Directflights deal adds product search to Dubai portal

Directflights has partnered with the Dubai tourist board to provide visitors to its site with a booking engine for flights, hotels and packages.

Directflights has partnered with the Dubai tourist board to provide visitors to its site with a search tool for flights, hotels and packages.

The metasearch functionality on definitelydubai.com has been launched in the UK and will be rolled out for customers in the other countries it is translated to serve including France and Spain.

Ian Scott, UK director of Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said Directflights was working with tour operators to make content available.

He said the results are presented in a grid with the customer able to filter using sliding bars to determine factors such as length of stay and hotel star rating.

The consumer is sent to the operator’s site to book once the required product is selected.

“We have an online job to do in terms of PPC and other digital channels, but what I did not want to do is to bring consumers in to just a purely information website.

“It’s simple to give people information but if that’s all that’s there they will read it and click away and they have gone. To convert them we have to offer them a journey to go through.

“This is another thing we can partner with tour operators on.”

Scott said the booking engine functionality had not been heavily marketed to date but would be made more prominent on the site.