By Muhammad Rafiq
DUBAI: With the ambition of helping airlines and destinations grow their business, AVIAREPS was founded by Michael Gaebler in April 1994 in Munich, Germany. 30 years later, AVIAREPS has expanded its network to 69 offices in 65 countries worldwide, serving a wide variety of brands from the aviation, tourism, hospitality, food & beverage, and lifestyle industries – and has become the world’s leading international sales, marketing, and communications company in these business fields. In April 2024, AVIAREPS celebrates 30 years of creating success and 30 years of bringing the world to the people in it.
Michael Gaebler, Chairman and Founder of AVIAREPS: “30 Years of AVIAREPS! What a great journey with the most exceptional and wonderful colleagues and partners! In the beginning, AVIAREPS came to life as a solution for airlines, destinations, and hospitality brands to better expand their corporate footprint and reach into global markets. Today AVIAREPS is entrusted with and acts on behalf of an increasing number of brands. We have expanded from aviation, destinations and hospitality brands to a wide variety of business fields, including mobility, lifestyle, retail, tourism attractions, trade promotion, and food and beverage. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of AVIAREPS this year, I am proud to say that the great and ongoing successes achieved for our clients in their quest for global market outreach and growth, have been based on connecting them and having them facilitated by the best product in the world – our people.”
AVIAREPS officially kicked off the 30-year anniversary celebration at this year’s ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show, with the annual signature event “AVIAREPS ITB Executive Dinner” and celebrated the milestone anniversary with partners from all over the world.
Edgar Lacker, CEO of AVIAREPS:“Our AVIAREPS signature event is always my personal ITB highlight and a great opportunity to celebrate our long-standing partnerships! This year was especially exciting, as we kicked off our 30th company anniversary year and celebrated 3 decades of AVIAREPS with our partners and our amazing AVIAPEOPLE. Today, AVIAREPS is proud to be the global leader in airline, tourism and hospitality representation and to actively influence, develop, and shape tourism, aviation and hospitality trends, demand and spend. As a birthday gift to ourselves, we have launched a brand-new, modern and interactive aviareps.com website that perfectly represents what AVIAREPS stands for: innovation, growth, excellence and inspiration.”
Multiple milestones paved the road to AVIAREPS’ success throughout the years. In 1996, only two years after its founding, AVIAREPS had already begun expanding within Europe. In 2001 AVIAREPS opened its first office in North America. By 2010, AVIAREPS had grown its global office network to six continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & South America, and Australia. Today, the company proudly runs 69 offices in 65 countries, offering global 360° services to more than 250 clients.
AVIAREPS first set up shop in the Middle East in 2007 with an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, catering for the whole Gulf Countries market. Despite the Global Economic Crisis in 2007 that was soon to follow, AVIAREPS remained fully committed to the Middle East and enabled both its existing and additional clients to grow and benefit. Today the AVIAREPS Middle East office has established itself as the leading destination representation company in the region, and proudly represents a number of international brands in the G.C.C. for tourism and aviation sales and marketing services including: the Royal Commission for AlUla, Visit California, Japan National Tourism Organization, Korea National Tourism Organization, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, Malta Tourism Authority, Moroccan National Tourist Office, airBaltic, Sunway Express and Air Tanzania among others.
The Middle East remains a region of particular focus for the AVIAREPS group in the coming years.
Glenn Johnston, Vice President Middle East & Global Public Affairs at AVIAREPS explains: “While continuing to expand and deepen the sales and promotional footprint of our clients in the Middle East, we are seeing an increasing interest from various tourism, aviation and trade oragnisations around the world looking to engage with a robust and vibrant Middle East market. Equally, many Middle East entities are looking to further expand their entry and footprint around the world by utilising our global presence coupled with local expertise. I consider myself extremely lucky and honoured to be in such a dynamic region where all eyes around the world are currently looking at the Middle East, and the Middle East continues its impressive growth and worldwide outreach. Based on this, AVIAREPS is looking to build on our already solid presence in the region with further expansion plans and some exciting announcements, which are slated to be made in the coming months ahead.”
The global expansion of AVIAREPS not only included the growth of the office network, but also the diversification into a large variety of business fields, the foundation of subsidiaries, such as the IT service provider AVIANET, and the launch of new products, such as the group booking service AVIAGROUPS, AVIAREPS’ own Digital Ecosystem and the distribution platform AVIAHUB.
30 years after its foundation, AVIAREPS continues to follow its mission: Bringing people to the world and the world to the people!
