JEDDAH, 7 June 2003 — Crowne Plaza Jeddah recently hosted a road show as part of the drive of the newly named InterContinental Hotels Group to secure a 25 percent boost in corporate business and a seven percent increase in leisure brands for all hotels in the Middle East. The exercise was also meant to create an awareness of the change in the name of the company from Six Continents Hotels to InterContinental Hotels Group. The group includes InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn properties. All properties joined forces for the drive in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. Thomas Schmelter, general manager of Crowne Plaza Jeddah and Muin Serhan, director global sales, Middle East and Africa, provided an update on the additions at the local hotel.
BA to Introduce Executive Club
JEDDAH, 7 June 2003 — British Airways (BA) is to introduce a series of changes to its executive club loyalty frequent flyer program from July 1 “to make the scheme simpler with more ways to spend ‘BA miles’ and better incentives for its loyal passengers.” The program, with almost five million members worldwide including 108,000 members from the Middle East, witnessed a higher growth rate of 23 percent last year than the global average of 13 percent, with the Kingdom being the fastest-growing regional market followed closely by the UAE. Executive club is split into three levels of membership — blue, silver and gold. “By simplifying the club and creating a single global program, our objective is to deliver better service to our loyal passengers and offer them more chances to take advantage of flying with us,” Chris Phipps, BA commercial country manager for the Kingdom, said.
Zahid Travel Group Promotes Vienna
JEDDAH, 7 June 2003 — The Jeddah-based Zahid Travel Group (ZTG) is promoting Vienna as a destination. “Arts and delights — that, in a nutshell, is formula for making the most of Vienna in 2003,” says a campaign announced by ZTG Consultant Zakir H. Siddik. Following the inauguration of the MuseumsQuartier in 2001, the city’s growing momentum as a center of cultural life is demonstrated by the Albertina Museum that opened in March. The Vienna of imperial nostalgia will be to the fore when the Lipizzaners perform in front of Schonbrunn Palace in August. And the fun lovers will again find the city bursting with life. “It’s all there — musicals and shopping, imperial palaces and modern architecture, former suppliers by appointment to the court and flagship designer stores, coffee, etc. Vienna has treats in store for everyone from opera buffs to inline skaters, from gourmets to gourmands, and from art collectors to daydreamers.”
Travel Agents’ Team Visits Kerala
JEDDAH, 7 June 2003 — A group of travel agents from Saudi Arabia returned from a weeklong tour of southern Indian state of Kerala over the weekend. Abbas Hassan Kutty, managing director of the Middle East India Package Tour (MEIPT), which conducted the trip in association with Air-India, told a tour operators’ meeting in Jeddah before the group’s departure that there had been many inquiries from families and vacationers from the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Middle East-Gulf region for visiting India, especially Kerala, during the upcoming summer season.