June Tiffney and Neville Gay, Senior Sales Executives, Emirates
Tammy Lem, Cyrus Rustamji and Namrita Taneja of Uniglobe Enterprise
Maria Kish, Sarah Erlichman and Batia Lapid of Tic Toc Tours
WestJetters, Duncan Bureau, V.P. Sales, and Louis Gosselin, Sales Manager
A small group of guests were hosted at the Royal York last week to an extremely civilized cocktail reception to celebrate Emirates success in 2011. Royal York’s white-gloved service was hard to miss as servers circulated the room with hors d’oeuvres. Guests were also treated to a pasta station where a chef cooked fresh batches of mushroom risotto.
Don McWilliam, Emirates’ Country Manager for Canada, started off the round of presentations with a quick thanks. “Thank you for your support in 2011,” he said. “Emirates had a very successful year.” The Dubai government-owned airline turned a profit of USD$1.5 billion last year, its 23rd consecutive year of profit.
On top of adding new destinations and routes to the airline’s program, 8,640 new employees were hired in 2011, totaling its staff count to 60,000. Don told guests that Emirates plans to expand its fleet of 20 A380s to 90 aircraft by 2015 and welcomed Duncan Bureau, WestJet’s V.P. of Sales, to the podium, who announced their new affiliation with the Canadian carrier. “We’re very excited about this new partnership,” said Duncan.
However, the message of the night was that Dubai should be considered more than a one-day stay city. Jessica Herring from the Dubai representative office in North America urged agents to promote a 3-day stopover rather than just 1. “It’s a fabulous destination,” she said. “And it adds an enormous amount of value to any product you have to offer.”
Dubai has the reputation of being out of reach for some travellers – far in distance and far too expensive. However, it has become a popular choice as a stopover destination for people continuing further east to the sub-continent, south to Africa and even Australia. With the Emirates’ Dubai Stopover program and their new partnership with WestJet, visiting this intriguing city will be more accessible and more affordable - even to budget-conscious Canadians.
