Halal tourism and accessible travel have been identified as key growth markets by the Dubai-based branch of global homeworking company, Travel Counsellors LLC, while Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka are two destinations proving popular with UAE travellers.
The 2017 ‘My Travel Counsellors’ Conference, which took place at Taj Dubai hotel from September 12-13, revealed these insights and talked about how the company’s highly relational business model, which gives its Travel Counsellors the tools and support to provide a tailor-made travel service to their customers, has contributed to a 32 per cent surge in repeat bookings year on year.
The company has also experienced a 35 per cent increase in sales for the travel company over the past three months compared to the same period in 2016, Travel Counsellors UAE manager Maggie Bootsman disclosed at the conference.
“Travel Counsellors UAE is witnessing one of its best years yet and our annual conference provided an ideal platform for unveiling some of the key factors driving this growth,” she said. “Not only are more UAE residents travelling, but they are visiting first-time destinations and seeking niche products and our team of Travel Counsellors, known for their personalised service and indepth product knowledge, are fulfilling specific travel requirements whether they be cultural, religious or otherwise.”
Travel Counsellors UAE was established in 2012 as a joint venture with dnata and is part of the world’s largest home-based travel company with 1,700 travel consultants across seven countries working from home with the support of more than 350 staff at the company’s UK headquarters and overseas offices.
Since January this year, 16 new travel professionals have joined Travel Counsellors UAE, taking its total number of Travel Counsellors to 45, all of whom attended the conference and met with 30 local and global suppliers, including the event’s headline sponsors, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Azerbaijan-based Destination Management Company (DMC), PASHA Travel.
In addition to Bootsman, headline speakers at the event included Jim Eastwood, global sales director, Travel Counsellors and Iain Andrew, divisional senior vice president, dnata Travel, who covered topics including UAE traveller trends, booking patterns and destination and accommodation preferences and top tips for attracting repeat bookings.
Details of the recently-introduced ‘Travel Trade’ programme, a new ‘route to entry’ for travel related business owners, were also outlined at the conference. The programme is designed specifically for individuals with travel trade experience, but in non-retail roles, who would like to establish their own home-based travel business for the company.