GTA hosts first trade event for about 90 Iranian travel agencies. Outbound Travel Market for Iran is expected to grow following the recent lifting of sanction with top destinations including Istanbul, Dubai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur & Singapore.
IRAN – GTA hosted a trade dinner for about 90 Iranian Travel Agencies on the 19th of January at the Espinas Hotel in Tehran. GTA has been trading in Iran market since the late 90’s, and as a result of active engagement with getting new partners, business has grown more than twenty fold over the past 15 years. As a result of recent lifting of sanctions, further growth is expected for the second half of 2016.
Top destinations from Iranian outbound tourists throughout the year include Istanbul, Dubai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur & Singapore. Secondary destinations popular with Iranians travelling out of the country include Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui, Penang & Langkawi which are booked in connection with Bangkok & Kuala Lumpur respectively. GTA also expects to see more travel bookings for Europe this year, with London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Florence and main cities in Germany & Spain being the top favourites for Europe.
During the Iranian Travel Trade Event, GTA representatives provided guests with a comprehensive understanding of GTA’s corporate and operation structure, and the benefits of partnering and booking with GTA. Following a recent launch of GTA’s Destination Dubai campaign, travel agencies were encourage to choose from a list of 24 hotel partners whom GTA has secured under its strategic partnership program (SPP).
“We wanted to create awareness of Destination Dubai, and how partners can benefit through our Strategic Partnership Program. GTA has helped our partner hotels in Dubai increase their ADR and reach out to source markets within the APMEA region that is typically hard to reach for these hoteliers. We are extremely excited to work closely with these travel agencies in Iran who have shared their enthusiasm on how their partnership with GTA has helped them offer clients wider choice and variety when booking holidays,” said Rami Mashini, Vice President of Sales, Middle East & Africa at GTA.
“We are extremely encouraged by the number of travel agencies that have registered with us after the event and we will continue to help them enhance their produce offerings with our GTA content. More importantly, we also received positive feedback from our guests on what worked well for their customers, such as affordable 5 star hotels, promotion deals with free room upgrades or Stay 4 nights Pay 3, and catering to families with free hotel stay for children below 12 years old” added Rami.
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