Shereen Shabnam

I recently went driving around Tunisia in the new Hyundai Venue and visited some of the nicest places around the Tunis city. Naturally those who venture off the beaten path in Tunisia see many more beautiful places, but I am lucky I was able to visit beautiful places like Sidi Bou Said reminiscent of Santorini, drive by the intense desert landscapes and the historic areas full of bustling markets and street food.

Tunisia has rich diverse history and natural beauty that goes beyond the beaches and traditional souk type stores. The city is vibrant and yet has coastal roads that are a pleasure to drive on, mountainous greenery, and sparkling coasts. It truly is a hidden gem that offers one of the coolest travel experiences.

The suburb of the city is overflowing with natural beauty, architecture, culture, and welcoming locals who took great pleasure in introducing us to the local cuisine. I loved the maze of ancient streets and alleyways, especially as we wandered in the medieval Medina which has many shops and stalls selling crafts, clothes, souvenirs and artisans at work.

The Carthage area in Tunis is a must visit. The UNESCO World Heritage site is steeped in history and the Byrsa Hill ruins are fairly well-preserved. The Bardo Museum houses the world’s most renowned Roman mosaic collection as well as a collection of marble statues located in an opulent Tunis palace. It is full of treasured displays of mosaic art excavated from Tunisia’s ancient sites.

The Islamic Department contains, in addition to famous works such as the Blue Qur’an of Kairouan, a collection of ceramics from the Maghreb and Anatolia which is fascinating.

For food, I enjoyed the exquisite dinner at le Golf which has the best entertainment and had terraces facing the water. Visitors must try the pastry called Bambaloni and dishes that feature tuna which are special to Tunisia. The Residence Golf Course is another place that is great to spend an afternoon and have some snacks by the water.

For retail therapy, I highly recommend the Zephyr Mall. It was ideal for Ramadan clothes shopping with rich velvet abayas and had outfits for people of all sizes.

Overall, Tunis ticked all the boxes as a tourist destination by offering the best of resorts, shopping, food, cultural excursions and beautiful architecture. It is definitely a place to visit with family and friends.

Celebrate the season of togetherness this Holy Month of Ramadan at Shangri-La Dubai

Shereen Shabnam

This March, Shangri-La Dubai has a host of exciting promotions for residents and visitors, in particular for the Ramadan season. The hotel offers a glimpse of the iconic skyline of Sheikh Zayed Road and has spectacular rooms, from one-bedroom suites with spacious living areas to two- or three-bedroom apartments for larger families, equipped with a relaxing living space that suits everyone’s needs.

Each room at the hotel provides guests with the best views of the city from the Burj Khalifa to the Arabian Sea, allowing guests to really view Dubai for what it is, a blend of history and modernity. The hotel has one of the best rooftop pools in the city with the best views of the Burj Khalifa, which is beautifully framed by palm trees creating the ultimate photo opportunity.

During Ramadan, Shangri-La Dubai invites guests to experience the holy month of Ramadan in the relaxed, family-friendly setting of Dunes Café or enjoy Suhoor under the stars at ikandy ultralounge.

At Dunes Café, savour an array of Turkish highlights prepared by guest chefs from Shangri-la Bosphorus, Istanbul as the culinary team take you on a gastronomic journey to the Heart of Bosphorus. Try authentic dishes originated from different regions of Turkey, an exciting assortment of mezzeh, mains and irresistible desserts will be served in Dunes Café’s Iftar buffet. From sunset onwards, guests may enjoy an array of Turkish delicacies with a hint of Arabic favorites including traditional Ramadan beverages, as well as a delectable variety of sweets and desserts for AED 250 per person.

For those who choose to come later in the evening, ikandy ultralounge offers a beautiful setting around the poolside, with spectacular views of the Burj Khalifa. Guests can delight in a bespoke suhoor set menu with a selection of delicious bites, traditional beverages and an option to add shisha until 2:00 am.

The hotel also offers some of the finest Asian cuisine with traditional Chinese food at Shang Palace, the signature restaurant of Shangri-La Hotels worldwide and authentic Vietnamese food at Hoi An. Both venues have a welcoming and relaxing dining ambience.

CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai embraces the principles of vitality, fitness and beauty as the key to achieving inner balance and well-being. It draws inspiration from the legendary Shangri-La, a place of personal peace, enchantment and well-being. Catering to both ladies and gents, CHI, The Spa is the perfect place to unwind with relaxing and rejuvenating treatments to benefit whatever the guest desires.

During Ramadan, it is the perfect place for balancing your inner chi and restoring equilibrium throughout your entire body as guests can indulge in CHI’s ancient healing philosophies and rituals, to relax and rejuvenate both body and mind.  

Shangri-La Hotel Dubai is in close proximity to the Dubai Mall which features the largest indoor aquarium, as well as KidZania, an expansive indoor playground. Just five minutes from the hotel, City Walk is a prime destination for dining, shopping and leisure.

For more information on Shangri-La Dubai’s Iftar and Suhoor offers or to make a reservation, please contact restaurant reservations at +971 4 405 2703 or email fbreservations.sldb@shangri-la.com

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Hakan Ozel

Service is intangible, inseparable, variable, and perishable. Considering these, all great service providing companies have great customer service and employee cultures and focus their undivided attention on both customers and employees.

They understand the service-profit chain, which links the service firm’s profits with employee and customer satisfaction. Service quality model calls not only for external, but internal initiatives to motivate the employees for superior performance and interactive tactics to create luxury service delivery skills in luxury organizations. To succeed, especially against the fierce competition of today, executives must create competitive differentiation, find ways to increase service productivity, but more importantly, offer highest possible service quality.  

One of the major ways that a luxury firm can differentiate itself is delivering consistently a higher quality of everything than its competitors do. Many service industries have joined the total quality movement over the years. Customer retention is perhaps the best measure of quality – a service firm’s ability to hang onto its customers is based on how consistently it delivers the value to them.

Target Customers and Quality Models

Luxury service providers and operators need to identify the expectations of target customers concerning the service quality. In this way, they should design their service quality models. Service quality is harder to define and judge than product quality. It is harder to get agreement on the quality of a haircut than on the quality of a hair dryer. Moreover, although greater service quality results in greater customer satisfaction, it also results in higher cost. Still, investments in service usually pay off through increased customer retention and sales.

Recovery to gain Loyalty

Many luxury service companies have been investing heavily to develop streamlined and efficient service-delivery systems. They want to ensure that customers will receive consistently high-quality service in every service they encounter. However, unlike product manufacturers who can adjust their machinery and input until everything is perfect, service quality will always vary, and depend on the interactions and engagements between employees and customers. Problems will inevitably occur. As hard as they try, even the best companies occasionally have a late delivery, medium steak instead medium well, or grumpy employee at the entrance of the shop.

Although the company cannot always prevent service problems, they can learn to recover from them. And good service recovery can turn unhappy customers into loyal ones. In fact, good recovery can win more customers purchasing and loyalty than if things had gone well in the first place. Therefore, companies should take steps not only to provide good service every time, but also to recover from service mistakes when they do occur.

Empowerment

Well-trained employees should be given authority to delight the customer at the impact point when the customers are frustrated for any reason and that it is an opportunity for the employees to recover their trust and loyalty. When the firms empower the front-line service employees while giving them the authority, responsibility, and incentives that they need to recognize, care about, and delivery customer needs, employees keep guests happy.

Common Virtues

Well-managed luxury companies have common virtues regarding service quality. First and foremost, they are customer obsessed. They have a distinctive strategy for delighting and exciting the customers that wins enduring loyalty. They have a top management commitment to quality. These companies look not only to financial performance, but also at service quality. The best service providing companies set high service quality standards. They do not settle merely for good service but aim for 100 percent defect-free service. A 98 percent performance standard may sound good, but using this standard, thousands of dissatisfied guests move from one mid-size company to competitor, or 10 words are spelt wrongly in each page of a book.

Top service companies watch service performance closely, both their own and that of competitors. They use methods such as comparison shopping, customer surveys, and suggestions and complaints platforms. Finally, best service companies communicate their concerns about service quality to employees and provide performance feedback as well as tools to improve themselves.

Conclusion

Luxury service is a pleasure to receive when you are a customer, and an art to provide when you are an employee of a luxury servicing company. Service quality is the most significant differentiating factor that distinguishes the best companies from their peers in competition.    

The Idyllic beachfront picturesque dining venue on the scenic shores of Palm Jumeirah offers a chilled vibe and an experiential culinary journey

With a history of two Michelin stars restaurant and a 7-star hotel, team Opxe Investment LLC come to share their experience with radio star Big Rossi and a team of passionate people in Dubai by adding The Deck, a vibrant environment friendly beachfront dining restaurant to its diverse dining portfolio.  The Deck has now opened doors at the voco Dubai The Palm on West Beach, Palm Jumeirah.

The Deck is a design driven kitchen set in a space that perfectly unites the soul of Dubai through a combination premium food, music, good vibes and vibrant colors and materials. Social dining is at the heart of the experience at The Deck for people looking for a place to unwind and have fun.

After birthing two Michelin stars in Milan and Monforte d’Alba, an Italian Architect, Designer and Tourism Entrepreneur has partnered with an English Radio Presenter, Big Rossi, an Emirati Entrepreneur, a Fijian Magazine Editor, an Egyptian Restaurateur, and a Greek banker to bring this new concept restaurant in an eco-sustainable urban design setup.

The partners are advocates of style and comfort, bringing woody deck craftsmanship and practicality to the space. As you enter The Deck, you are welcomed by scenic views of the sea of West Beach of Palm Jumeirah similar to Venice and is home to a vibrant bar on the left and a huge mural by Kenyan painter, Castro, depicting groups of lazing bathers which immediately brings you into a state of relaxation – the foremost goal of this venue.

The Deck uses recycled furniture and natural elements like simple green grass that can grow their roots freely within the space from the floor without any cage or vase, giving it a unique visual flair and real nature personality.

A key design feature is the imaginary sand bridge that forms the outlines of the floors and takes you directly to the beach view beyond. All these little touches transport guests to their happy memories, creates memorable experiences and delights them within a warm and friendly space.

As an eco-friendly hub, The Deck’s bar counter is also constructed with props that has been testimonial of the growth of Dubai’s best skyscrapers – after being abandoned, they are now rescued and given a new lease of life at The, Deck, recreating the city vibes of Dubai.

The rustic deck board floors are expertly crafted by wood craftsmen of shipbuilders and reflects the work found on dhows that came to trade in Old Dubai with rustic wood. The recycled chairs and tables with the natural beauty of wood offers an abundance of charm and brings the furniture to life with the reclaimed furniture adds character to the restaurant.

Veteran Chef, Ganesh Raja, with over 20 years of F&B experience has curated a fine dining menu that will please food lovers of Dubai. A clever understanding of the Asian palate and his ability to infuse Italian flavours into each dish skilfully crafted over two decades makes him a perfect addition to The Deck. He is well versed in exotic food preparation but equally comfortable with simple, straight forward cooking with passion and respect for quality, wholesome ingredients.

The picturesque beachfront dining venue has an eclectic menu. It is the perfect place where patrons can be themselves in a laid back, chilled environment with friends and family. The Deck serves delicious dishes for dinner, and as the sun sets over the horizon, guests can enjoy a selection of gluttonous entrees, gourmand meals and decadent desserts to pair with a host of refreshing beverages. Treat yourself to The Deck’s exquisite vibe any day of the week while listening to tunes curated by Music Saga and music expert Big Rossi with a variety, of resident DJs and live musical performers to keep you entertained on different days of the week.

• Report commissioned by travel technology company Amadeus and administered by global research firm Northstar Research Partners defines the four new traveler profiles – Traveler Tribes – that will emerge in the next decade
• Traveler profiles of the future revealed by a global survey of over 10,000 travelers across 15 markets, expert interviews, 5.8 million data points and the application of psychographic segmentation techniques

As an estimated 474 million tourists traveled internationally between January and July 2022 compared to 175 million in 2021, international tourism continues to bounce back.

But how will we travel in 2033? A global research study – Traveler Tribes 2033 – the third in a series that launched in 2007, identifies four Traveler Tribes that will develop in the next 10 years. It does so by examining the future forces of change transforming travel, alongside emerging traveler traits, behaviors and preferences, to understand exactly what it is that travelers will want a decade from now.

It suggests many travelers will be open to new and emerging technologies and will want to travel in more sustainable ways. But with some travelers concerned about the proliferation of technology and the increasing need for cyber-security and data privacy, the industry must work together to ensure all travelers benefit from technological advances.

Moving beyond the limitations of traditional segmentation, this psychographic approach identifies four key Traveler Tribes likely to be dominant in 2033:

• Excited Experientialists – this group has a ‘try it and see’ approach to life and travel. 44% are without children and have a mid- to high-income job with flexible working options, which enables them to readily explore the world. They have a you only live once (YOLO) approach. They are more likely than other travelers to act on instinct, making them 2033s ‘anti-planners’, favoring less predictable and more exciting accommodation experiences. They are also open to technology that helps them ‘speed up’ certain aspects of their journey, with many expecting to use artificial intelligence (AI) in the airport environment.

• Memory Makers – this group takes a more simplified approach to travel: to make memories and visit places. 44% are aged 42 and over and are habitual in their travel behaviors. The future can be a daunting prospect for them. They put people first and place less value on technology and sustainability, reassured by existing methods. However, despite their skepticism about technology, they are excited about virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) preview tours with the majority expected to use VR tours before purchasing a trip.

• Travel Tech-fluencers – this group includes today’s young business travelers with a forward-looking perspective on life. 48% of the group are under the age of 32 and their perspective is symbolized by how much technology they own. However, there is a discord when it comes to what excites and concerns them around the future of technology and travel. While many want to travel sustainably, it seems they are more conscious about sustainability options around their method of travel, rather than where they’ll be staying.

• Pioneering Pathfinders – individuals inthis group live a fast-paced life, always looking for their next adventure. Their life is in full swing with 82% between the ages of 23 and 41. They like to plan but are not afraid of risk and are open to new experiences. This group is more willing than others to let sustainability influence their decisions. They will also be very comfortable using all forms of alternative payment methods in 2033, whether via cryptocurrency or within a virtual reality environment.

Decius Valmorbida, President, Travel, Amadeus: “As an industry we want to build travel experiences that are both inspiring and inspired. And we can only do that by understanding what travelers want now and into the future. As we look ahead, it is clear that what the Excited Experientialist will require will be different from that of the Memory Maker.  As technology advances through AI, biometrics and the Metaverse, we are able to deliver more tailored journeys that meet the needs of different types of travelers – whether it is the desire for speed, comfort, reassurance or excitement.

Paco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, President, Hospitality, Amadeus: “Travel is about the places we stay, the destinations we visit, the experiences we have. It’s important for many of us that when we travel we have a positive impact on the places we visit, and that is likely to increase. Our preferences as travelers continue to evolve, and this study gives us a glimpse into the future. We have different needs depending on the trip, who we’re traveling with and what we are looking for. The challenge for the industry is to adapt to people’s changing preferences, ensuring that destinations and places deliver what travelers want.”

This is the third in Amadeus’ Traveler Tribes research initiative, the first launched in 2007, the second in 2015. It is part of Amadeus’ commitment to driving innovation at scale and making travel better for travelers and travel companies everywhere.

Jack Miles, Lead Researcher and Senior Director, Northstar: “Future predictions are difficult, especially in travel. This is because travel is about humans and how they think and behave – all of which are complex as people aren’t always rational. However, using extensive traveler research based on behavioral science and consumer psychology, expert insight from diverse fields like forecasting, technology and academia, and data-analytics, this study has uncovered many insights to help understand travelers and predict their future behavior. From the importance and challenge of sustainability to the need to reassure travelers about the changing role of technology, one thing is clear, travel will continue to play a vital role in enriching our lives as we head towards 2033.”

To read more about the research and identified Traveler Tribes, please visit amadeus.com/traveler-tribes.

TAKE OUR QUIZ to find out which Traveler Tribe you are part of.