Focusing on GCC markets

Germany and Scandinavian markets have focused on GCC over the past few years, hence a new company, Step to Markets, was established in Berlin after many years of experience in the GCC. Maher Azizia, Chief Executive Officer, Step to Markets speaks with TravTalk about the venture.

Shehara Rizly

Please share a brief about the company.

Step to Markets (STM Marketing UG) is a tourism marketing organisation offering marketing services in Germany for hotels and tourism destinations based in the Middle East and GCC countries. The company was established last year in Berlin to help our clients in the Middle East and GCC markets to build strong relationships with outbound tour operators in Germany and to come up with marketing strategies that ensure business results in a short span of time in our region.

Q As of now, what are the key markets?

The focus in the last six months as well as this year has been mainly on the GCC markets, which have overcome the situation and opened tourist facilities as quickly as possible while fully preserving the safety rules for tourists.

Q Could you share the initiatives taken to keep a positive mindset during the pandemic?

We at STM Marketing are trying to communicate the correct information to our business partners – the travel and tourism business has not stopped for hundreds of years, it’s true that we are going through special circumstances that require strict measures, but the pandemic is on its way to disappearing and we must be ready for the new normal.

Q What defines your company and what would you say is unique?

What defines us is the specialization in tourism marketing, our team experience in tourism field for many years makes us experts to help our clients to reach out to the maximum range of German markets. Each hotel or tourism destination has different needs and wants a different approach. We try to be as flexible as possible to put our client’s product in the right way.

Q Embarking on 2021, what are your plans for German and Scandinavian markets?

The German and Scandinavian outbound markets are recovering quickly, we expect a big travel movement in the second half of this year, that’s why we have put in place appropriate plans to suit our clients campaigns. At the same time we are expanding our services in Sweden and Denmark to add representative offices for STM Marketing there to support our main office in Berlin.