HMC opens Middle East Headquarters in Dubai

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.