Travel Agents Day Seminars

• Thursday 10.30am – 11.30am: Online Training

  Location: Technology Theatre, Hall 1
  
  Being a destination or product expert is essential for survival in a world where travel agencies and their staff face so much competition. In a bid to help agencies boost their product knowledge and be experts in the their field, travel firms and tourism boards are increasingly rolling out online training programmes in the Middle East, but what are the barriers to making these successful? The panel discusses what tourism boards must do to ensure agents take part and why agency managers must embrace training opportunities for their staff.
  
  Speakers:
  Jon Barber, Communications Manager, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi - Moderator
  Vassilis Theocharides, Director, Cyprus Tourism Board
  Leo Fewtrell, Managing Partner, DTTAG
  William Horsley, General Manager, Al Futtaim Travel Management Company
  Andrew Oldfield, GCC Marketing Manager, Tourism Australia
  Bruce Martin, Operations Director, Online Travel Training

• Thursday 11.30am -12.30pm : How to fully utilise the GDS

  Location: Technology Theatre, Hall 1
  
  Agents are not fully utilising the Global Distribution System (GDS). They have been using the GDS to make airline bookings for years, but they still require educating when it comes to making non-air bookings, particularly as ‘add-ons’ such as hotels and car rental still earn them commission when airline sales don’t. In this session, the three main GDS providers – Travelport (Galileo and Worldspan), Amadeus and Sabre – ‘pitch’ their latest non-air booking tool to agents and tell them why they should be using it. Agents vote for their favourite tool and take part in a GDS quiz for the chance to win a free iPad.
  
  Speakers:
  Kim Thomson, Publishing Editor, Travel Trade News (TTN) - Moderator
  Assista Kone, Hospitality Business Development, Travelport
  Ahmed Youssef, Regional Director, Marketing & Operatons, Amadeus
  Naz Nazuri, Senior Vice President, Emquest

• Thursday 1pm - 2pm: Race against the web

  Location: Technology Theatre, Hall 1

  Many agents are now finding their clients are searching for deals on their mobile devices and coming in to their shops and and showing the agent the deal on their phone and asking them to beat it. This proves that travel is becoming not only multi-channel but multi device. How can the travel trade keep pace with the new smart tech-savvy traveller? This session will address the need for agencies to invest in and embrace technology, up their social media strategies but also complement this with a face-to-face service that online travel agencies cannot emulate.
  
  Speakers:
  Jon Barber, Communications Manager, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi - Moderator
  Diego Lefeudo, Senior Director of Market Management. Expedia
  Faisal Memon, CEO, Illusions
  Dan Stuart, General Manager Middle East, Gonabit/LivingSocial Escapes
  MOhammed Al Rais, Deputy Managing Director, Al Rais Travel

• Agent Workshops

  Arabian Travel Market has teamed up with Emquest Training and DTTAG to provide targeted skills training sessions for agents.
  
  Session Synopsis:
  EmQuest, a division of Emirates announce their leisure platform with mywurldTM. This uniquely innovative web platform will introduce to the travel agents the ability to upsell on their GDS bookings by reading the PNR & recommending non-GDS land & sea services for the destination booked. The content shown is an amalgamation of multiple suppliers enabling the travel agents the use of their negotiated rates as well as access to new content.

  An attractive feature is the dynamic generation of cobranded personalised travel agency websites (PURL) which the agent can choose to extend to their end passengers to enhance the overall user experience, with the ability to display their preferred rates & earn their commissions. The integrated  itinerary combining flight details with comprehensive destination based information, excursions, tours, hotel, car and a host of other valuable content makes for  a convenient and extremely efficient way for the customer to choose and manage access to his trip details.

  For suppliers, this platform provides an immediate increase in  distribution reaching  out directly to the travel agents and showcase your products for the destination booked. It provides continued revenue streams from the sale of ancillary travel products and services before, during and after travel, opens doors to new clientele, provides a merchandising platform & enables you to have real time dynamically targeted advertising capabilities, both to the travel agent & passengers.

  Be amongst the first on the EmQuest leisure solution today.

  
  Location: Technology Theatre, Hall 1
  Session Timings:
  Monday 3pm - 4pm
  Wednesday 1pm - 2pm
  Thursday 2pm - 3pm