Mubarak Kanoo a visionary in travel business pioneered Kanoo Travel way back 1947. An office with only three staff Kanoo travel capitalized on hard work, willpower, and with the family support Kanoo Travel now an empire in travel and tourism business. A man of commitment Mubarak Kanoo vow to personalized service making a unique approach to costumer service. Making a giant wave in the travel and tourism industry, Kanoo travel have 200 offices with over thousand employees in the Middle East- Spreading the network into United Kingdom and soon across the globe.

Mubarak Kanoo has never been shy to look back the early days where he knocks doors to sell service and ticket for gulf aviation. Capturing the trust and confidence of individuals turned to corporate business handling. Kanoo Travel was popularized by word of the mouth now powered by the latest state of the art e-technology.  

Kanoo Travel, realized a long time ago that it was important to understand strategic management within the Travel Industry. With this, came the realization that global players would eventually turn their focus on their area. Based on this insight, the company aspired to connect with the best in the business. In recognition, Kanoo Travel became the first travel company to join the International Air Transport Association (IATA) agency way back 1947 in the Gulf and has grown into the largest Travel Company in the Middle East now conquering a global market.

In 1980, the company started to represent American Express (the largest Travel Management Company in the world) in Bahrain and Dubai solely as the travel representative. And in the 1990s Kanoo Travel worked with Rosenbluth (the 3rd /4th largest Travel Management Company in the world) in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After this Kanoo Travel signed a master franchise agreement with American Express that covers all of North Africa, the Levant, GCC including Iraq and the CIS countries.

The growing relationship continues until today. Kanoo Travel is working very hard with the American Express Travel Service Network throughout the Middle East by identifying and acquiring like-minded member agencies into the Kanoo Travel/American Express Middle East Franchise program.

Kanoo Travel will deliver valuable resources to help travel agencies further grow their businesses. In addition to the marketing advantages of affiliation with the Franchise program, member agencies will have access to enhanced products, training, quality programmes, and business best practices. This Franchise opportunity will have significant impact on the travel business, and help the partners develop and gain vastly improved benefits.

The partnership with Kanoo reinforces American Express' confidence in the future of the travel market and its commitment to developing its business in the Middle East. This lead franchise strategy places both companies in a strong position to expand service capability in the region and provide other Middle East travel agencies an opportunity to build their businesses with one of the world's most respected service brands.

Understanding the importance of having the best global travel company on their side, it has resulted into significant growth within the company both in terms of income and profit. More importantly, Kanoo Travel has added jobs for their nationals around the Gulf Region where 70% of the employees working in the company are locals. Not to mention that in Saudi Arabia there is an ‘in-house training’ that is set up where the locals are educated in the company. In Bahrain 75% of the employees working for the company are Bahrainis. Thus, indirectly, the businesses have added money into the economies that they work with.

With a master franchise of American Express base in 20 countries, aside from Middle East branches in the Gulf Region, Kanoo Travel has extended its market in with offices in the U.K. Keeping up with the growing demand in the travel business, a strong support of service centres were established. Backed with the most sophisticated technology today, Kanoo Travel was able to make traveling easier via the e-ticketing system and competitive airfares. Providing valued added services for their valued customers such as live updates on personal services and information of the destination truly makes them a cut above the rest.

Keeping focus in the growing industry by being true to their main core values of Customer Satisfaction, Reliable Products and Strong Service Aspects The Company’s continuous development made them a trusted name in the industry. And in order to keep the people coming to the area, Kanoo Travel had enhanced their service beyond just selling tickets. One of the company’s main goals is to provide excellent customer service that they can offer. This separates them from the other travel providers in the region.

Giving testimony on the company’s strong commitment is Tim Casey, Deputy Executive General Manager of Kanoo Travel who has been working in the company for eleven years. “The owners are very much involved in the industry by keeping a close interest on the various processes within the business. This, I believe is very important. Directors are very accessible and want to meet the customers to know their problems. With this, we came up with the solution more easily”.

Kanoo Travel understands that their strength is base on their ability to put the right packages better than the competitors and allowing the smaller travel shops to be their distribution channel. This way, they have achieved their sense of purpose, satisfying both the business and the consumers. The distributors win but more importantly the customers also win because they get the best package and their moneys worth.