Abdul Ghafoor | Travel Strangers
I have never believed in waiting for the future to arrive. I believe in creating it.
In 2001, one of my trade partners in Cyprus was running at just 5 percent of their production capacity. Their product was a food packaging solution based on IML technology. It was revolutionary, yet Cyprus was too small a market to absorb it fully. I saw potential in the Gulf and decided to take it to the dairy industry in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. I created a digital brochure and sent it to three dairy companies in the UAE with a message that was simple and bold:
Adopt it today and you’ll be leaders. Adopt it tomorrow and you’ll be followers. Not adopting is not an option.
One of the big players dismissed the idea, saying it would raise their packaging costs by 60 percent. Another showed interest but backed off before confirming a meeting. The youngest of the three acted immediately. Within six months they had become the category leader. My partner’s factory in Cyprus went from 5 percent to 100 percent capacity in just 15 months.
That experience taught me two lessons. First, the future rewards those who dare to move first. Second, everything depends on the perspective of the decision-maker. The managers at the first two companies were from procurement and production. One worried about cost, the other about disruption. The younger company’s manager was from sales and marketing. He saw growth, market share, and leadership.
I became convinced that vision, when backed by bold action, can win markets.
Over the years, I carried this conviction forward.
- I helped RAK Properties enter the Pakistani market through roadshows.
- I led DAMAC to Cyprus and took part in a major trade show.
- By taking bold initiatives and using my networks, I sold more than AED 200 million worth of property, first as a freelancer and later under Mangrove Real Estate.
- In 2005 I became one of the pioneers of short-lets in Dubai, three years before Airbnb was founded.
- In 2011, when new regulations forced Mangrove to shut down property management, I could have walked away. Instead, I asked my team to stay, take a pay cut, and invent something new together.
Out of that leap of faith came the first steam cleaning company in the Middle East. People warned us that Dubai’s cleaning industry was cutthroat and that without a workforce of a hundred people we would not survive. We chose another path. We focused on green cleaning, introduced steam cleaning to the UAE, and sourced directly from Europe, faster and cheaper than local suppliers. We positioned ourselves as a premium service. We refused to join the race to the bottom and instead created a new space where competition did not matter.
That has been my story: seeing what is inevitable, daring to move first, and proving that with courage and vision you can reshape entire markets.
Now I am ready to pioneer again.
This time not in real estate, not in cleaning, not in packaging, but in something more human: transformational travel.
I call it Travel Strangers.
This is not mass tourism or a checklist of sights. It is experiential travel. Each journey blends three essentials: the thrill of exploration, the depth of cultural immersion, and the power of guided reflection. Together these create experiences where strangers travel together, discover together, and return home transformed – with stories and connections that last.
Dubai will be our hub. From here we will journey into Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean. These journeys will bring together retreats, cultural immersion, and reflection, creating memories that touch both heart and mind.
This is not my first disruption. Yet it may well be the most meaningful.
And I invite you to be part of it.