Elevate World Opens GoElevate Beyond Hotels, Chases Ancillary Revenue

Elevate World is pushing its GoElevate distribution platform beyond accommodation, adding activities, attraction and event tickets, experiences and airport transfers that were previously locked inside its Elevate DMC brand. The announcement landed at World Travel Market (WTM) London 2026, alongside a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).

The commercial logic is straightforward. Accommodation margins are thin and commoditised; ancillaries carry richer attach revenue per booking. Until now, GoElevate functioned as the group's online distribution platform for beds. It now carries the full journey — or at least the sellable parts of it.

What does the AI layer actually do?

To support the expansion, the UAE-based group is investing in technology that sources the right ancillary products per destination and matches them to demand partners, using what it describes as the latest AI through Yara AI. In plain terms: dynamic packaging (bundling flights, stays and extras into one bookable product) with an automated merchandising brain deciding which tour or transfer gets offered to which seller's customers.

Founder and CEO Samir Hamadeh frames the shift as closing a gap in how journeys are sold. "The trip doesn't end at the hotel door, and neither should our offering," he said. "Travellers are buying complete journeys, and GoElevate gives our partners the technology to sell every part of one, turning fragmented supply into a single proposition."

The claim worth watching is the matching pitch. "With Yara AI, we're no longer just adding more products to a catalogue. We're matching the right experiences to the right markets, so a tour operator in Europe or a travel agency in India can offer its customers exactly what they're looking for in each destination," Hamadeh said. Every marketplace makes that promise; conversion data will decide whether this one keeps it.

How deep is the supply side?

Two numbers anchor the distribution story. Elevate World draws on more than 3,000 directly contracted accommodation providers and over 300 strategic partners. That direct-contract base (inventory bought from suppliers rather than aggregated through intermediaries) is what lets the group pitch Tourism Boards a route to tour operators, OTAs, wholesalers and travel agencies without extra hops in the chain.

The DCT Abu Dhabi MoU sits within a broader shift in how Elevate World works with destinations. Across the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, the group is partnering with tourism boards not only to convert international demand into visits but also to help build the technology connecting destinations with travel sellers worldwide. In effect, it's selling DMOs (destination marketing organisations) a distribution pipe as well as marketing.

What's in it for each side?

Hamadeh's stake-setting covers both ends of the chain: "For our partners, that means more value from every booking. For destinations, it means travellers who stay longer, spend more and see more of what the place has to offer."

That's the pitch, and it's a coherent one. Longer stays and higher in-destination spend are the metrics tourism boards now report against, so a platform that can demonstrably move them has a sellable story. Whether Yara AI's matching produces measurable uplift versus a plain catalogue remains the open question — one the group's demand partners will answer with their attach rates over the coming booking cycles.