Car rental business sees new peaks

What was once the slackest season for car rental companies before the advent of DSS in 1998, has now taken a 180-degree turn. Car rental companies that play an important role in the summer events providing service to the visitors, now firmly believe that the DSS has revived the business trend in the season. With eight weeks into DSS, managers of car rental companies claim that business has never been brisker.

"Our counter at the Dubai International Airport has recorded a 50 per cent rise in revenues so far this summer," said Marwan Haji Mohammed, district manager of Dubai and Northern Emirates, Fast Rent-a-Car. "The rise in the number of rentals this summer has been monumental, even exceeding our past records. Dubai is definitely doing something right to attract so many visitors during this time of the year when car rental companies and hotels are at a low ebb in other GCC countries.

"Through our active participation in the GCC roadshows since the inception of DSS we have been able to portray Dubai as the place to be during the summer months. And this summer our package offers has attracted very positive response as is evident through our booking rates," he said.

With many families coming in from the GCC countries to participate in the 10-week-long fun fiesta, managers say that bigger cars that can accommodate four or more members are in demand during the summer months.

"Most of our customers this season have been families from the GCC countries, and our customer base has definitely grown this summer," said Sumit Chopra, general manager at Dollar Rent-a-Car. "Although the hotel occupancy rates have seemed to have dropped a bit this year, it has had no impact on our business - in fact, the car rentals have increased." Chopra attributes the increase in customers to the special DSS promotions that Dollar Rent-a-Car offers, including cars from Dh50 onwards per day and price slashes up to 60 per cent.

"My company's participation in the DSS has given us an opportunity to grow in the region. We offer professional service to our current and future customers. During DSS we can attract more customers through our competitive offers and packages and these include not just the popular car models but also good deals on the latest cars as we are also offering a raffle to win a rent-a-car free for a week to our esteemed customers," he said.

S.Sinha, marketing manager of Thrifty Car Rental agrees that there has been an influx of customers this year from GCC countries. "Although the rise in car rentals have not been as much as we expected this year, we have nevertheless been doing brisk business this summer, thanks to our special offers over the 20 counters in the UAE," he said. "The Dubai Summer Surprises is definitely a great initiative by the Dubai Government to draw in visitors to the country not just during the cooler months of the year, but all year round," he said.

The ten-week DSS 2005 begins with the Flower Surprises on June 22 and continues with the Sweets Surprises, Arts Surprises, Colour Surprises, Ice Surprises, Adventure Surprises, Cartoon Surprises, Heritage Surprises, Knowledge Surprises and concludes with the Back-2-School Surprises on September 2.