Roberta Fedele Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Emirates Holidays, the tour-operating arm of Emirates airline, unveiled Monday a range of attractive and family-oriented holiday options for Saudis this summer and a new trade strategy to improve booking operations. At a press conference held at the Emirates Airlines in Jeddah, Vice President of Emirates Holidays Dina Al Herais said: “Saudi Arabia represents the first market for us after the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Over the years, we have noticed that Saudi citizens' favorite destinations tend to be Malaysia, the AustralianGold Coast, Europe and the US that is the biggest growing destination registering every year a 200 percent visitors' increase.” “In line with market trends and with an effort to suggest new possible attractions, we want to offer our clients the opportunity to enjoy magical moments in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Indian Ocean, Australia and the US through packages designed to meet a range of requirements and budgets,” she noted, saying that “our aim is especially directed toward launching product lines that are friendly to families and can allow them to experience history, culture, fun activities, entertainment and a hassle-free travel experience at affordable prices.” This year's Emirates Holiday's family brochure is designed in a way to make easily recognizable family-friendly facilities provided by hotels. Special icons indicate the presence in each hotel of services and facilitations such as ‘Kids club', ‘Kids Eat free', ‘Kids Stay Free', Teens Club', ‘Sports', ‘Wellness', ‘Halal', ‘Ecofriendly' and ‘All-Inclusive'. Among various destinations, Al Herais highlighted the possibility to access the magic of Disney parks, resorts and cruises, experience stunning Scottish sceneries following the ‘Harry Potter Tour, soak into the rich history and culture of Vietnam or have the adventure of a lifetime on a South African Safari. Largest wholesale tour operator in the region offering holiday packages around the airline's network, Emirates Holidays extends the airline's quality experience from the air to the ground, with a complementary selection of hotel, tour and transfer options. Emirates Holidays, Al Herais said, takes care of organizing all aspects of a trip with the advantage of offering rapid transactions, more competitive rates, discounted tickets and seats' confirmation precedence, thanks to the introduction of a new centralized contracting system and to a commercial agreement with Emirates Airline. She said: “A new strategy has been introduced by our new management. We are now the sole contractor for the Emirates group. And this has put us in an excellent position especially in Dubai where we bought more than 1 million hotel beds in a year. “Key to this strategy is a new technology which will centralize our contracting system providing Emirates Holidays and its partners a real time direct access to room, car rentals and various services inventories in Dubai and worldwide. Particularly useful will be the possibility to access bed banks through hotel connectivity. This will permit access to critical last bed availability,” Al Herais further said. Emirates Holiday new marketing and distribution strategy, she added, also includes the project of retail expansion and the enhancement of the company's Web presence through online packages that will be available in Saudi Arabia starting November 2013. She concluded: “At the moment, Emirates Holidays only has a small set up in Saudi Arabia and depends a lot on the sales of travel agencies due to the simple technology that is still in use. “The company is planning to increase its shops in big cities like Jeddah and Dammam and offer more competitive rates. This will be possible by drilling down the cheapest available prices, thanks to the introduction of our new technology and its capacity to establish multiple-connectivity with suppliers.”
