Tag: GCC

Salman Gul > Insights > GCC
Loyalty and Frequent-Flyer CRM for Airlines

Loyalty and Frequent-Flyer CRM for Airlines (2026)

Posted on by Salman Gul
Airline loyalty is no longer a rewards scheme; it is one of the most profitable parts of the business and the single richest source of first-party data an airline owns. Frequent-flyer programmes and co-branded credit cards generate billions, the top...Read More
Ancillary Revenue and Airline Merchandising

Ancillary Revenue and Airline Merchandising (2026)

Posted on by Salman Gul
Ancillary revenue is the profit engine of the modern airline, and it is fundamentally a digital marketing and merchandising discipline. Globally, ancillaries hit a record US$157 billion in 2025 and now make up 15.7% of airline revenue, up from 9.1%...Read More
Direct Booking and Airline Website Conversion

Direct Booking and Airline Website Conversion (2026)

Posted on by Salman Gul
Direct booking is the most valuable sale an airline can make, because a booking on its own website or app avoids distribution cost and captures the first-party data that powers every future campaign. Yet most airline websites leak: high-intent visitors...Read More
Airline Marketing in the GCC: The Retail-Airline Opportunity

Airline Marketing in the GCC: The Retail-Airline Opportunity (2026)

Posted on by Salman Gul
The airline business is being rebuilt around one idea: stop selling seats, start retailing travel. Global airline ancillary revenue hit a record US$157 billion in 2025, now 15.7% of total airline revenue, up from 9.1% in 2016, and reaching as...Read More
Digital marketing for airlines in the GCC and Middle East, hub cover

Digital Marketing for Airlines in the GCC and Middle East: The Complete Guide

Posted on by Salman Gul
GCC & Middle East airline marketing Digital marketing for airlines in the GCC The playbook for Gulf carriers becoming retail airlines: direct booking, ancillary revenue, loyalty, distribution and demand-responsive performance marketing, built on real 2026 data and a decade of...Read More
Social Commerce and WhatsApp Commerce in the Middle East

Social Commerce and WhatsApp Commerce in the Middle East (2026)

Posted on by Salman Gul
Social commerce in the UAE is growing at 18.5% a year, well above the 11% growth in social ad spend, over 40% of Gen Z and Millennials now discover products on social rather than Google, and WhatsApp reaches 95% of...Read More
Retention, CRM and Loyalty for GCC Ecommerce

Retention, CRM and Loyalty for GCC Ecommerce (2026)

Posted on by Salman Gul
59% of loyalty and CRM leaders now name improving customer lifetime value as their single top business goal, up from 36% in 2021, outranking revenue, acquisition and margin. The industry has finally admitted what the maths always said: in a...Read More