Wales Tourism and Visit Planning

BTN Catches up with Mohamed Taher, New Director of Sales for Shangri-La, Dubai

Holiday In Wales Mohamed Taher has recently been appointed as Director of Sales for Shangri-La, Dubai. Mr.Taher has 17 years of industry experience in the region, working with the top brands including Le Meridien and Sheraton. Breaking Travel News caught up with him to find out what the future holds for this prestigious Shangri-La property.

St. Director of Tourism Since 1998 Mr. Peter Hilary Modeste has served, as the Director of Tourism of the St. Lucia Tourist Board. President of the St. Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association, Mr. Modeste has been employed within the tourism sector for a number of years. He was educated at the University of Wales and is married with three children. A former Minister of Education, Mr. Modeste has served on a number of national organizations including the St. Lucia Development Bank.

Holiday Wales How are you settling in to your new role?

Ticket Sales Executive Display Hide Washington, The Ticket Sales Executive, under the Director of Marketing and Ticket Sales, will be responsible for selling new accounts, creating new ideas to increase sales revenues and ability to perform basic office functions as needed. Tasks a ... [ more ] [ hide ]

Cottage Holiday In Wales I am delighted to have joined the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai team and I hope the hotel will benefit from my contribution in terms of developing new markets and identifying new potential business partners. In taking the job I was really impressed with Shangri-La's vision to be the preferred choice for customers by providing quality & value through distinctive service and its innovative products.

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Caravan Holiday In Wales What makes the Shangri-La Dubai so special?

Breaking Travel News talked to some of the key players at the recent Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. > Tom Nutley, Chairman, Reed Travel Exhibitions on the rise of ATM. Rajeev Talwar, Addl. Director General, Tourism Ministry, India on the boost of airlift from Arabia. Ian Lovelock, Regional GM, a first in the GCC. Sam Katiela, MD on Mamemo Productions on masterminding the Dubai World Central stand.

Camping Holiday Wales Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai has a unique role as it is the first property outside of Asia Pacific for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, and as such is spearheading the group's expansion in the Middle East. The spectacular 200 meter high building is also the newest five star hotel on the Sheikh Zayed Road. The property enjoys stunning views of the city, desert and Gulf and is ideally located in Dubai's growing commercial business district. One of our best selling points is the spaciousness of our guest rooms, ranging in size from 45 square meters to the new presidential suite's 435 square meters.

Tourism is the main industry in Florida. It has the biggest tourism market in the world with more that 84 million people visiting Florida in 2006, twice as much as 10 years ago. Most of these surprisingly were from the state of New York. Many of them come for Florida’s amusement parks.

Accommodation Holiday Wales What is the existing strategy for the development of sales and marketing at Shangri-La Dubai?

Holiday Last Minute Wales In its first year of operation, the main objective for Sales & Marketing was to create market awareness about Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai and the renowned Shangri-La hospitality to become the preferred business and social address. Its my job to take it a step further.

Catering Holiday Self Wales What elements are you hoping to add to this?

Holiday Wales Walking While our prime objective is to maximize business share of MICE and leisure segments, we will continue to focus on traditional Dubai inbound markets from neighbouring Gulf countries, Europe and Asia. We now have broader plans and we will also implement a comprehensive cross selling strategy capitalizing on our upcoming network of hotels in the region i.e, Traders Hotel Dubai, Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah in Muscat, Oman and Shangri-La Hotel in Doha, Qatar.

Family Holiday Wales The hotel is 5 minutes from the Dubai World Trade Centre. Is the business traveller your main target market and if so, how does this impact on your marketing strategy?

Holiday Riding Wales While the target audience is predominantly business and convention segments, driven by the hotel's location, leisure travel is also an important component of the hotel client base. The hotel is appealing to the sophisticated leisure sector, in part as a result of the familiarity for travellers who have visited the Asia Pacific region previously and are familiar with the brand promise of Shangri-La. The majority of Leisure Tour Operators in the UK & Germany are now featuring Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai in their brochures.

Adventure Holiday Wales How significant is the internet as a marketing tool?

Holiday Park South Wales Internet plays a crucial role in broadening Hotel & Destination profiles. Overall, user-friendly websites, E-information centers and on-line reservation services are strategic marketing tools for the tourism industry and are a vital component of any plan.

Cottage Holiday Wales How important are events like ATM to what you do?

Holiday In Wales Arabian Travel Market remains the finest travel trade event for the Middle East and the Gulf region. It provides an unparalleled business forum for inbound, outbound and intra-regional tourism professionals. Although ATM is entering its eleventh year, it is still an ideal venue to meet new partners and negotiate business deals. I have high hopes for this years event.

Holiday Wales What direction do you see the Gulf region, and Dubai specifically taking in the future?

Cottage Holiday In Wales The Gulf region will soon play a significant role with the rapid infrastructure development, economic expansion and the strong performance of various sectors, especially tourism and property. The economic growth reaffirmed the success of the implementation of Dubai's diversification policy, which has strengthened Dubai's economy. Dubai continued its impressive growth in 2003 by posting 5% increase in the hotel establishment guests compared with previous year. Last year, it played host to 4,980,228 guests as against 4,756,280 guests in 2002. This significant growth had been achieved despite the SARS outbreak and Iraq war among other negative developments that plagued the global tourism industry in 2003. The phenomenal growth achieved by hotel establishments reflects DTCM's effective marketing efforts positioning Dubai as a year-round safe destination, providing world-class facilities and attractions. This successful performance clearly indicates that Dubai's future tourism growth is on the right track and to be honest Dubai has already proved that it is dynamic and vibrant destination so I can only see that continuing.

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