Flying the flag for regional tourism

Dollar Thrifty’s Sam Eltibi reports back from ITB where there was just one question on everyone’s lips: what’s the story in the Middle East?

The tourism industry has certainly come a long way since the financial crises a couple of years ago. At this year’s ITB show in Berlin, which took place in March, attendance was estimated at around 180,000, and the event far exceeded our expectations in terms of enthusiasm and positivity in the industry.

All over the fair ground, the hustle and bustle of business activity — pitching, closing deals was strong and very promising for global tourism.
This year we had Dollar and Thrifty representatives from all the around the world fly in to attend the show, from Croatia to Costa Rica; Poland to Panama as well as our top executives from headquarters in Tulsa.

And after some exceptionally productive meetings with European clients, tour operators, and travel agents, we signed a number of business deals.

As an emerging market, the tourism potential in the Middle East was a major focus for many at ITB — in particular in the UAE and Oman and India.
Of course Qatar was in the spotlight.

With the FIFA World Cup win for 2022 it seems Europeans have turned their attentions to Qatar for the first time, and all companies are looking for opportunities to be part of the exciting growth in time for the event.

But despite all this buzz surrounding the region, there was still one question on everyone’s lips, and that was: what’s the situation with the current unrest in the Middle East, and how is it impacting on the tourism sector and operations in general?

It seemed clear from conversations on the show floor that many people do not really differentiate in their minds between what’s going on in Libya from the rest of the Middle East in general.

We spent quite a great deal of time re-assuring people at the show that our operations in the Middle East are secure and tourism activity has significantly increased in the region over the past few years.

Indeed, six Dollar Thrifty executives had flown in from perfectly peaceful Middle Eastern destinations to participate at the ITB event itself!

And although the current political situation is unfortunate for the people and businesses in the countries concerned right now, we believe that it will be beneficial to the region in general, in the long term.

Democracy will do a lot to benefit tourism in the Middle East — both business and leisure. In fact, what we are experiencing now in the Middle East has happened in Western countries in the past, and we expect change for the better in the near future.

All in all, the Middle East remains a popular destination for Europeans. We have grown our regional business by opening outlets in additional countries to meet the needs of our European customers who appreciate the Middle East local experience and we guarantee that tourists will experience the highest levels of service whichever country they are visiting. Our experience at ITB this year only reconfirmed this buzz.

Curriculum vitae
Sam Eltibi is executive director, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTAG) MENA & Asia Pacific. He has held the position since 2001, implementing franchise sales and business development activities for both Dollar and Thrifty brands.

Sam joined Dollar Thrifty as financial director in France in 1992. He has a Master of Science in Business Management from the Lebanese American University in Beirut.