THE Emirates Palace has signed a number of contracts with tour operators to promote the hotel as a premium travel destination in the Middle East for European tourists.
Hotel general manager Noel Massoud says the hotel benefited from attending ITB Berlin, and that its participation yielded positive results. “We have renewed more than 60 existing contracts and added five additional agreements with international tour operators.”
Consequently, he is very optimistic about surpassing the hotel’s turnover and occupancy rates when it first began operating last year. “We are targeting a 25 per cent increase in business this year, and we hope to consolidate our gains in the next few years. We are very confident that we will meet our targets, given the overwhelming response we received from local and regional tourists last year.”
To further enhance its position, Massoud confirmed that the Palace is commencing a huge promotional campaign to open new markets. After last year’s success, he says, “We are now prepared to commence the next phase of our business development strategy which will involve opening new markets, including Britain, Italy, and Holland.”
The hotel is also negotiation with a number of tour operators from the Far East, and that the hotel is aggressively targeting tourists from Japan, China and Taiwan.