Emirates Holidays revenue soars 22%

Dubai: Emirates Holidays, the tour operating arm and the largest wholesale tour operator in the GCC, has reported a 22 per cent increase in its revenue to Dh435 million ($118 million) last year compared to the previous year, serving 100,000 travellers.

"We expect this to grow about 15 per cent this year," John Felix, Emirates Holidays vice-president, told Gulf News.

"We had 22 per cent growth last year, which is a great achievement. The region's developments did not impact our operations."

The company said the top ten destinations were Dubai, Thailand, Malay-sia, the UK, Egypt, Mauritius, Singapore, France, the Maldives and Turkey.

"Dubai accounts for about 45,000 to 46,000 of the total 100,000 travellers that we serve, making it the top destination across our network."

High fuel costs have taken its toll on Emirates Group's profitability.

Last week the group announced 4.9 per cent growth in net profits to Dh2.8 billion ($762 million) for the financial year ended March 31, compared to the previous year's record profit of Dh2.7 billion ($726 million).

The company yesterday released 500,000 brochures to be distributed through travel agents in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia, to thousands of potential travellers.

The new Emirates Holidays brochures contain details of its largest-ever range of holiday packages in four publications covering the Middle East, Europe and North America, Africa and the Indian Ocean, and Asia and Australasia.

Destinations that are growing in popularity are the Seychelles, Austria, Greece, China including Hong Kong, Kenya and the Philippines.

Destination and Leisure Management another division of Emirates airline posted a robust growth in sales to Dh940 million ($256 million), an improvement of 17 per cent over the previous year, supported by a record number of 318,000 customers.

The division also announced major new projects, including Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa a environmentally oriented luxury development in Australia's Blue Mountains, a 70-storey deluxe city hotel in Dubai, and Emirates Marina Serviced Apartments & Spa in Dubai.

These properties will be managed under the division's new hospitality brand, Emirates Hotels & Resorts.

Felix said the US market will catch up later.

"Currently, our flights are running full carrying business travellers. We need to wait until the network matures and we can offer a number of destinations within the US market," he said.

"Once Emirates starts flying to new destinations, we will have plenty of options to offer to the travellers."

Double-digit growth was achieved in all Emirates Holidays source market regions Asia, Africa and Indian Ocean, Europe including Russia, the UAE and the Middle East.

The most outstanding was Asia as a result of strategic efforts to grow the region's diverse tourism opportunities.