Tag Archives: CEO

Luxury residential and hospitality property developer Seven Tides has confirmed Barceló Hotel Group as the new operator of its five-star DUKES Dubai, located on the west trunk of Palm Jumeirah. The hotel will be rebranded as DUKES Dubai – A Royal Hideaway Hotel and will become the first property in the region under the Royal Hideaway Luxury Hotels & Resorts brand which features unique destination hotels connected with art and culture as well as authenticity, detail and discretion. The Spanish hospitality group assumed operations of the Palm Jumeirah hotel following the signing of a management agreement recently in Dubai between Abdulla bin Sulayem, CEO, Seven Tides and Jaime Buxó, Chief Development Officer, Barceló Hotel Group. Commenting on the new agreement, Sulayem said, “Barceló Hotel Group has been appointed to manage DUKES Dubai because it is a dynamic and flexible hospitality company, operating 249 hotels across 22 countries, with a wealth of experience, running luxury international resorts and most importantly, fulfilling guest expectations. The group also has its own wholesale and retail travel division incorporating 700 travel agencies on four continents, so we are also confident that they will be able to develop new niche markets for DUKES Dubai, as well as optimising our position in the key international markets.” Barceló Hotel Group currently operates 54,000 rooms in 22 countries worldwide. Jaime Buxó, Chief Development Officer, Barceló Hotel Group, said, “Our partnership with Seven Tides further reinforces our growth strategy to expand our footprint across the UAE and indeed the Middle East over the next five years. The hotel is a stunning addition to Barceló’s growing luxury portfolio. Guests will experience first-class service coupled with exceptional facilities and vibrant surroundings on the …

In line with its new Destination Strategy 2019-21 and long-term objectives of strengthening the emirate’s presence in key international markets, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) has announced the opening of its first international representative office in Prague, Czech Republic to manage and oversee the authority’s activities in Central and Eastern Europe. The new office will play a vital role in promoting the destination and driving further growth in the number of visitors travelling to Ras Al Khaimah. In 2018, visitor numbers from the Czech Republic and Hungary were up by 18.4 per cent and 11.4 per cent respectively compared to the previous year. Announcing the opening of the new office, Haitham Mattar, CEO, RAKTDA said, “Our Destination Strategy 2019-21 aims to attract 1.5 million visitors to the emirate by 2021. We believe that by providing a compelling proposition and establishing dedicated presence in our key international target markets, we will be able to promote the destination and its diverse offering driving growth in visitor numbers. Central and Eastern European countries are amongst the fastest growing markets for us and frequently rank in our top ten source markets for visitors. The new representative office in Prague will support our promotional activities, trade partnerships and help us develop the region’s high potential outbound market.” Adding to RAKTDA international representation offices in UK, Germany, Russia and Nordics, the Prague office will support RAKTDA’s initiatives to drive further awareness of the emirate as a multi-faceted leisure destination to Central and East European travellers.

Air India Express has announced that it will launch flights from Sharjah to Surat from February 16, 2019. Initially, the airline will provide a twice weekly service connecting the two destinations. Shyam Sundar, CEO, Air India Express stated that this service will be the 47th non-stop direct connection of the airline between India and the Gulf Region. Flight IX–172 will depart from Sharjah at 7:35 pm and arrive in Surat at 11:45 pm on Mondays and Saturdays. Flight IX–171 from Surat to Sahrjah will depart from Surat at 12:30 am (half past midnight) with arrival into Sharjah at 02:15 am on Tuesdays and Sundays. He further reiterated that the service will be upgraded to four flights a week in the summer schedule. The Sharjah-Surat service will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and in return directions, the service will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

RwandAir is set to commence flights to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa from April 2019. The airline will operate five weekly direct flights from Kigali to Addis Ababa with a CRJ-900NG aircraft. With flights to Addis Ababa, RwandAir will be offering seamless connections through its hub in Kigali between Addis Ababa and other African cities in its network. The addition of Addis Ababa is key to RwandAir’s growth in Africa and it’s also a bridge for strengthening the bilateral relationships and improving trade and tourism between the two countries. “As an expanding young airline, it is imperative for us to fly to Addis Ababa Bole International airport as it is one of the important hubs in Africa” said Yvonne Manzi Makolo, CEO, RwandAir. “By starting direct flights to Addis Ababa, we expect to offer better connections to East, West and Southern Africa” she added. With the addition of Addis Ababa to our network, RwandAir will reach out to 27 destinations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Addis Ababa is not only the administrative, financial and commercial centre of the country but it also hosts the Headquarters of the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and many other regional offices for a number of international organisations.

Sabre Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire Farelogix, a recognised innovator in the travel industry with advanced offer management and NDC order delivery technology used by many of the world’s leading airlines. Sabre expects that upon close, the acquisition will allow the company to accelerate delivery of its end-to-end NDC-enabled retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions. Based in Miami, Farelogix provides a suite of SaaS solutions that enables carriers to dynamically create, control, optimise and deliver personalised and differentiated offers across sales channels. These airline-controlled retailing, merchandising and distribution capabilities complement Sabre’s existing retailing and merchandising solutions and future product roadmap. “Farelogix’s investments in offer management and NDC order delivery will help us accelerate our plans to deliver future-ready retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions that unlock increased value for the industry,” said Sean Menke, President & CEO, Sabre. “By integrating Farelogix’s capabilities into Sabre’s leading airline technology platform, we’ll be able to offer the innovative and comprehensive solutions that airlines require, backed by best-in-class technology and the deep expertise that our teams bring to market.” Building upon Farelogix’s GDS- and PSS-agnostic capabilities, Sabre expects to drive faster innovation in the dynamic and highly competitive airline IT space to enable airlines to accelerate their own growth and profitability while benefiting customers across the travel ecosystem. “For the past few years, Farelogix and Sabre have worked together with shared customers to implement our complementary technologies to solve some of the industry’s toughest challenges. Today’s announcement is a natural evolution of the successful, ongoing collaboration between our two companies,” said Jim Davidson, CEO, Farelogix. “Sabre shares our vision for innovation and has the leading technology, resources, and global presence to help us …

More than 500 business leaders and 30 industry experts, chief executives and decision-makers representing the region and the world, are expected to attend the fourth edition of Sharjah FDI Forum, to be held on December 10 and 11 in Sharjah. The event is set to witness discussions on corporate investment strategies, expansion opportunities, and explore the latest in solutions, innovations and best practices within the global economy. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the Sharjah FDI Forum 2018 is organised by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) and the Sharjah FDI Office (Invest in Sharjah), with the endorsement of the UAE Ministry of Economy and in strategic partnership with CNBC Arabia. The forum will be held under the theme, ‘Shaping the Future of Economies’ at the Al Jawaher Reception and Convention Centre in Sharjah. A press conference was recently organised to unveil the forum’s programme details. It was attended by HE Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, CEO, Shurooq; Mohammed Juma Al Musharrkh, CEO, Invest in Sharjah, several representatives from government authorities, and media personnel. Al Musharrkh unveiled the forum’s comprehensive six-panel agenda, which will highlight the role of sustainable development in shaping the future of global economies. He also announced that for the first time, Sharjah FDI Forum will be hosting a special workshop on December 9, organised and conducted by the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), targeting a number of investment promotion agencies from around the world, to discuss latest practices of promoting investment opportunities by studying investor needs and embracing latest technological breakthroughs to identify in-demand sectors.

RwandAir has recently appointed Cozmo Travel as its Passenger General Sales Agent (GSA) for the GCC countries (Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Offline). “These strategic partnerships play a very important role especially for airlines entering new markets and the practice is that airlines look competitively for established and well known GSA’s when entering particular markets which saves airlines associated costs for new market entry and, or development such as infrastructure, human resource etc while focusing on results. We are already established in the UAE, flying into and out of Dubai and we do cover the entire UAE market from a passenger and cargo sales perspective. This partnership is part of a growth strategy, though offline and it gives us an opportunity to assess the GCC markets for any other decisions in the future,” stated  Timothy Njihia, Country Manager—UAE | GCC | Pakistan, RwandAir.” Jamal Abdulnazar, CEO, Cozmo Travel stated, “With Cozmo Travel’s extensive retail presence in all the GCC countries, RwandAir will be able to capitalise on Cozmo’s  network in the region ensuring a wider market reach. Likewise Cozmo will be able to represent and sell the various RwandAir destinations within the African continent as well their expanding network into Asia and Europe. With a significant population of African nationals working and residing in the GCC region, the focus will be to capitalize on the large network of destinations within the African continent served by RwandAir.”

Swiss International Hotels & Resorts and IDS Next Business Solutions Pvt have announced that they have entered into a global agreement in which,  IDS Next Business Solutions will provide its hotel ERP technology solutions to Swiss International Hotels & Resorts. With its solid presence in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Swiss International has 15 hotels currently in operation with a healthy pipeline of new hotels under development across these regions. IDS Next’s hotel ERP solution will facilitate in streamlining operations, in managing the distribution and managing the revenues efficiently, while improving both the guests’ and the hotel users’ experiences for the hotel chain. Binu Mathews, the CEO of IDS Next said, “We are delighted to welcome Swiss International to the IDS family. With Swiss International’s experience in hospitality and IDS Next’s rich technology expertise of 30 years, we are confident that we have a winning partnership for both of our organizations. With our presence in the Middle East, Africa and Asia regions, we see the partnership contributing to our growth potential globally.” “We are pleased to enter into the agreement with IDS Next, a company which we have recognized as one of today’s leading hospitality technology provider”, said Mr. Henri Kennedie, the President & CEO of Swiss International. “With IDS Next’s complete and integrated solutions, we are confident of offering superior guests’ experiences and improve the overall operational efficiency for our hotels.”

Emirates celebrated the inaugural flight of its new daily service from Dubai (DXB) to London Stansted (STN). The aircraft deployed on the route is Emirates’ new three-class Boeing 777-300ER, featuring its state-of-the-art, fully-enclosed private suites in First Class, and refreshed Business and Economy Class cabins. The aircraft also sports newly-designed seats and upgraded in-flight entertainment systems in all cabins.  To celebrate the airline’s arrival to the airport, Emirates and Stansted airport held a launch event for local dignitaries and stakeholders, hosted by Hubert Frach, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations – West and Richard Jewsbury, Divisional Vice President, UK, alongside Ken O’Toole, CEO, Stansted Airport. “We decided to add London Stansted to our network because we saw an opportunity to directly connect the local community with some of the world’s most popular leisure and business destinations. Previously, London’s north east and the wider 7.5 million people that live within Stansted’s catchment areas had to travel into the city to access airports with global reach. Now, this daily flight to Dubai connects passengers seamlessly to Emirates points across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australasia,” said Frach. The new gateway is the seventh UK airport that Emirates operates out of in the UK, with Edinburgh to follow in October.

Dubai Airports and Dubai Cares announced a record result from the first year of their three-year partnership raising AED 1,505,329 in support of Dubai Cares’ Education in Emergencies programmes which offer support to children affected by conflict and natural disasters in countries like Lebanon, Iraq and Nepal, thus enabling them catch up with their education. “Last year we vowed to double our annual contribution from 640,000 AED to 1.3 million AED and are thrilled to have surpassed that goal,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “We’re grateful to our customers for their generous donations and to Dubai Cares for their tireless efforts to direct these funds towards supporting thousands of children and young people who currently don’t have access to quality education.” His Excellency Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer at Dubai Cares said, “We are honoured to have partnered with Dubai Airports and are happy to witness such tremendous success in the first year. The generous contribution by travellers through the airport and visitors to Dubai Airports’ website will certainly help us expand the scope of our efforts to reach children and young people in developing countries, especially those affected by conflict, epidemics and natural disasters. With the continuous involvement and commitment of farsighted organisations such as Dubai Airports, we will continue to make successful advances in shaping the global education agenda.”