Tourism & Hospitality | Monday 30 November, 2015 6:47 am |

Alpha Destination Management, one of the largest destination management companies in the Middle East, has been honored with the best Destination Management Company (DMC) award by the UK’s leading tour operator, Virgin Holidays, during the World Travel Market (WTM) which concluded in London recently. 

Samir Hamadeh, General Manager, Alpha Destination Management, received a Gold Plaque from Mark Anderson, CEO of Virgin Holidays, at the gala award ceremony attended by representatives of over 300 companies specializing in destinations marketing and deals with Virgin Holidays. 

Virgin Holidays is one of the largest UK tour operators specializing in family tourism and is the number one company in Britain in bringing tourists to the UAE and Dubai.

Now in its 36th year, the WTM is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. Over 51,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media, attended the event to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.

Hamadeh said : we handle more than 80000 British tourists a year to the UAE, almost half of them through collaboration with Virgin Holidays.

He added that during its participation in the WTM-2015, the company has signed a deal with a leading Italian tour operator, Eden Viaggi, to bring 30,000 tourists from Italy over the next year (2016). The deal came close to the start of direct flights by Emirates Airline between Dubai and the Italian city of Bologna, the fourth destination in Italy after Rome, Milan and Venice. Emirates currently operate a triple daily flight to Rome and Milan and daily flight to Venice.  

He said Alpha has utilized the B2B travel exhibition to enlighten the tour operators and travel agents about the latest tourist attractions in Dubai and the special offers from Alpha. The company also entered into exclusive deals with several companies to bring more tourists to the UAE, including 10000 tourists from Scandinavian countries in cooperation with the Thomas Cook Northern Europe. 

Alpha Destination Management, in collaboration with the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), organized domestic flights and transfer of 900 members of German and Chinese delegations hosted by the Department.