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HMC (Hospitality Marketing Concepts),
a provider of travel industry membership and database management
programmes, has announced the opening of its Middle East headquarters in Dubai Media
City. This move comes as it embarks on a drive to grow loyalty programme
usage in the Middle East market.
The office will house a new Members Services Centre with reservations
capability, as well as extensive IT and database management staff.
According to the company’s recently-appointed regional vice president and
area director, Robert Fadel, his target is to double uptake of HMC’s services
within a year, and not just in the hospitality sector.
“The Middle East is one of the fastest-growing consumer markets for
tourism and hospitality (T&H) and I believe that carefully structured loyalty
programmes will help drive growth – and cut (marketing) costs.” he said.
He stressed that loyalty programmes are not T&H-centric but can be
applied with success in any sector that requires a high degree of customer
retention.
As well as seeing growth through the increased implementation of HMC’s
already successful food and beverage ‘club’ scheme model – which can
also be adapted across a wide-range of consumer-driven sectors - Fadel is
out to drive market share through HMC’s own Club Central database management system.
“By choosing to outsource database management to specialists such as
HMC, I am confident that the result for a wide range of clients will be innovative, nimble marketing communications, achieved at lower costs,
leading to increased revenues, said Fadel.
He added: “On innovation, for example, Club Central has been updated to
allow our clients real time, online access to their own customer databases
enabling them to tailor promotions on a daily basis. Even in today’s IT
driven world, this ability remains somewhat unique.”
HMC also intends to leverage its own brand, ClubHotel, to drive business
into the region. Its 500,000-member database is eligible for a wide range of
benefits across 800 hotels and resorts worldwide, including the Middle East.
In addition, the company administers affinity programmes for a number of
international brands including Le Meridien, Ritz-Carlton, Starwood and
Kempinski. |
