Nick Dagg, chief commercial officer, Agency, and Mark Meehan, managing director APACMEA & Global Operators for Travelport, say that despite the ongoing regional geopolitical challenges slowing them down a bit, their confidence in the Middle East remains undeterred.
“We are performing very well in this region: we are delivering quality product, fast search speed, accurate results and we put that together with world-class customer engagement,” says Dagg.
“In the future, we will have a speed to market that our competitors may not be able to keep up with”
– Greg Webb
“In the Middle East and Africa, we are seeing growth in several countries - Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Jordan, Nigeria and Pakistan to name a few – what’s heartening for me, however, is that this growth is not limited to one or two markets but across big markets like India,” Meehan, who helms Travelport’s Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa operations, tells TTN.
This year’s Travelport LIVE MEA explored the impact of the experience economy on the $9 trillion travel market.
Speakers at the two-day event included Geoffrey Weston, partner, Bain & Company, who introduced experience economy and compared tour packaging to supermarket shopping; Fiona Shanley, Travelport’s chief customer and marketing officer who shared 2019 Global Digital Traveler Research, an independent study, commissioned by Travelport; Brian Flanagan, senior director, product, experience pillar, Travelport, who shared the company’s product roadmap for the next 12 months to include the experience economy; and Henry Jakins, head of communications, Europe and APACMEA, Travelport, who shared successes of Travelport’s Travel Unified campaign, which aims to improve the experience of travel for people with intellectual disabilities.
“There is quite a breadth of agencies here in the Middle East. There are those that are quite traditional, predominantly retail offline setups, conversely there are also some of the most innovative omnichannel agencies – investing in robotics and automation just like we are.”
What is common across the Middle East landscape is that “we are seeing a much tighter cooperation from the agency community – our customer understands what we are talking about, why they need to embrace change. They recognise that the market is changing and want to adapt to flourish in their own business,” says Meehan.
Travelport CEO, Greg Webb, said in his first interview since his appointment this August, “The Middle East is a very dynamic market right now. Obviously, it continues to be impacted by individual economic issues from a country by country basis, but as a whole, a very dynamic market. For us, the market has shown significant growth over the last four years and this will continue to be the case.
“The reality of both inbound and outbound markets in the Middle East are driven a lot by carrier expansions. Regional airlines Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar, along with their airport expansions have made the Middle East a gateway between Europe and Asia.
“The impact of the new airport in Turkey will be massive. They currently service 60 million passengers and are expecting to increase to 150 million passengers by 2025. This will definitely change the way that traffic flows and will have an impact on regional airlines and their routes as they continue their expansion.”
Travelport announced Greg Webb as CEO and member of board of directors in August this year. The industry veteran was most recently SVP and general manager of Oracle Hospitality. Three years ago, he ended his 20-year career with Sabre as the VP of the company.
In his first media interview since his appointment, Webb mentions how impressed he is with the agility of Travelport in adapting to changes and how the talent pool at the company is exceptional and gifted.
Reflecting on how things have changed since his time with Sabre, he says, “Airlines, hoteliers, car companies, tours and cruises continue to want to sell more products, want the ability to upsell, and the ability to differentiate offers, and we play a key role in that.
“While the dialogue hasn’t changed in the last three years, some of the capabilities have moved very dramatically and Travelport has done a very good job of adapting to that changing environment.
“I believe Travelport has the ability to be more agile than our competitors. In the future, we will have a speed to market that our competitors may not be able to keep up with.
Adding, “I plan to win. Period. I do not plan to be the third player for long.”