27 April 2012

Despite the challenging economic climate, wholesalers, tour operators and travel agents across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) continue to book accommodation and experiences with GTA (Gullivers Travel Associates). Many have drawn on the company’s competitive rates and expert product knowledge in over 150 countries to deliver great value and authentic experiences to their clients. While demand for intra-regional destinations and European cities – particularly Paris, London, Rome and Barcelona – remains strong across key MEA markets including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Turkey, there has been significant growth to Asian destinations with Kuala Lumpur and Penang featuring in the top ten. Taking advantage of this interest, GTA is vastly increasing its offering in the Far East in 2012 with new properties and attractive hotel rates in popular destinations such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Indeed a brand new ‘Best of Asia Pacific’ brochure will be launched at Arabian Travel Market (30 April to 3 May) featuring recommended hotels throughout the region as well as Australia’s Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney. GTA is also preparing for an increase in religious tourism as it fine-tunes the range of accommodation available to those booking Umrah travel for clients. “Despite the economic climate, travellers from the Middle East and Africa still want to indulge their passion for cultural attractions, shopping and great food and many of these destinations appeal for exactly those reasons. The integration of GTA and Kuoni Destination Management further cements our reputation as the leading provider of thousands of hotels and apartments, as well as authentic experiences from sightseeing tours to attractions of all kinds,” says Ossama Wagdi, Vice President Middle East and Africa. Travel sellers will have the opportunity to talk to GTA on stand TT210 about this and other holiday deals for their clients – wherever they are and wherever they want to go. http://clients.gta-travel.ae and http://clients.gta-travel.com - ends - Contact: Elliott Frisby, External Communications Manager, Kuoni Global Travel Services on 00 44 (0) 7833 406161 or 00 44 (0) 20 3170 4204, elliott.frisby@gta-travel.com At Arabian Travel Market: Rami Mashini, Head of Inbound Operations MEA & India, GTA on +971 506 524560 rami.mashini@gta-travel.com • Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) and Kuoni Destination Management form the division Global Travel Services within the Kuoni Group. The division has a workforce of approx. 3,200 (full-time-equivalent) employees worldwide. Its international network consists of some 86 wholly-owned offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, India, Middle East, North America, South America and Oceania. • GTA has been a global travel wholesaler for more than 35 years. It sources hotel accommodation and a variety of ground travel products all over the world for the global network of online FIT and group wholesalers, travel agents and public website clients. • Kuoni Destination Management was voted “World’s Leading Destination Management Company” by World Travel Awards in 2011, and provides a wide range of destination and event management services in the leisure group, sports events, cruise, meetings, incentives, conference, events, congress, and individual travel fields at destinations all over the world. These services are offered to international tour operators, wholesalers, meeting planners, incentive houses and congress organisers. • Kuoni is one of the world’s leading globally-active leisure and destination management travel organizations, with a worldwide workforce of more than 10,000 full-time equivalent employees. The head office of Kuoni is in Zurich, Switzerland, where Alfred Kuoni founded the company in 1906. www.kuoni.com www.gta-travel.com www.kuoni-dmc.com