Collection GCC Roadshow 2020
It was an amazing experience, we had over 50 agents in Kuwait. Some of them knew what the Bicester Village Shopping Collection was, but many of them didn’t, so it was a great opportunity to share some of the success stories we had while looking after the Middle East market and working and building relationships directly with those agents.
It was lovely to join this event and welcome different suppliers and partners from around the world. In the tourism industry we always look for trends, fashions and products that we can introduce in our portfolio. Such events allow customers to find new experiences which combine fashion, travelling and shopping. Also, we met a lot of new partners and can develop new products and itineraries for our clients in different destinations.
The Bicester Village Shopping Collection roadshow by Sammy and the team at Gulf Reps has been very well represented. Roadshows like this give us, as travel agents and as travel management companies a better opportunity to interact with partners directly to get some insights and updates about the offers, services and facilities. Shopping villages from this market are an integral part of tourism.
The main reason which attracts the UAE travellers is that everyone in Dubai wants to shop so the discounts and special offers have been quite popular. I have been selling them not only for leisure but also for M!CE and incentive groups over the years. There are many things that they provide, catering to different kinds of travellers – Arabs, Indians, Asians, all prefer the experience.
K Club is a five-star luxury resort on the outskirts of Dublin. We have 134 guest rooms and also private residences in the property. We offer numerous activities ranging from kayaking, horse riding, falconry, equestrian and much more as we are in Kildare. We have been here for a few days and the sales calls we made were very engaging and clients were interested in the products that we presented.
We have lots of trade partners here promoting their properties and shopping villages in Europe on one platform. We learnt about what they offer to the premium clients and how we can put together new packages.
As I promote destinations, this was really a great opportunity to meet so many suppliers in one area. This roadshow was well organised as each one of us had time to have a very good meeting with each of the suppliers; they were from destinations to hotels and the shopping villages. Our clients prefer destinations where they can engage themselves in shopping so in this market the Bicester Village Shopping Collection is already known. We managed to get more details on what they will introduce for this season and the new deals on offer.
I work for American Express Dubai in the travel part, handling the platinum card members. It has been an amazing event and it should happen regularly so that we can provide our card members with more deals. The fact that we could connect with them directly under one roof was very good.