ATN talks to Ralph Melis, the new contracts manager — GCC, for wholesaler Destinations of the World (DOTW).
ATN: What is your travel industry background?
I’ve worked in hotel operations in Holland and in the UAE with most of my time spent in the front office, reservations and revenue. After completing some time in a sales role, I decided to move to an online travel agency in Dubai as an account manager for Oman, Qatar and the the UAE.
ATN: What are your responsibilities in this new role?
My main responsibilities will be dealing with rates contracts for existing and new hotels in the GCC. I will also meet hotel sales and revenue representatives to discuss potential promotions and strategies.
Advertisement
ATN: What do you hope to bring to the role?
My background helps me understand the needs and ideas of hotels and travel agents alike.
ATN: What will be the biggest challenges?
It will probably be the spin-off of how hotels have reacted to the credit crisis. Most hotels were and are facing the challenge of declining RevPAR and are frequently looking for new avenues to help them improve it.
This has led to a lack of control over rate distribution. We need to work closely with our key partners to allow them to maximise their yield, but in a more controlled environment.
ATN: What is the key to developing business during the economic downturn?
For us it’s now all about improving seamless distribution using technology. We have a strong focus on XML connectivity to our customers and direct connect to our suppliers.
The company plans to increase its global customer distribution to more than 450,000 points of sale and increase its direct connectivity to more than 50,000 hotels in the next 12 months. Next year we will see massive expansion on this, so this should help improve our results and increase our market strength.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
