“Now is the time to expand” says Jacobs Media Group chairman Clive Jacobs

Jacobs Media Group chairman and owner on his move to the Middle East

Jacobs Media Group chairman Clive Jacobs explained why the time was right to launch a new travel platform in the Middle East in a recent interview.

As the group’s Middle East flagship, Connecting Travel, will provide the region’s industry professionals with thought leadership, meaningful collaborations, breaking news and valued insight via its website, news bulletins, exclusive events and social media platforms.

Jacobs said: “There isn’t the same level of interaction between trade media and the trade in the Middle East as there are in other areas. The Middle East is the fastest-growing area for travel and tourism and our business is about tourism and hospitality, so we felt it was a good opportunity to launch something now, because the time to launch is when everyone else is hiding in their bunkers. That’s the time for us to advance.”

Connecting Travel will serve local travel and hospitality professionals and connect the Middle East with global markets to help support its tourism goals.

Praising Dubai’s strategy in managing the pandemic, Jacobs said: “Here in Dubai it’s been handled incredibly well and that’s a good starting point for the industry to put in place protocols and procedures for the future that stop something like this coming along again and causing, first of all, a threat to peoples’ health, but also destroying livelihoods.”

Looking forward, the travel industry leader, who is now based in Dubai, spoke about when he thought the travel industry would bounce back. Pragmatic yet optimistic, Jacobs said: “Now that we’ve got the vaccine, we’ve got to learn to live with this shockingly terrible virus and allow things to get back to normal.”