Emirates Holidays, the destination and holiday management arm of the Emirates Group, recorded a 22 per cent growth in revenue and 24.5 per cent in passengers during its financial year ending March 31, said senior officials.
The UAE, as a destination, represents about 40 per cent of its business - a testimony to the carrier's contribution in promoting its hub as a preferred tourism destination, according to Hans Haensel, Emirates' senior vice-president, destination and leisure management.
Emirates Holidays' revenue represents about eight per cent of the Group's total.
It promotes various cities in Emirates' network of 75 destinations spread across four continents. However, its major growth last year came from Asian destinations.
Its top 10 destinations are the UAE, Malaysia, Britain, Egypt, Thailand, the Maldives, Mauritius, Lebanon, India and South Africa - which, according to officials, still reflects a southward trend in leisure travel.
Haensel said: "Asia has been quite popular with travellers for many years. However, we expect some growth in traffic to Europe this year with Glasgow and Austria being added to the Emirates network. We expect vacationers to travel to Russia a lot as well.
"Besides, Emirates' direct flights into China, as well as its daily direct flights into Japan will accelerate traffic to these markets. We are also promoting North American destinations as Emirates plans to launch direct services to New York next June.
"Australia and New Zealand will be the two new growth markets with Emirates now having four daily frequencies to Australia."
Emirates Holidays has launched five new holiday brochures, A World of Choice, split among five geographical regions across Emirates' network of 75 destinations - the Gulf, Middle East, Mediterranean Europe, East Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and the Far East.
Each brochure, with a print run of 350,000 copies, will be distributed among travel and tour operators to sell among potential customers, as the summer outbound holiday season approaches.
Emirates Holidays will distribute a total of 1.4 million copies among its travel trade partners. The company used to package all its holiday products in a single brochure until last year, when it printed 800,000 copies of the huge 600-page brochure.
It will launch a sixth brochure that will include holidays exclusively for Arab travellers and a seventh for those from Saudi Arabia and Iran.
"However, this is the first time we have split them across five geographical regions in our network," said John Felix, vice-president Emirates Holidays. "This has been done to help the travellers concentrate on separate regions without having to carry a heavy publication.
"Last September, we launched a ski brochure to market the ski resorts which is doing extremely well. Besides, we have expanded cruise and spa options for travellers this year".
Meanwhile, a record 6,000 people are expected at Emirates Holidays' World of Choice holiday fair, which runs at the Grand Hyatt from April 29 to May 1, to choose one of the most important purchases they ever make - their annual holiday.
The event will showcase vacations suited to the needs of its half a million potential customers in the Gulf, Middle East, Mediterranean Europe, East Africa, Sub-Continent and the Far East.
Gulf News
