Booking rooms at Middle East and overseas hotels with free phone calls is becoming a growing habit with the public and the travel trade across the region.
Last year saw a 225 per cent increase in the number of room nights booked with toll-free calls to the InterContinental Hotels Group’s Middle East Central Reservations Office in Dubai, and the company forecasts a further 129 per cent rise this year.
By dialing toll-free numbers in nine Middle East countries, callers contacting the reservations office can now make quick and easy bookings at more than 3,400 InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites hotels worldwide.
“We made a major investment in setting up the reservations office, and it’s paying off, both for ourselves, and for a growing number of travel trade professionals, and individuals,” said Denis Johnson, vice-president, Sales & Marketing, InterContinental Hotels Group, Middle East & Africa.
“They’re using the toll-free lines because it’s such an easy, simple and reliable way of making hotel bookings, and at no cost.
Calls are taken seven days a week by reservations agents who speak a variety of languages and confirm bookings immediately.”
The toll free numbers are Bahrain (800 880), Egypt (0800-4433322), Jordan (800-22666), Kuwait (473 2100 ext 6233), Lebanon (01 426-801 – ask operator to connect to 866 866 7556), Oman (800 777 999), Qatar (0800 971234), Saudi Arabia (800 897 1465), and the UAE (800 4642).
InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotels and resorts throughout the Middle East, and worldwide, receive bookings as a result of the toll-free links, with the most popular destinations currently being London, Paris, Geneva, Dubai, and Lebanon.
TTN is the most established trade publication in the Middle East distributed on a controlled circulation basis to members of the travel and tourism industry.
Published monthly by Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group, the region’s foremost trade publisher, TTN is aimed at professionals in the industry, from travel agents to airline and hotel personnel.
TTN provides in-depth and extensive coverage of relevant issues in the Middle East and North Africa as well as in other parts of the world. Travel related news, analysis, and new appointments together with information on up-coming exhibitions, marketing and promotional campaigns are presented in an innovative and striking colour tabloid.
Every issue also contains a collation of international and regional news and topical features of interest to readers.
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