Tag Archives: Lebanon

Kurban Travel, a leading travel agency in Lebanon, will use innovative technology from Sabre to create an intuitive and personalised experience for its travellers. The five-year agreement will enable Kurban Travel agents to access Sabre’s Global Distribution System (GDS) to shop, book and manage travel content from 400 airlines, 900,000 hotel options and 40 car rental brands. Kurban Travel agents will leverage the industry-leading content, data-driven insights and intuitive interface of the new Sabre Red Workspace – the next-generation travel agency desktop – allowing them to become true travel consultants. “We are proud to partner with Kurban Travel, which will join our distinguished customer base in the region. We are constantly evolving our technology to deliver the world’s most advanced travel platform, enabling us to offer agencies faster innovation and more flexible solutions infused with data-driven insights. We stand ready to help Kurban Travel achieve its mission to grow and optimise its business, while solving travel challenges,” said Raymond Vrijenhoek, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East.

The 110-key Oaks Beirut is scheduled to be launched by the middle of this year and will be located in Sodeco, a commercial area of Beirut, approximately five minutes’ drive from the central downtown area and 15 minutes from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport. Minor Hotels signed a management agreement with Allied Investment Group to operate Oaks Beirut. “We are very excited to announce the forthcoming debut of our Oaks brand in Lebanon later this year, commented Dillip Rajakarier, CEO, Minor Hotels. “For Minor Hotels adding Lebanon to our footprint has considerable strategic value and we are pleased to launch our first hotel in the country. Beirut is a dynamic city with so much to offer and is widely regarded as one of the most influential trendsetters in the region.” The property will provide modern accommodation with a selection of guest rooms and suites, including an all-day dining restaurant, lounge bar & café, rooftop pool and bar, plus dedicated conference facilities. Providing the luxury of space, Oaks Hotels & Resorts offers a range of contemporary accommodation, from hotel and resort rooms and suites, to furnished serviced apartments, in central city locations and resort destinations.  

Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s national carrier, has extended its partnership with Amadeus, one of the leading providers of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, choosing to bolster its services by employing state-of-the-art innovations at the heart of its business operations. The extended partnership comes as Middle East Airlines aims to increase its commercial agility while gaining competitive advantages through new merchandising practices such as dynamic pricing, fare families and ancillary sales. MEA will adopt a suite of tools which optimise merchandising opportunities and which enable more personalised experiences for its customers. MEA already migrated to Amadeus’s advanced revenue management technology in November 2016. Adib Charif, Head of IT, Middle East Airlines, said: “After having enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Amadeus for several years now, we are very happy to extend our collaboration. Amadeus solutions enable us to operate efficiently, by delivering products and services that are beneficial to our customers while also keeping our operations running smoothly. The customer focus and team dedication give us great peace of mind; with Amadeus, we know our operations are in good hands.” The extension of Middle East Airlines’ contract with Amadeus will see the latter deliver a range of technology solutions. Amadeus Payment Platform will enable the activation of payment in new channels, which can allow direct collection and easy payment for ancillary services, such as excess baggage charges. The solution promises to improve productivity and enhances the user experience by managing operations from a single graphical user interface. In addition, Middle East Airlines will be adopting Amadeus Reservation Desktop web, which automates functionalities for call centre agents and enables merchandising functionalities. This will allow the airline to drastically reduce the …

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 …

Leading travel commerce platform, Travelport recently hosted a congregation of Abu Dhabi’s leading travel agencies at a series of innovation workshops at the Travelport office in Beirut, Lebanon. Among the attendees were representatives from well-known travel agencies such as Asian Gulf Travel, Shams Abu Dhabi Travel, Al Badie Travel Agency, Al Dana Travel, Liberty Travel, Smart Travel and Latakia Travel. The workshop provided the platform for the agents to learn about leveraging the most innovative technology that is redefining travel commerce around the globe and how this technology can utilised to meet traveller demands and grow the UAE’s travel industry. Travelport is a key technology partner for the Abu Dhabi agents who were in attendance, all of whom have recently signed long term agreements with Travelport. The three-day workshop was an interactive gathering where Travelport’s product experts showcased technologies such as Travelport Smartpoint, the industry leading desktop solution, which can truly transform the way agents work; maximizing revenues, increasing productivity and improving the customer experience. They allow travel agencies to sell more airline content more often, allowing agents to keep up-to-date with the widest range of real-time content from over 400 of the world’s leading network airlines and low cost carriers, all from within their workflow. They can also upsell more hotel rooms and car rentals. There are more than 650,000 unique hotel properties and 36,000 car rental locations available from within Travelport Smartpoint, which essentially means that travel agents can be confident and efficient in offering the right choices for their customers’ unique needs. Matthew Powell, Regional Director, Middle East and South Asia, commented that in order for traditional travel agents to remain competitive they need to be ‘consultants’ …

The latest report published by Amadeus reveals an insight into the expectations for the future of the world by 2030. Their reports predict that by 2020 there will be a global air traffic volume growth of 5.5 per cent in the airline industry with a projected growth of luxury travel to 6.2 per cent with an overall global growth of 4.8 per cent. Their predictions for the region include Kuwait, Qatar and UAE will grow by 4.4% almost similar to the flat growth of Luxury market of 4.5 per cent (oil dependent economies). Emerging Middle East: Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iran economic sanction lifted CAGR for overall travel is 7.5 per cent and 8.9 per cent for luxury travel. At the same time the projected growth in BRIC highly influenced by the economic climate show Brazil’s lack of established middle class and the weakness of the real means a slow growth of 4.2 per cent growth. Russia will recover from its dip in 2013-15 to rise up to 9 per cent growth despite Western sanctions and unreliable oil prices. India with the highest CAGR of the 25 countries explored with 12.8 per cent growth due to its booming middle class represents the biggest luxury travel investment potential. China with 12.2 per cent growth but at a slower pace than previously as its middle class is maturing and increasing in sophistication, and unlike India the ‘boom’ has already happened. Contributing against luxury is the current fight against corruption.