11/08/2019 16:48

What is this empire?

[IMG=18521-4108] On Monday, the 5th of October BANKO continued to collect information about emerging the company ‘Empire of tourism’ on the Moscow market of tours to the UAE (see news as of the 2nd of December). The company attracted specialists’ attention after an advertisement where ‘empire of tourism’ positioned itself as a representative of three large receiving companies of the UAE with offices in Moscow, Krasnodar, Vienna and at the same time promoted a large assortment of New year’s holidays in budget hotels in Dubai. A BANKO correspondent managed to collect comments from representatives of Emirate companies claimed by an operator to be its partners. For example, Daud Zaituni, a member of the staff of a Russian office of Alfa Tours, confirmed the relationship between two companies: ‘We have been cooperating with ‘Empire of tourism’ for a year and we know it as a company from Krasnodar but it is not our representative, it is wrong to put it like that. At the moment it has made 4-5 bookings which is a very small amount. As for accommodation for New Year, the situation is very complicated; we give guarantees only to ‘Natalie tours’, who is our main partner’. Arabian Desert tours and Arabian Odyssey Travel & Tourism noted that they concluded an agreement with ‘Empire’ but only for several months and there have not yet been any partnership with the company. Nevertheless, there are already several applications for high dates in 5* hotels. ‘We have signed a contract during an autumn exhibition in Moscow’, stated the Dubai office of Arabian Odyssey, ‘Now we are working with an application of over 20 people’. A representative of Arabian Desert Tours added: ‘The company is interested in expensive hotels for New Year and soon their payment will be made. Judging from the amount of applications, ‘Empire’ has a circle of clients’. As specialists note, the existing information is not enough to judge whether the new player will manage to establish itself in Emirates – possibilities will be clearer by New Year when the period of active sales of holiday tours will finish. In ‘Empire of Tourism’ a question about availability for a New Year period on such a deficit destination as the UAE is answered quite confidently: ‘… Our partners in the Emirates have their own blocks in some hotels taking them under the warranty of realization. We sell these rooms here in Russia and in Austria. We do not sell something we do not have and we do not take applications for rooms which we cannot confirm’, said Roman Abasov, director of the company.