Best Holiday Lettings

Tag: arabian travel market

  • Shaza reveals expansion plans at Arabian Travel Market

    Shaza Hotels has confirmed it is going to increase its presence within the Middle East with a brand new project set to open in Doha.

    Opening in spring 2016, Shaza Doha, shall be located within the heart of the cultural district, within walking distance of major tourist attractions, including the famed Museum of Islamic Art, the Qatar National Museum and Souq Waqif.

    The property may have 180 rooms and suites, three dining venues, an executive club, the signature Shaza Hammam & Spa, an innovative Kids’ Club, and the country’s first art gallery to be integrated into the lobby.

    Shaza Doha will boast one of many country’s first business clubs for leaders of society, with membership being by invitation.

    The club comprises of a cafe, where celebrity chefs shall be flown in from worldwide offering the final word dining experience.

    It will offer members quite a lot of privileges including private meeting rooms, exclusive suites, cigar lounge, library lounge and access to the hotel’s recreational facilities.

    The dining venues at Shaza Doha stands out as the most innovative concepts brought into the rustic, inspired by the cuisines of Silk Route.

    The hotel may even have two ballrooms, media centre and the Shaza signature Shalimar lounge.

    Announcing the project at Arabian Travel Market, Shaza chief executive Simon Coombs said: “We are very excited to announce the signing of Shaza Doha.

    “Doha is eager to develop and showcase the region’s arts and heritage.

    “This complements Shaza’s vision, to recognise and embrace the values and cultures of this region.”

    Shaza Doha will complement Shaza Hotels’ existing portfolio of nine hotel projects in operation or under development.

  • Ritz-Carlton brings social media campaign to Arabian Travel Market

    Ritz-Carlton Hotels is leading the manner in consumer engagement within the digital sphere on the annual Arabian Travel Market with an absolutely-integrated social media campaign which will offer visitors a different interactive experience.

    The move is in keeping with The Ritz-Carlton commitment to deepen connections with existing and prospective guests in an atmosphere wherein they spend increasing amounts of time.

    As section of the luxurious hotel company’s social media outreach throughout the Middle East’s largest travel trade event, The Ritz-Carlton has members in their social media engagement team present on their stand at ATM. 

    Through the @RitzCarlton twitter handle, the team will provide live content and updates from the development.

    With a sizeable selection of The Ritz-Carlton Twitter followers comprising of trade partners, customers and the media, it’s a perfect platform to initiate and build brand conversation relevant to the fair.

    The introduction of a dedicated ‘Tweet Bar’ at the Ritz-Carlton stand HC5240 located inside the Arena Hall, will give the brand’s global Twitter following access to news from the development because it unfolds in Dubai, including highlights from exclusive talks and seminars.

    In addition, visitors checking in at ATM on Foursquare will receive recommendations on the suitable things to look and do in Dubai, as recommended by The Ritz-Carlton concierges from both hotels within the city.

    The Ritz-Carlton also uses Foursquare and The Ritz-Carlton Mobile App to tailor local content and supply engaging information relevant to their guests.

    This could be dropped at life at ATM where a chain of QR codes can be utilized to download property insights, including recipes from chefs and guided tours of hotels.

    “Our social media interactions at Arabian Travel Market are a natural extension of our ‘Let Us Stick with You’ brand philosophy.

    “We wish to enrich the experience on the show for visitors, as well as being an amazing luxury travel information resource for our Twitter followers by providing news because it is occurring from the show,” said Chris Gabaldon, chief sales and marketing officer for Ritz-Carlton.

    “Each of The Ritz-Carlton social media channels grow in importance to us year-over-year as our guests live an increasing number of in their lives inside the digital space.

    “Use of Facebook alone already stands at 40 per cent of time spent online within the UAE, 30 per cent in Kuwait and 21 per cent in Saudi Arabia making Facebook an increasingly important channel for us to converse with our Middle East guests.”

    Recommended

  • Focus: Gamification boosts OTT’s eLearning engagement by 65%

    New OTT website sees 65% increase in agent engagement
    * Gamification key to growth

    OTT re-launched its website in November 2012 focussing on improving the user experience to encourage greater user engagement.

    One of the most important new elements was the launch of ‘OTT Achievements’ where members are encouraged to ‘earn’ virtual badges by undertaking particular training activity. Examples include the ‘OTT Newbie’ badge (for passing 1 course), ‘OTT Guru’ (for passing 100 courses) & ‘Eur-reka!”” badge for completing 5 European training courses. The sort of feature may be which is called ‘Gamification’.

    Five months on, OTT has reviewed the effect of the brand new features including OTT Achievements and may report that the hot website has led to a normal increase of 65% in user engagement with some clients benefitting from an uplift of over 300%.

    The 65% figure was reached by comparing what number course passes each client received before and after the OTT re-launch (excluding months where proactive eMarketing had taken place) i.e. what percentage courses did people complete without being promoted to via eMarketing. Detailed results available.

    OTT plan to roll out further achievement badges in 2013.
    OTT are hosting a unique seminar on Gamification in travel at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai in May.

    Bruce Martin, Operations Director of OTT said ““We’re really happy with the consequences because it shows that good design and innovation can deliver a major uplift in online activity. OTT were very keen to include Gamification into our agent learning experience via achievement badges to encourage activity without the desire for proactive marketing”“.

    Texas Tourism launched 6 courses at the new OTT site. Agents completing these 6 courses unlocked a ‘special edition’ Texpert badge. All Texpert badge holders were invited to wait a unique event in London on 20th April where one ‘Texpert’ badge holder will win a VIP trip to Texas.

    Diana Stevie, the Senior PR Manager, Office of the Governor, Texas Tourism said: ““We couldn’t be more happy with the Gamification aspect of our OTT modules. We were attempting to find a viable approach to encourage agents to profit all of the six Texas courses, and believe that gamefying this system as OTT recommended is likely one of the key reasons we’ve seen such success. In line with past performance indicators and records provided by OTT, we’ve got greater than simple instinctual belief that this was a successful venture – we’ve got hard numbers that back up the price of such gamifications and shall we, as i discussed, not be more proud of our results thus far.”“

    Gary Bates, Sales Development Manager. Flexibletrips said ‘‘Since the brand new version of the OTT website was launched, we’ve seen a certain increase in module passes versus a similar period within the previous year”“

    Natalie McLean, Operations Director for cheap Car Hire, said: ““Since the launch of the recent OTT website and achievement badges we’ve seen a marked uplift within the variety of course passes. The brand new website features make it far easier for users to access information and what’s particularly encouraging is that the enhanced success rate have been achieved with none additional marketing activity. For us the recent, advanced features mean OTT is much more powerful, enabling agents to coach online and gain the boldness and talents they have to sell car hire to customers.”“

    Travel Agent Feedback The response from travel agent training members have been very positive:
    ““The badges come up with a feeling of accomplishment, I’m pleased with my OTT Guru status!”” Elaine Hennessey, Mid Counties Co-op

    ““The new site is visually appealing and the achievement badges encourage you to be told.”” Kathy Hudspith, KH Premium Travel

    ““The new site is informative and straightforward to navigate and the badges provide help to track what you’ve learnt.”” Amy Atkinson, Thornton’s Travel Service

    www.ott.travel