dnata rides on increasing demand

John Bevan, CEO – dnata Travel Group, shares with TRAVTALK the group’s growth over the past year compared to the pre-COVID period and expresses hope that the trend will continue over 2023. Some of the key criteria to determine this progression will be the average booking value, length of stay and, of course, the rise of long-haul travel.

Shehara Rizly

What are the projections for the year from the dnata Travel Group?

We represent the travel division of dnata, one of the world’s largest air and travel services providers, with businesses that cover the full spectrum of the industry. Following on from a positive year of travel in 2022, we anticipate growth in all business areas to continue in 2023, reaching – or surpassing – pre- COVID levels.

Already reflecting such trends, as an example, our UK travel brands reported an overall increase in travel sales of 53 per cent in January 2023 compared to the same time last year, during the ‘peak’ season for UK travel bookings. From 1 January 2023 until date, continued growth has been driven by rising demand in Asia, Indonesia and Australia, and a resurgent USA – the number one destination booked to date across our UK brands. Significant year on year growth across average booking value, bookings and length of stay indicate demand for long-haul travel is on a par with levels not seen since early 2020.

Will you be looking at new source markets this year?

We aim to expand the source markets of our travel businesses, including the UAE’s leading destination management company (DMC) Arabian Adventures, and one of the world’s fastest growing leisure bed banks, Yalago, to strengthen our product offering to align with the Dubai Tourism Strategy to attract 25 million tourists by 2025. In 2023, a core focus for Yalago is to expand its hotel portfolio with a more extensive range across European cities, the Asia-Pacific region, and the Americas, in particular the USA and Brazil. This will extend the reach of these properties to a wider global audience as travel to these areas continues to grow in popularity. The company is also expanding its reach with global, in-market teams to enhance its localised knowledge and expertise, recently appointing business development managers in the USA, Switzerland, and Spain, as well as expanding the Dubai-based team.

By developing Arabian Adventures’ offering as a DMC and improving its award-winning desert safari and city tour experiences, we aim to further enhance Dubai’s position as an attractive destination for global travellers. In 2023, we are building on the success of our stopover programs, emphasising Dubai’s position as more than just a beach destination – highlighting its desert and mountain attractions, and beyond, to encourage more and longer stays.

Which international exhibitions the dnata Travel Group will take part in 2023?

We understand that engaging with our customers, partners and suppliers is key to our long-term success. Our B2B brands, including Yalago, Arabian Adventures, Gold Medal and Destination Asia, will have a presence at most travel trade fairs around the world this year, while closer to home we look forward to welcoming our clients to join us at Arabian Travel Market for 2023, as we build on the recovery reflected in the success of the event last year.

How do you see travellers responding to sustainable tourism? Where exactly are GenZ or younger travellers as per the sustainability issues are concerned?

Traveller requirements have changed across the board, with more mindful decisions being made. Sustainable choices will impact the future of travel, and it is great to see the amount of work being done across the industry. At dnata, we are committed to investing US $100 million in green operations to further enhance environmental efficiency across our global network.

At the dnata Travel Group, we have significantly reduced our carbon footprint through green technologies and business practices, while we aim to empower our customers to make better travel choices. Our corporate travel services include hybrid event solutions, sustainable travel policy guidance as well as carbon emission monitoring and reporting, aligned to global standards. We hope to evolve in-house technology in the future to support global leisure travellers with a clear overview of the data needed to make their own choices on sustainable travel.

Now that Covid intensity has declined, what different trends do you see in terms of travellers? How do they book? Is it still last minute? Or has this changed? Where do they want to go? What do they want to do? What has changed?

Travel is trending. For dnata Travel in the UAE, we are already witnessing a 17 per cent increase in travel bookings across the summer period in 2023 so far compared to the same period in 2022, as travellers are booking further in advance to secure their perfect trip. Our travel experts are also reporting increases in length of stay, and in average booking values, as customers look to extend their trips and opt to book fuller holiday packages, including hotels, flights, transfers, in-destination experiences, and insurance. We are also finding in this part of the world that face to face bookings are popular, with customers preferring to make a travel booking in-person at their local dnata Travel store to seek the advice of the travel experts on-hand.

dnata Travel’s top international destinations for leisure travellers in 2023 so far from the UAE include Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, UK, Mauritius, and Turkey – with Italy and USA also growing in popularity, particularly across the summer holiday period.

What or how will you say dnata’s role will be for this new era of tourism? At present every organisation has put forward a set of different guidelines and marketing initiatives to suit the current or more relevant needs of the traveller?

We continue to evolve to meet the needs of our global customer base. The beauty of the dnata Travel Group is that we are available across all industry verticals and touchpoints – with travel stores and solutions online and offline, and 24/7 travel expertise and support. Through our 60-plus years of experience and global partnerships, we work with hotels, resorts and other travel partners to offer global travellers incredible, unrivalled travel content, supplied directly to the end-consumer or out to other operators, all over the world. This extends the impact of the dnata Travel Group, as we support the travel industry in many different ways, on a local and a global scale.