Ground handling in Dubai for tour operators
You sold the trip. Somebody has to be here when it lands.
Ground handling in Dubai and across the Emirates for operators and agencies, executed by a licensed local company that stays invisible to your passenger.
The flight is the part that is already solved.
An air ticket is a commodity with a confirmation number. Everything after the aircraft door is not: it is a chain of local suppliers, each with its own timetable, its own contract and its own idea of what was agreed. Ground handling is the job of holding that chain together, in the destination, in local time, so that the operator who sold the trip does not have to.
Meet and assist
Someone with the right name on the sign, at the right terminal, for the flights that land after midnight as well as the ones that do not.
Hotels, transport, guides
Rooms held under contract, private vehicles on the program timetable, licensed guides, experiences booked at the hour the itinerary needs.
The part nobody quotes
The delayed flight, the illness, the group that grows by two, the excursion cancelled by weather. This is where a ground handler is actually judged.
What we handle on the ground.
All of it contracted by Zaya, in Zaya's name, with Zaya answering for it.
Airport services
Meet and assist on arrival and departure, at Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports, including the late-night arrival waves.
Transfers and transport
Private cars, vans, minibuses and coaches. Sized to the group, never shared with strangers to save a line on the quotation.
Accommodation
Group blocks and individual rooms, rooming lists, contract negotiation and rate protection across Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Guides and interpreting
Licensed guides in Portuguese, English and Spanish, and interpreting when the program includes business meetings.
Experiences and attractions
Observation decks, desert programs, cruises, helicopter flights and spa, with the tickets and timings held rather than hoped for.
On-site coordination
A named coordinator for the duration of the program, reachable outside office hours, physically in the destination.
The best ground handler is the one your client never names.
We work at net rates to the trade. You add your margin and sell under your own brand. Your passenger meets a driver, a guide and a coordinator who are working for your program, and there is no reason for them to learn who we are.
We do not hand our own material to your passengers, and we do not approach them commercially during the trip or after it. An operator who has been undercut by his own supplier once does not do it twice, and we would rather keep the operator.
When it goes wrong, there is a company with a license on the other side.
A company, not a contact
World Zaya Tourism L.L.C is a mainland company licensed by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism, Trade License 1580956. A freelance guide with a phone number is not the same counterparty, and the difference only shows when there is a claim.
Civil liability contracted
The operation is insured, with civil liability contracted with Sukoon Takaful.
In the right time zone
The problem appears at seven in the morning Gulf time. A supplier operating from another continent finds out about it at lunch.
What operators usually ask.
What does ground handling cover in Dubai?
Everything between the aircraft door and the return flight that is not the flight itself. Meet and assist on arrival, transfers, accommodation, guides, experiences, meals, on-site coordination and the decisions taken when the program has to change. It is the destination half of a trip that somebody else sold.
Is this different from a DMC?
In practice it is the same company doing the same job, described from two different angles. Ground handling is the term used when the buyer already has the client and the flights and needs the destination executed. DMC is the term used when the buyer also wants the program designed.
Will my client know you exist?
Not unless you want them to. We operate under your brand, we do not hand out our own material to your passengers and we never approach them commercially, during the trip or after it. The relationship is yours.
Who answers when something changes at the destination?
We do, in the destination, in local time. A named coordinator is reachable outside office hours for the duration of the program, and because we hold the supplier contracts we can approve a change with the hotel or the transport company instead of forwarding the request to somebody else.
Do you take single travellers and couples, or only groups?
Both. A couple on a private itinerary and a delegation of thirty are the same operation at different scales. What changes is the number of moving parts, not the standard.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. World Zaya Tourism L.L.C is a mainland company licensed by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism, Trade License 1580956, which is what allows a tour operator to contract and invoice locally. The operation is insured, with civil liability contracted with Sukoon Takaful.
How we work with the trade.
Send the itinerary you already sold.
Dates, headcount and standard are enough for a net quotation. If you are building the program from scratch, send the brief instead and we come back with the ground plan and the costing.
Dubai
Office 312, Rigga Business Centre, Building 3001, Al Murqabat, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.