Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008 - (Page 54)

COVER STORY DUBAI’S SKYLINE grows bolder and bolder on a daily basis. panding the number of routes it offers rapidly, it is very careful about launching new service. “We have to be very sure that we can make money within a reasonable timeframe when we start a new route,” says Page. One expansion strategy the airline was keen to execute was service from the U.S. to Dubai, which prompted Page’s move to Manhattan from the U.A.E., where he’d lived for 17 years. “I’d lived in New York for about five years in the late seventies for British Air and I knew the city quite well. I’ve always enjoyed New York,” Page says. The first order of business was to launch service from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Dubai. “I thought starting the new operations would be a tough task, but it wasn’t as tough as I thought it was going to be,” says Page. “We’d been looking at launching in New York for some years and obviously with 9/11, we had to defer things for awhile. We felt the time was right in 2004.” Page admits that, at that time, the average American’s perception of Dubai may have been a bit more vague than it is now. “If you asked the average man on the street they would have said they thought it was near Saudi Arabia or somewhere like that. It’s fairly well established now, however, and certainly since we’ve started the service, the number of Americans staying in Dubai’s hotels has simply rocketed. We know that most Americans go to Dubai for business these days, although they are beginning to realize it’s a wonderful destination for holidays; the Europeans discovered us many, many years ago. The beaches are lovely, there are incredible shopping centers with duty-free goods, lots of sporting activities and six PGA golf courses, and you can do really fun things like riding a four-wheel-drive vehicle into the mountains. So it’s a wonderful tourist destination.” The JFK flight was considered a success, which led to the addition of another flight just 18 months later; the size of the aircraft offered was also subsequently increased. A third flight, connecting through Hamburg, was also added. Later this year, Emirates plans to increase the size of the aircraft again from a 777-300ER to Airbus 380 Superjumbo Jet service. While adding service to a new destination as sparkling as Dubai certainly has had an impact on the luxury travel advisor market, it was the level of luxury provided in the front of the plane that set the luxury market back on its heels and heralded a new benchmark for premium-cabin service. Emirates’ spacious, private First Class suites on its JFK routes are by now legendary, with sliding doors that provide complete privacy, extra-large seats that recline to fully flat beds, a coat closet, vanity desk and a personal minibar. Then there’s the 23-inch, wide-screen LCD TV with more than 600 channels of entertainment. This past October, the airline even enhanced that service and stepped up its Business Class service with lie-flat massage seats and more space; Economy Class also received extra legroom. All levels of service have the highly touted digital widescreen entertainment systems. Not to be left out is the comparably lavish Emirates Lounge at JFK. A stop there is 54 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | June 2008

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Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008 Contents Publisher's Letter Editor's Letter Paris Shanghai New York Takeover Hotels Townhouse Galleria Florida Spas BVI Bliss Athens, Greece Rainforest Excursions Nigel Page The Pulse Jetset Report Just Back On Location Sightings Agent Access Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008

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