Dnata travel boss outlines acquisition strategy
Dnata is redirecting its sights to Germany, Russia, the US and Australia when it comes to acquisitions, but hasn’t ruled out the UK.
Charting a busy timeline of acquisitions to delegates at this week’s Global Travel Conference, Iain Andrew, divisional senior vice president travel services, said it was now focussing more on how these newly-acquired brands can work together within the company.
But he said further acquisitions were possible. "I never say never, and these things never come up in a planned way," he told the audience.
He said dnata ‘holds the UK in very high regard’ and would ‘also keep very close to that’.
"But we already have a lot of assets in the UK and would be looking more at growth in Germany, Russia, the US and Australia," he added.
He made the comments as he announced that the Dubai-based company, whose brands include Gold Medal, Travel 2, Global Travel Group and Imagine Cruising, has now bought a technology company called bd4travel.
The company, based in the UK and Germany, uses AI technology to help online travel companies personalise their sales efforts to potential customers.
Turning to Brexit, Andrew said dnata was more affected by the political and economic problems in Qatar and Iran than in the UK.
"Being Dubai based, I’m out of it, but all I would say is that it would be nice if they (the government) just did it so we can get on with selling holidays," he said.
"I don’t believe it will be as dramatic as people make out, particularly around concerns about ease of travel.
"As far as I am aware, the UAE has never been part of Europe but British citizens are still able to freely travel in and out!" he quipped.
Andrew also said the Gold Medal brand has recently launched in the UAE, where it was performing very strongly, and is about to be introduced in Saudi Arabia and in India.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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