Rated among the top 10 independent bed banks globally, Swiss - based lowcostbeds, has announced its foray into the Middle East. Targeting the lucrative inbound and outbound markets from the region, the company has officially appointed Discover the World Marketing as their exclusive representative in the region and is looking to sign up with prominent regional and international travel agents.

Mr Paul Riches, Group Director of Sales, lowcostravelgroup, said, “We are confident we are hitting the right market as both inbound and outbound business in the region is showing a healthy increase. We are absolutely delighted to be working with Discover the World Marketing. They have a proven track record in working closely with the travel trade and we have no doubt they are the right partner for us to grow our ME business.

We offer an extensive range of hotels across the globe, coupled with leading technology, so we are very excited about the prospects the Middle East market has to offer us. As a trade only brand, lowcostbeds boasts an excellent portfolio of hotels across Europe, the Far East and USA, besides other regions that Middle East outbound travellers traditionally like.”

Commenting on the appointment, Discover the World CEO, Jenny Adams said, “Discover the World Marketing is very excited about our strategic partnership with lowcostbeds. We’re eager to use our vast experience with the local ME travel market to introduce the trade to lowcostbeds. With their vast hotel inventory and attractive commercial terms, lowcostbeds is the right solution for today’s travel trade.”

The experienced Discover sales team will be visiting travel agents and attending various trade shows throughout the region over the coming months, providing support and advice on a wide range of lowcostbeds related issues including agent registration, site navigation tips, commercial terms, product updates, and exclusive travel agent offers. Ms Sarah Marron, Sales Director, Discover the World Marketing, said, “Our strategy with lowcostbeds is to work with the network of regional travel players in order for them to offer our excellent range of hotels, from leisure resorts to city breaks and from budget to 5-star luxury.”

The team of Directors from lowcostbeds will be present during the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) to meet travel trade professionals and agencies, including its Commercial Director Patricia Rossello – Evans.

Mr Riches added, “ATM is the leading travel and tourism exhibition and gives us the perfect opportunity to introduce and position Lowcostbeds. We are extremely excited about the show and looking forward to being there. Patricia is also attending, in order to meet with the local hoteliers who we are already working with in the region and to source new hotels, to add to our GCC product portfolio.’

Offering a global inventory of 150,000 hotels in over 4000 resorts and cities, lowcostbeds is the ideal partner for travel agencies. Mr Riches continued, “Travel agents are always looking for good rates and, more and more relevant hotel inventory. At the moment we are working with over 20,000 travel agencies and local buyers worldwide and our objective is to grow that considerably.”

The Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions in terms of tourism with outbound travel quadrupling in the last 20 years. The World Tourism Organisation estimates that an additional two million Arabs will travel abroad within the next twenty years, taking its total of outbound tourists to 37 million, spending an estimated $20 billion and accounting for 2.2% of global outbound travel, a rise of 0.7%.

Riches concluded, ‘In the next 2 to 3 years the company is looking to grow its annual turnover to over £1bn USD. Today the majority of our business is generated from the UK. Our objective now is to increase our business from other parts of the world, to become a truly global hotel provider. Our launch into the Middle East market is a key element of that strategy.