Don McWilliam, Country Manager Canada Emirates Airlines & Khalid Ismail, Director Agency Sales, Suvara Travel
Ellie MacPherson, Senior V.P. Meetings & Incentives, Vision Travel & Craig Canvin, V.P. Procurement, TravelEdge
Tom Civitano, V.P. Sales & Marketing, Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts
Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts welcomed a group of about 90 industry partners specializing in the luxury and Meetings & Incentives markets to an evening of appreciation at Toronto’s Casa Loma last week.
Jumeirah is represented in Canada by VoX International Account Director Paul Larcher and Account Manager for the MICE market Deborah Edwards. And, they are apparently doing a superlative job as Tom Civitano, Jumeirah’s V.P. Sales & Marketing for the Americas told his guests that Canada holds a very strong #2 position in the Americas with their support for his super deluxe brand.
Jumeirah’s tag line is “Stay Different” and that’s something they want to drive home in the distinctive syles and experiences they create in each of their 21 ultra luxury properties. While all properties adhere to the brand’s luxury positioning, each is representative of their different locations. The line does offer a lot more than Dubai’s landmark Burj Al Arab. In fact, Jumeirah boasts 8 hotels in the Emirates; 7 in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. They are also well represented in Europe with 3 properties in London, 2 in Turkey and one each in Frankfurt, Rome and Mallorca. Others can be found in the Maldives, Shanghai, Baku and Kuwait.
The choice of venue for the evening’s reception in Casa Loma’s gorgeous Conservatory certainly emulated Jumerirah’s glamorous high end style. Guests enjoyed catching up with colleagues and having the opportunity to interact with reps from a number of the Jumeirah properties in Dubai and Europe. Food stations and passed delicacies were internationally themed in keeping with the group’s geographic locales... and were delicious and plentiful!
Networked, sated and brought up to date on Jumeirah’s positioning, we were ushered into the adjacent Library for an interesting presentation/entertainment by NYC-based Maestro Roger Nierenberg who has developed The Music Paradigm for corporate audiences. Directing an orchestra whose sections were integrated throughout the audience, he challenged us to compare the well trained and finely tuned musicians to our own business environments.
