A new online global travel and tourism initiative, which promotes direct bookings by bypassing commission-driven aggregators, has launched in Dubai.
Welcome To The World, a video content platform which showcases the most popular and recommended hotels, restaurants, attractions and experiences of 175 global tourism hotspots, aims to give buyers the opportunity to book directly and support local businesses.
“This is an initiative borne out of the need to spur global travel and tourism resilience in the wake of the near critical industry slow-down caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Stefanie Schachtschabel, founder and managing partner of Globally, which has launched Welcometotheworld.com.
“Welcometotheworld.com provides travel and tourism buyers with a purchasing alternative that enables and empowers them to support local businesses via the platform’s book direct functionality. The platform will create more value for tourism sector stakeholders by eliminating over-reliance on commission-heavy online travel agencies and accommodation aggregators,” she added.
Via the platform, travel and tourism operators can create online merchant profiles via a free-of-charge option or a fixed yearly fee which leverages video content to give users an overview of each destination’s best options in six categories – Sleep, Eat, Do, Discover, Socialise and Shop – and allows them to click-through and book direct.
Schachtschabel said Dubai was chosen for the launch as the platform’s disruptive nature “clearly aligned with the emirate’s acknowledged reputation of being ahead of the curve on tourism promotion and resurgence”.
Stefanie Schachtschabel, founder and managing partner of Globally
“Dubai has a strong reputation of tourism invention and reinvention in close public-private sector collaboration which ideally fits with the ethos of Welcometotheworld.com. Travel and tourism, as the world’s biggest employer, deserves the support of all who rely on it for a living and all who benefit from its ability to deliver huge wellbeing benefits,” she added.
She said Welcometotheworld.com has already won support from various hotel groups globally.
“We were quick to seize the opportunity of supporting the initiative, which will serve as a new benchmark in global tourism recovery,” said Jeroen Elmendorp, general manager, Ritz-Carlton, Dubai.
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