Airshow freezes booking price for 2011 event

Dubai: The next Dubai Airshow, to be held in 2011, is expected to grow further - although organisers aren't sure if the event will move to Jebel Ali, at the Dubai World Central, a top official said.

"We have frozen the booking price for a year for the next airshow," Alison Weller, director of Aerospace, Fairs and Exhibitions - organisers of the show, told Gulf News today.

"This will help early birds to benefit from the price differentials. We will raise the price next year."

The current base price for exhibition space is $520 per square metres. This will remain same for a year.

Weller said, the next show might take place in the existing Airport Expo - although the current edition was scheduled to have taken place at the Dubai Exhibition City in Jebel Ali - part of the mammoth 140-square kilometres Dubai World Central facility.

"We're not sure if the next show will be here or in Jebel Ali. We haven't got any firm indications if it will take place here," she said.

"However, there are rooms for us to grow here as well."

The show has grown about 10 per cent with 890 exhibitors coming from 47 different countries. Selling space this year has been a challenge, Weller said.

"However, we have been blessed by 200 Middle Eastern exhibitors who stood by us. In 1989, the number of Middle Eastern participants were just 20. So, now, we have a strong base of indigenous Middle Eastern exhibitors."

The number of participants might overshoot from last shows' 45,000 to 50,000 this year, although firm orders might not match the previous edition's $155.5 billion recorded in 2007.