Destination · Aviation · Hospitality
Twenty-five years turning brand attention into booked demand — for airlines, for a living-museum destination, and for the trade networks in between.
01 — Profile
Ansar Babu is a global marketing and commercial leader working at the intersection of destinations, aviation and hospitality. He leads commercial and international marketing for the Royal Commission for AlUla, the organisation revitalising AlUla as a global cultural destination in north-west Saudi Arabia.
His remit spans global teams and agency partners across ten source markets, a travel-trade portfolio of more than 550 luxury tour operators and networks, the commercial strategy behind AlUla Moments — the destination's festival and events platform — and the Preferred Partner DMC programme. Carter Murray's leaders interview covers how that international engine was assembled.
Before AlUla, he spent thirteen years at Etihad Airways, ending as Global Head of Marketing with a team of twenty-plus across forty-five countries and campaign budgets above $50M. Earlier chapters — KLM Royal Dutch Airlines across the Gulf, Iran and Pakistan, and a charter-holiday product launch at Aerovista — built the habits that still define the work: perishable inventory, thin margins, and marketing that has to prove its return.
02 — Track record
03 — Advisory
Selective advisory work for tourism boards, giga-projects, airlines, airports, hotel groups and the agencies that serve them. Engagements are scoped to a decision — a market entry, a route case, an events model, a trade programme — and delivered as something a leadership team can act on.
Positioning and narrative for places, source-market prioritisation, segmentation, campaign architecture, and the KPI framework that keeps marketing answerable to demand rather than impressions.
Connectivity as a demand lever: route business cases, airline engagement, joint marketing agreements, and the co-operative funding structures that make a new route commercially survivable.
Business-events positioning and event portfolio design — what to own, what to host, what to retire — with the operating model, sales enablement and commercial targets behind it.
Building the pipes that carry demand: tour operator and DMC programmes, representation-agency selection and management, OTA and distribution strategy, and partner performance frameworks.
Keynotes and executive sessions drawn from both halves of the record: two decades of commercial leadership, and surviving a terminal diagnosis and a double lung transplant. Delivered for leadership offsites, industry conferences, healthcare audiences and internal culture programmes.
Four to six weeks. One defined question, primary research and interviews, and a decision-ready recommendation with an implementation path.
A standing retainer for leadership teams — monthly counsel on marketing, connectivity, trade and events performance.
Build the mechanism: representation programmes, DMC and partner frameworks, event operating models, KPI and governance structures.
Keynotes, panels and executive workshops — destination demand and air connectivity, or resilience and leadership under pressure.
04 — Author
05 — Career
2022 — present
Global teams and agency partners across ten markets; commercial strategy for AlUla Moments; trade portfolio of 550+ luxury operators; air connectivity growth; Preferred Partner DMC programme.
2015 — 2021
Twenty-plus marketers across 45+ countries and $50M+ budgets. Acquisition, conversion and retention; digital and programmatic revenue growth; the award-winning Etihad Wellness programme.
2008 — 2015
Consumer and trade marketing across 80+ international offices. Tactical promotion ROI lifted from 5x to 8x; 3,000+ travel-trade agents onboarded in a year; database marketing up 30% year on year.
2006 — 2008
Took a newly launched holiday charter product line to market, growing trade engagement 40% in six months.
2001 — 2006
Regional marketing and loyalty, including the migration of the regional programme to Flying Blue.
Career history as published on LinkedIn.
06 — Contact
Whether it's a new market, a new route, a new event, or a trade programme that isn't converting — send a short note on the question and the timeline. Replies usually come within two working days.
Advisory enquiries · Speaking and moderation · Board and non-executive conversations
