Tourism: Emirates Airlines Targets Business Potential In Offbeat African Destinations

VENTURES AFRICA – Emirates Holidays, the tour operating arm of Emirate Airlines, has expressed a confident outlook on its business in Africa from India. The airline expects a bullish market operation on its holiday package from India to Africa region.
Emirates Holidays’ business development manager for India, Nadeem Ulde, said the airline expects the whole African region to have a significant potential to grow tourism opportunities from India.
Ulde  disclosed this while speaking at the launch of the company’s expanded travel brochure which has eight new destinations that can be reached from India. These destinations are Lusaka, Harare, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Dublin, Dallas, Seattle and Vancouver.
He  said that the airline is “Focusing on the entire African continent as it is being seen as a great destination by Indian tourists.”

The company targets African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia as the major tourist attraction.

“Countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia are major attractions that we are looking at growing significantly through our packages. We will soon start a special campaign to promote travel to regions such as South Africa,” Ulde quipped.


The company which began its Indian operations in 2006, recently started services to African countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Mr Ulde said the company can “cater to the high-end segment of customers who have already been to many popular international destinations and are now looking for offbeat places like Africa”
“We expect a good response to destinations such as Lusaka and Harare as a lot of Indians would like to visit these places which were earlier thought to be a tough travel task for them”, he added.
The parent airline currently operates 185 weekly flights from 10 Indian destinations to its hub in Dubai, from where transit flights transport passengers to their holiday destinations.
“Not only leisure tourists, but we are attracting first time travelers. Dubai, being an immediate hub for us, is a popular stop over-destination for tourists. The growth factor comes from this destination. We are establishing a niche in Indian market in superior service quality. We do not have any plans to go to the mass segment as of now,” said Ulde.