Al Rostamani set for retail roll out
by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Tuesday, 07 August 2007
New look Al Rostamani Travel and Tourism has revealed plans to beef up its operations in the UAE with five new outlets planned to open before the end of the year.
The agency has reported a successful first three months operating under the new name, after changing from Thomas Cook Al Rostamani earlier in the year when Dubai Finance purchased the rights to the Thomas Cook name.
"Business has not declined - quite the opposite in fact," said general manager Heinz Gabel. "We have retained our previous contacts and already attained many new corporate clients. People have understood that the people they are dealing with inside [our outlets] have not changed despite the new name and logo."
Gabel said the company would open five new outlets by the end of the year, including one in "another emirate" (as well as in Dubai and Abu Dhabi).
He suggested the new venture would involve the takeover of another agency, while the other four outlets would open up in Karama, Dubai Marina, Al Ain, and the forthcoming Al Rostamani HQ on Sheikh Zayed Road.
"We will retain this existing outlet [in Maktoum Road in Deira] but the new HQ will give us a lot more space," Gabel explained. The move will facilitate some major internal changes to help carry out the company's new strategy, which involves more clearly separating its leisure retail and corporate travel divisions.
"All the corporate business will basically be moved out of the branch offices, which will be assigned for retail and holiday business only," Gabel said. "All the corporate business that is not handled through implants in corporates will then be centrally managed from the team centre in Sheikh Zayed Road."
Al Rostamani currently has five high street-facing outlets in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi, as well as 13 Al Rostamani Exchanges in the UAE.
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