Dubai: The Arabian Travel Market, the region’s largest travel and tourism exhibition, opens its doors on Monday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, at the World Trade Centre.
The 22nd Arabian Travel Market is expected to welcome more than 23,000 visitors this week, according to organisers. There will be 2,700 exhibitors, including 113 new companies exhibiting for the first time.
Arabian Travel Market is an “important” and “strategic” event in Dubai’s bid to welcome 20 million visitors annually by 2020, Issam Abdul Rahim Kazim, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), said at the exhibition’s pre-show press conference on Sunday.
Dubai welcomed 13.2 million tourists in 2014 and the DCTCM will soon release its first report on how it calculates tourism numbers, Kazim added.
Arabian Travel Market brings together major local, regional and international players from the tourism and travel industry. Exhibitors at this year’s show include hoteliers such as Jumeirah, Movenpick, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, Accor, Marriott and Rotana among others. Airlines will also be exhibiting at the show with big pavilions expected from local powerhouses Emirates airline and Etihad Airways.
Nadege Noblet-Segers, exhibition manager, Arabian Travel Market, dismissed a suggestion that the show has reached a peak. Last year, there were 2,343 exhibiting companies, including 120 new exhibitors. In 2013 there were 2,730 exhibitors, including 111 new companies.
Noblet-Segers said the 113 new companies and an additional hall space this year showed the event is still growing.
Business deals
Arabian Travel Market is an “integral part of the travel and tourism in the region,” said Shaikh Majid Al Mualla, Divisional Senior Vice President Commercial Operations Centre at Emirates airline.
This year’s exhibition, which runs until Thursday, is being billed as the “biggest of all”, according to organisers. Last year’s show saw a 12 per cent rise in visitors with just over 33,000 in total. There was also $2.1 billion (Dh7.7 billion) worth of business deals signed last year.
Etihad Airways is expected to exhibit “The Residence”, its three-room suite available exclusively on the Airbus A380, for the first time at last year’s show. Meanwhile, seven years ago, Emaar launched its “The Address” hotel brand at the show. On Sunday, Philippe Zuber, chief operating officer of Emaar Hospitality Group, said the company had been named the official host for the 2016 and 2017 editions of travel and tourism exhibition.
This year, the show has grown by 7 per cent with the additional hall for exhibitors that will include 64 country pavilions, according to organisers.
