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Standing true to its commitment of providing a more holistic and in-depth knowledge of the destination, Enterprising Travel Agents Association’s (ETAA’s) first annual international convention held in Dubai is indeed a success story. The convention held from November 29-December 2, 2013 witnessed an overwhelming participation of over 400 delegates. With the convention tagline ‘Dubai in your Palm’, the main agenda of the association was to provide all the delegates a more experiential tour of the destination and become certified Dubai experts, apart from networking sessions and presentations by the tourism board and DMC. Moving away from the traditional approach of organising a convention, ETAA’s first international convention was indeed a refresher.
The event was kick started at the grand gala dinner held at the Crown Plaza, with Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry, director, Overseas Promotions and Inwards Missions, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), inaugurating the convention and Mohamed Al Muhairi, head of Asia & Australia Region, Overseas Promotions, DTCM, the guest of honour, delivering the welcome speech. During the inauguration it was informed that Dubai aims to receive 20 million tourists by 2020 as part of their Vision 2020 plan. The destination aims to become a global events destination and DTCM will be increasing its working relationship with the travel agents in India in the coming months. The highlight of the event was the launch of the convention brochure, and the presentation of best DMC and Hospitality Partner Award was given to Kulwant Singh, managing director, Lama Tours. Commenting on the award presented to Singh, Karl Dantas, chairman emeritus, ETAA, opined, “Kulwant Singh has grown Lama Tours from a regional DMC to a global brand. He has established a strong foothold in the industry and has provided great support in selling Dubai. He has also helped other travel associations and ETAA to host their convention in Dubai.”
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When asked about his feedback on the convention and the way forward for Lama Tours, Singh replied, “I am very impressed with the turnout of delegates for the convention. There has been strict measures that have been put in place to ensure quality of members. It is heartening to see the dedication among these delegates who are keen to know more about the destination and have taken the convention seriously.” Adding further, he said, “We are achieving close to about 85,000 visitors every year out of India, out of which 30 per cent are from MICE, 20-25 per cent are transit passengers and the rest 20-25 per cent are FIT leisure travellers who travel from April-September. We are targeting the wedding segment from India seeing the potential in the segment. We recently opened our new franchisee and we are looking at opening state, regional and city-wise franchisees which would be offering high-end luxury holidays to support all the B2B partners in India. It will also be offering Lama Visa Express service to the partners.” The company recently entered into a tie-up and will now provide nearly 2,000 cars for Indian visitors if they would like to privatise their travel experience in Dubai. “Apart from our Delhi office, we recently opened our office in Mumbai and by 2014 we are looking at opening 30-40 franchisees in India. We are finalising to open offices in Bengaluru, Chennai. We are looking at attracting 1,80,000 passengers in 2014 and more in the subsequent years,” stated Singh.
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Zubin Karkaria, CEO, VFS Global Group, was conferred with the Travel Entrepreneur of the Decade’ award during the final gala dinner at the desert Bedouin camp of Lama Tours. When asked about the success of the convention, Karl Dantas said, “The convention has gone beyond our expectations. This speaks of the commitment towards any sponsor and national board members. This feedback has been given from DTCM. As mentioned earlier, after we announced the convention on September 30, 2013, in 24 days our membership went up to 96 , which is 35 per cent increase in membership. These people joined us because they wanted to know more about the association and industry. We will soon have separate chapters in each state and our next step will be to reconstitute the committee.”
While Naveen Advani, president, ETAA also expressed his views stating, “Our first international convention is a dream come true and this success been possible due to the huge support from all our partners. It is for the first time that a foreign authority body has seen potential in non- IATA members. Dubai was the perfect destination for our first international convention. As our membership increased recently we have a lot of new members at this convention and our main agenda was to provide more of an experiential tour of Dubai. Seeing the turnout and seriousness among our members to know more about the destination, we have seen their level of commitment and hope to increase our membership base further in the coming months. After the convention, I am sure the footfalls to Dubai will increase.”
Destination insight
This was the first time that DTCM took its destination specialist programme offline. The event witnessed a houseful attendance from the delegates for the Dubai Expert Training Programme. At the event about 380 delegates were certified as Dubai specialists. During the session, Carl Vaz, director, Indian representative office, DTCM said, “This programme is aimed at enhancing the knowledge and expertise of the travel trade partners to promote Dubai and its tourism offerings. The programme has been continuously updated with private sector attractions. Our target is to achieve 15 million tourists by 2015 and 20 million by 2020. Dubai is an ideal destination for family, MICE, wedding segment. Recently Dubai also won the bid to host World Expo 2020. Besides this, we are also promoting Dubai Shopping Festival and Dubai Summer Surprises.” He also advised the delegates to keep adding new activities and experimenting with the itineraries to give travellers a unique experience every time they visit Dubai.
Elaborating on Dubai’s tourism offerings, Vaz informed, Dubai has all major international hospitality brands like Marriott, Accor, Radisson, InterContinental, Fairmont, Taj Palace, Sheraton, Starwood are offering different accommodation options for all kinds of travellers. Dubai is not only a great family destination but also has plenty of opportunity for adventure and luxury activities. The destination offers a range of leisure and adventure activities, including balloon adventures, golfing, Seawings, sky diving and water sporting activities like snorkelling and scuba diving. Known as a shopper’s paradise, Dubai has great shopping malls offering couture to high tech electronics, gold, silver Bedouin jewellery to market bargains. To name a few: Dubai Mall, Ibn-Battuta mall, Wafi City Mall, the Dubai Festival City Mall etc. Spread over 3.77 million sq ft with more than 1,200 outlets and 120 food and beverage outlets, the Dubai Mall has an aquarium and Discovery Centre, Olympic sized rink and the world’s largest indoor gold souk. Dubai is also fast evolving as a spa destination.
When asked about his feedback on the delegates attendance and their seriousness to learn more about the destination from the convention, Vaz said, “It is encouraging to see the delegates interest to know more about the destination. On an average the length of stay among Indians in Dubai is three nights and four days and we were looking at changing this trend to a week’s stay. The convention served as an excellent platform to showcase Dubai’s tourism offerings to them.” Apart from the offline training programmes, informative presentations were done by Lama Tours, DVPC and Crowne Plaza.
The convention gave the delegates the opportunity to gain first hand experience of the destination. The convention focused on showcasing Dubai’s finest tourism offerings- Dubai City Tour, Dhow Cruise, visit to Dubai Mall, Jumeirah Beach and the Desert Safari, complete with dune bashing and an exclusive dinner at the Lama Bedouin Desert Camp, which was well received among all members. The convention’s three gala dinners at Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Golf Course and the Bedouin Desert Camp had a good mix of food and entertainment. All the delegates gave a positive feedback and were satisfied with the entire convention.
Delegate Speak
Our convention was different from other travel associations conventions. We laid more emphasis on providing first hand experience of the destination and were happy to see full house attendance from our delegates. After attending the Dubai Expert Training programme, they were able to gain in-depth knowledge of the destination’s tourism offerings. The convention was very well organised and we have recieved good feedback from our members. Even though our first international convention was a success we have learnt and are looking at adopting more new measures to better ourselves for our next convention. Our membership has been increasing and we are now focusing on expanding our membership base further.
– Jagat Mehta, national general secretary, ETAA
Many of our members were travelling to a foreign destinations for the first time and their travel experience has been memorable. We have received an encouraging response from all our delegates. DTCM delivered a well organised destination specialist programme and also ensured that all the delegates were given their Dubai specialist certification programme certificates on time. Lama Tours did excellent arrangements for our delegates. Overall the experience has been good and we were happy with the outcome of the convention.
– Abhijit Khadilkar, national joint secretary, ETAA and director, Swaraj Travels
It has been a tremendous experience. Never for a moment did I doubt the success of the convention as I had full faith in the office bearers and the task that was handled so professionally taking care of the minutest detail deserves accolades from all quarters. Meeting so many agents from all over India was daunting but a very important aim to promote business in a different manner. They just put everything in our palms, the well planned itinerary, visa procurement, waiver to board for all delegates, greeting at the airport, the choice of hotels and timely transfers, excellent menu on all days.
– Shiraz D Gotla, proprietor, Janus Travels & Tours
