Royal Caribbean Cruises recently honoured eight of its top travel agents in the Gulf for generating the highest revenue from their respective country/ province.

The agents were presented their awards at a ceremony at Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai.

Travel agents receiving the awards were:

Bahrain - Al Kaatib Travel; Kuwait Al Ghanim Travel;

Oman - British Airways and Bahwan Travel Agencies;

Qatar - Safwan Mohammed, British Airways;

Saudi Arabia, Central Province - Moon Travel Agency; Western Province - Attar Tours;

UAE - Trans Arabian Sea Air Travels.

In addition, two appreciation awards were presented to Barakat Travel, Kuwait and Trans World Travel, Bahrain commemorating their consistent efforts in promoting and selling Royal Caribbean Cruise holidays over a period of six years.

Dr Abdulaziz Al-Oshban, managing director of Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited - Middle East representative company, said:

"This time last year, at this same beautiful venue, the award recipients were no strangers to our awards over the years.

"Interestingly, this year, four out of eight top sales awards are new to the award achievement and both the second and third largest revenue producers - pan GCC - of the year 2000 had never booked cruises before.

"What an amazing start and return on their focused effort. For 2001, regionally, our first quarter 'booking demand' results include a 70 per cent increase versus the same period last year."

Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited's director, international sales and marketing, Helen Beck, said: "I would also like to personally thank all the team of our Middle East Representatives for their tireless devotion to our cause! Their professionalism brings great credit to our industry."

A special gift was presented to Shaikh Bader bin Salman Al Khalifa, managing director of Bahrain's Al Kaatib Travel Agency for his contribution to the cruise industry and Royal Caribbean Cruises.