ATN: How long have you been working in the travel industry for?
Since 1994, so for more than 12 years now. I thought it would be very interesting — I didn’t study it at school or anything, but I did a diploma, back home in Sri Lanka, and then I started working in the industry.
At first I was only on the ticketing side, but then I moved to the UAE and that’s when I got into holidays.
ATN: What do you enjoy about the job?
I have always been able to travel. I love to travel; that is the best thing about the job. It’s important too, in order to do our jobs well, because we get to experience the different products.
In the last year I have been on six business trips. Most recently I went to Chambery in the Rhône Alps for the Grand Ski exhibition with [French tourism agency] Maison de la France. In May I went to Korea, then to Singapore, South Africa and the UK.
ATN: What are the most popular destinations?
Our clients are mainly Arab nationals, so it’s kind of predictable. However, they are starting to become a bit more adventurous and trying out different places, but Paris is always popular, as are Brussels, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In the UK they mainly visit parts of Scotland and London.
ATN: What new destinations do clients ask for ?
There has been a jump in tourism to Korea. The country is becoming popular because it has done a lot of advertisement. Most importantly, the visas are available for UAE nationals, so we are getting some requests for it.
Korea’s great; there are some lovely islands and the people there are really nice too. I’ve been there fairly recently, so I’ve been able to recommend it. I’ve had a couple of families that have booked.
To be honest though, UAE nationals don’t really go for a lot of variety and they don’t take a lot of advice from us. It’s more just a case of making bookings for them.
ATN: What is the client mix at your agency?
We get a lot of leisure clients — the main business for us is people taking their families away on holiday, and it’s 99% UAE nationals. We don’t get much ex-pat business at all. We only really target the nationals. It’s not that we are not interested in the expatriate business, but at the moment, while we are trying to develop our leisure division to some extent, the business with UAE nationals is good.
They’re not like other people — they don’t have a particular budget and come to you and say what can I do for this amount.
They just arrange whatever it is they want and then they pay for it.
ATN: Are your clients particularly demanding?
They are, and we have to get it just right. In the summer we can have five or six clients booking each day, and we’ll spend at least an hour with each of them.
But I still think they’re easy to deal with. They have high standards, but they know that they have to pay the price for that.
They like to barter and to get a good deal — that’s human nature — but I see that more with the ex-pat market. They’re looking for a cheap deal.
We’re not the cheapest travel agency, but our policy is that if you want the best product, come to us, but not if you’re looking for the cheapest package. I always offer value for money in terms of quality and after sales service — every single day I know where all my clients are and at which hotels they’re staying. I know all the details off by heart. So the moment I get a call from a client, I know exactly what their situation is. We have a very personal and hands-on level of service.
This is why I don’t like to sell the airline packages — I do sell them, but most of the time I like to keep control of the packages and tailor-make them myself.
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