Arabian Travel Market opens in Dubai
The Middle East's largest travel trade event, Arabian Travel Market, opened this week, expecting to attract over 26,000 visitors. The event features 2,800 exhibitors, 64 national pavilions, over 50 seminar and technology theatre sessions and several new features including the launch of the Wellness & Spa Lounge and ATM Global Stage.
Now in its 23rd year, the event takes place at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre from 25 to 28 April 2016.
“The region faces a triple challenge in attracting leisure and business travellers with the triumvirate of service, experience and value all key to developing sustainable tourism economies in an increasingly diversified sector. This has been the catalyst in focusing our attention on mid-market tourism this year, as Middle East destinations look to diversify their source markets and attract a larger volume of visitors as well as look to increase the loyalty quotient in an extremely competitive market environment,” said Nadege Noblet-Segers, Exhibition Manager, Arabian Travel Market.
“This has been identified as both an underdeveloped and potential growth area for the region, driven by demand from the growing middle class markets such as China, India and Africa combined with budget Generation Y travellers and young families,” she added.
Annual show favourites make a return with the Travel Tech Show and Travel Tech Theatre seminar sessions promising an educational and insightful four days of knowledge sharing; and the New Frontiers Recovery Awards, recognising the efforts of those nations that have suffered devastating economic and human losses in the last 12 months, as a result of natural disasters.
"As Dubai’s dynamic tourism proposition continues to be expanded and enhanced, not least with the opening of 16 new tourist attractions in 2016, including theme parks, Dubai Opera House, green spaces and retail destinations, we continue to actively leverage the city’s growing global appeal among a diverse range of traveller segments. Essential to our success is the ongoing collaboration between and collective contribution of government and private stakeholders, and ATM is an ideal opportunity to cement these partnerships, build new ones and effectively engage with the global travel industry,” said Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, the show has grown to become the largest showcase of its kind in the region and one of the biggest in the world.
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Read the April 2016 issue of Business Review Middle East magazine
