Middle East Buyers look for new destinations and novel experiences
Dubai, March,13th 2018— The 6th edition of the MICE Arabia & Luxury Travel Congress successfully concluded last week highlighting the importance of “creating memorable experiences” This years’ edition saw business at an all-time high with select 100 % Middle East buyers, world class suppliers and more than 20 hours of networking, thus making it the regions’ one of a kind platform, carefully curated for organizers of MICE, business & luxury travel from the Middle East
Over the past six years, the MALT Congress has grown in importance and stature attracting not only business leaders, but high calibre industry professionals, government policy makers and other senior decision makers. “The Congress gets an exciting mix of delegates from corporates, luxury travel buyers to organizers of MICE, its’ such an interesting mix,” commented Mirza Usman, Account Director, Business Travel, Millenium Copthorne, he also indicated that “the diverse mix of professionals that the MALT Congress hosts is an advantage for knowledge exchange and understanding what’s on the mind of the high spending GCC buyer”
MALT Congress provides hosted buyers with a personalized schedule of one to one meetings with a handpicked selection of leading suppliers, speaking on the effectiveness of the pre-arranged one to one meeting appointments at the MALT Congress, Dag Kastensson, CEO of the Swedish destination management company, SNE Northern Europe said “This is an extremely important way of doing business. In short, we get to meet the right people, which is efficient for both sides. Face to face meetings are essential in our business, The GCC market has great potential, with new and more time efficient daily nonstop flight routes to all Scandinavian capitals, I believe this will have an enormously positive effect and we will see many more visitors from the GCC area in the coming years”.
Adding on, Usman said, “Every contact we met and interacted with was unique, the delegate exactly knew what they want which makes it an effective business conversation. I recommend that this event should happen more than once a year.” Many delegates lauded the platform’s efficiency in making the right business connections through prequalified appointments as well as ample opportunities for networking slotted in throughout the two-day agenda. “I will not call this an event,” opined Jehad Amin, Managing Director, House of Travel, Bahrain, and Chairman of Associations of Bahrain Travel and Tour Agents. “It can be rightly termed as a business platform where you can kick start a long-term partnership with the suppliers,” he explained.
“The congress mirrors the increase, both in confidence and business levels across major industry sectors in the GCC” commented Sidh N.C, Director, QnA International. Day one was kicked off by renowned international keynote speaker, Mady Keup from the SKEMA Business School, France, focusing on the core theme of creating memorable travel & event experiences. She emphasised on the big difference between an experience and the memory of an experience. From success stories, best practices to leadership lessons, the conference program also featured, H.E. Sara Al Madani, Board Member, Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and well known entrepreneur, she outlined top tips on converting every challenge into an opportunity, and discussed how effective leaders build teams, maximize performance, and transform organizations. She highlighted that leaders should be ready to serve and should treat failure as the first step to success. “We have had an exciting two days, a clear pattern of trends and business game changers emerged over the course of the event, and these we see as imminent and important characteristics in the world of MICE and Luxury Travel. Creating memorable experiences continues to be a defining attribute of MICE, business & luxury travel from the region. This year also saw an increase in the number of top middle east buyers, thanks to great feedback from our participants and sponsors, this will help us plan for the next edition of the MALT Congress,’’ concluded Sidh N.C.
