’ booking behaviour along their path to purchase. This information is then used to target personalised marketing messages at every stage of the funnel, in this case supporting brand campaigns used to promote Abu Dhabi as a tourist destination, as well as direct response campaigns that drive direct bookings and conversions to key Abu Dhabi attractions. Saeed Rashed Al Saeed, Destination Marketing Director at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi said, “By managing our digital marketing campaigns within our own DSP, coupled with Sojern’s rich dataset for audience targeting, it enables us to monitor campaign performance, daily ad spend and total return on our campaign investments with more ease.” Chris Blaine, VP of EMEA at Sojern commented, “We are delighted to partner with DCT Abu Dhabi and Spark Foundry to encourage travellers to enjoy warm hospitality, family-friendly attractions, rich culture and impressive archaeological and historical sites in one of the safest and most modern …

Oman’s Ministry of Tourism reveals a 43.6 per cent growth in cruise ship tourists from January to December 2019 to reach 283,488 passengers from 193,467 recorded during the same period last year. The Ministry attributed the surge to the government’s relevant initiatives, including infrastructural developments, and the ongoing and reinforced tourism campaigns that focus on Oman’s civilization, culture, heritage, diverse adventures, and popular attractions. The Ministry said a total of 284 cruise ships, which will carry thousands of tourists from all over the world, are already scheduled to anchor at the Sultanate’s three main ports in season 2019-2020, namely Sultan Qaboos Port (162 cruise ships, Port of Khasab (75 cruise ships), and Port of Salalah (47 cruise ships). The highest arrivals are expected during the winter season that begins in October and ends in April. The Ministry has been collaborating with relevant government and private sector entities and ship owners and operators to enhance cruise tourism in Oman as well as help develop the capability and efficiency of local ports to handle giant cruise ships. Part of the Ministry’s initiatives is faster license and permit application processes and approvals. Abdullah Saif Al Saadi, Head of cruise and charter flights, Ministry of Tourism, said, “We aim to attract international cruise ships as part of our overall travel and tourism campaigns. To achieve this, we have been improving our ports, implementing the best practices and international standards, and enhancing our facilities, to name a few. We are also planning to invest in the facilities of Sultan Qaboos Port to entice more cruise ships to make a stopover in Oman.”

dnata Travel signed a multiyear agreement with Sabre Corporation. The five-year deal will represent an extended, broader relationship between the two companies in the Middle East. Under this agreement, dnata Travel Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Partner Network will continue to access Sabre’s portfolio of innovative technology and its intelligent platform Sabre Red 360, allowing it to harness more data, content and flexibility to differentiate its offering from more than 420 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers. “Sabre’s global expertise, extensive knowledge and understanding of the dynamic global travel eco-system make it the partner of choice,” said Alan William, VP Air & Distribution Partnerships, dnata Travel. “We expect future collaboration on accelerated innovation, operational simplification and gains in digital user experience as a result of this expanded relationship.” Abdul Iyer, VP ME, Sabre Travel Network Middle East, said, “Our new agreement will deliver technology and solutions that fulfill latest industry trends such as NDC and virtual payments. dnata Travel has a strong strategy, and its roadmap to use the latest technologies to create a more personalised travel experience which aligns completely with the investments Sabre is making to help agents deliver a more seamless traveller experience.”

TIME Hotels debuts its TIME Express Hotels brand with the opening of a new property in Sharjah this month. The three-star TIME Express Hotel Al Khan comprises 55 keys in total, spread across five floors, including five suites which feature well equipped kitchenettes and 50 standard rooms. Mohamed Awadalla, CEO, TIME Hotels, said, “Built with both business and leisure visitors in mind, this hotel is fully equipped with everything the modern, budget conscious traveller requires, delivering a fresh and stylish environment at unbeatable value for guests not looking to compromise on quality.” TIME Express Hotel Al Khan is located just 15 minutes’ drive from Dubai International Airport, 20 minutes from Sharjah International Airport and a 15-minute walk from Al Khan Beach. The hotel will feature Foodio, an all-day dining outlet which serves sumptuous international dishes as well as authentic Arabic cuisine, offering guests both buffet and a la carte dining options. Guests will also have access to a temperature-controlled rooftop swimming pool as well as a 24-hour fitness centre which is fully equipped with top-of-the-line equipment, a prayer room and underground car parking spaces. The hotel will also feature two multi-purpose conference rooms which are suitable for a range of different events, providing state-of-the-art equipment in an efficient and comfortable environment. Accommodating up to 30 guests, TIME Express Al Khan has an experienced conference and events team on hand to ensure a stress-free and successful delivery of all events.

Sabre Corporation and Accor will be creating the first unified central reservation (CR) and property management (PM) platform for the global hospitality industry. The collaboration intends to develop a new full service property management capability and enrich its existing central reservation and limited service property management systems. These capabilities will combine within a new unified cloud-native, highly-flexible platform that will be built for and available to hoteliers across all property classes and geographic regions. In this context, Accor would be Sabre’s newest enterprise hospitality customer, adopting Sabre’s industry-leading SynXis Central Reservation System and, ultimately, the new global technology platform for all its hospitality brands and geographies. “We know our customers have historically had limited options in this area, and we are taking the lead to deliver the solutions that hoteliers have repeatedly told us they both want and need. Once developed, this offering will power a new generation of retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions that will enable hotels to drive revenue growth beyond traditional sources and offer unique personalised services to their guests around the world,” said Sean Menke, President and CEO of Sabre Corporation. “Partners like Sabre are essential to helping us effectively leverage existing and new technology to further accelerate our net supply growth and lower costs for our hotel owners as well as for the Group,” said Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO for Accor. “For Accor, the new technology will bring an opportunity to further and significantly enhance the Group’s core business activities including hotel distribution, guest recognition and owner relationships,” said Gilles de Richemond, Chief Information Officer, Accor. “We expect that the unified CR/PM platform will allow Sabre to better meet the needs of enterprise hoteliers …

GCC tourists to Egypt will spend $2.36 billion in 2020, an increase of 11 per cent over 2019, with visitors from Saudi Arabia driving this growth, according to new data published ahead of Arabian Travel Market 2020, which will take place at Dubai World Trade Centre from April 19-22, 2020. Visitors from Saudi Arabia to Egypt made 1,410 trips in 2019 with a forecast of 1.8 million tourists by 2024, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5 per cent. In terms of tourism expenditure, Saudi Arabian visitors spent $633 million in 2019 which is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 11 per cent through to 2024, reaching $1.13 billion, according to Colliers International research commissioned by the organiser of ATM, Reed Travel Exhibitions. Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director ME, Arabian Travel Market, said, “Total tourism receipts in Egypt which stood at $16.4 billion in 2019, will achieve an average 13 per cent CAGR over the next five years to reach $29.7 billion. And Egypt also has a significant outbound market for the GCC. 1.84 million visitors arrived in 2019 and this is estimated to increase to 2.64 million by 2024.” “Over the last 12 months, Egypt’s tourism industry has witnessed remarkable growth, with arrivals up by 57.5 per cent from 11.3 million in 2018 to 17.8 million in 2019. Growth has been fuelled by the cheaper Egyptian Pound and government incentives for charter airlines operating international flights. Underscoring those impressive numbers, we witnessed a 23 per cent increase in the number of visitors interested in doing business with Egypt, up to almost 4,000,” added Curtis.