Al Naboodah Travel launches www.uaetraveler.com in cooperation with OctopusTravel

This new joint venture was announced at the Arabian Travel Market 2004 in Dubai. This venture is seen as an important step in easing the online process of travel and tour arrangements, including e-reservations and payments.

The new online partnership is part of Al Naboodah's commitment to continuously expanding and improving the quality of its services. Their customers will now benefit from the wide range of services provided in association with OctopusTravel, including their sizeable database and a strong international presence.

OctopusTravel.com offers more than 19000 discounted hotels in 112 countries worldwide, and features more than 1000 sightseeing tours in over 150 cities and 50 countries.

Mundhir Hilal, General Manager, Al Naboodah Travel, said, "The creation of uaetraveler.com is another step towards a new era of tourism in the UAE. We have enhanced the complete offering to travel agents, corporate customers and individuals through an integrated offering of flights, hotels, ground transportation services, tours and packages, travel insurance, event solutions, customer relationship management and safe accounting and online payment gateways."

"Through the wide range of Al Naboodah Travel's customers, we have seen tremendous developments in the tourism sector in the region. Following our efforts in providing better services and increasing our offering of international destinations, this cooperation with such a dynamic partner with an impressive international presence is beneficial to all."

Osama Wajdi, General Manager- Middle East, North Africa and the Sub-continent, Gullivers Travel Associates, who are the regional provider of OctopusTravel.com services, said, "Our huge buying power and strong relationship makes OctopusTravel strategic partners to all e-travel web sites. While looking to enhance and expand operations for added value, we ensure high quality services and benefits for electronic registration and bookings, which is definitely the future of tourism in the region."

Amer Al Halabi, Regional Business Development Manager- Middle East and North Africa, OctopusTravel, said, "With OctopusTravel, the portal has one of the most comprehensive and powerful set of tools that will execute an effective approach in delivering first class service to our clients."

"uaetraveler.com has an active interface based on XML which makes it better to share data between the two organisations, and to users of the site. Electronic transactions with regard to travel and tourism is growing fast, as is the user base of internet users in the country. As there is higher awareness of technology, there will be higher demands on what that technology can do for the user, and this is the area we wish to address", he added.