EUROPE CONTINUES TO TARGET MIDDLE EAST TRAVELLERS - 13 OFFICIAL EUROPEAN TOURISM AUTHORITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET 2002

"Not only has European participation held up well, several official pavilions, most notably from Cyprus, Switzerland, Slovakia, France, Britain and Turkey, have been expanded," said Matt Thompson, Group Exhibition Director (Overseas Events), Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE),
which organises Arabian Travel Market.

"Despite the impact of recent events on the international travel industry, Middle East buyers, among them Kuwait, which has been prioritised by the World Tourism and Travel Council as one of the Arab World's largest per capita spenders on overseas tourism, appear to
remain in big demand."

Turkey is staging its biggest ATM promotion this year as the country looks to build on a surge in outbound tourism from the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The Turkish Tourism and Information Office is mounting a 141 square metre pavilion at the show increasing its presence by 18% on last year.

The expanded ATM participation comes as Turkey celebrates a 71% increase in its tourism arrivals from the Gulf and looks for even bigger regional gains.

In the first nine months of last year some 30,947 tourists from the Gulf visited Turkey, compared to 18,080 for the same period in 2000.

"Many factors have played a role in the increasing tourist numbers, but Arabian Travel Market activities is one of the most important," said Hasan Zongur, Information Attaché at the Turkish Tourism and Information Office in Kuwait.

Britain is also fielding its largest ever delegation to the show this year. Thirty companies will be housed in the British pavilion, jointly organised by the British Tourist Authority (BTA) and the British Incoming Tour Operators Association (BITOA).

This year, Britain's participation takes on a distinctly 'green' theme.

"Our newly-designed stand will promote British gardens as this is one of our major campaigns and follows the launch of our website www.visitbritain.com/gardens, which lists over 400 gardens and gardening events tourists can visit as well as a 'Britain's Gardens' Map," said Mark Muller, General Manager Middle East, BTA.

"The British delegation has eight more companies than last year, a growth which reflects the UK's determination to remain an outbound leader from the Middle East."

British pavilion delegates span a range of tourism providers including tour operators, hoteliers, car rental companies and language schools and BITOA's Chief Executive, Mr Richard Tobias, OBE, will fly to Dubai to attend the show.

ATM exhibitors this year will have access to some of the GCC's leading travel buyers with a number of the region's top purchasers being invited onto the show's special hosted buyer programme.

"Twenty tour operators from Saudi Arabia as well as 50 of the world's key incentive decision-makers will be hosted," said Thompson. "They will meet exhibitors in buyer-meet-supplier sessions on the first day of the show.

"As with 2001, the MICE market is the focus of our hosted buyer programme due to industry demand and research among exhibitors."

Hosted buyers will stay at the recently-opened, five-star Fairmont Dubai hotel.

To date, exhibitors from 47 countries have contracted for Arabian Travel Market 2002.

"The profile includes 44 official destination pavilions and the mix is as great as ever both in product and geographic offerings," said Lindsey Kavanagh, RTE's Marketing Manager, Overseas Events.

"The Far East and Africa are also well represented. The only area not to have lived up to our pre-September 11 expectations is the USA, where the travel industry's focus has become more domestic.

"The good news for industry visitors is that the product profile is growing, opening up more business opportunities both inbound and outbound.

"For instance, one of the leading yacht brokers and luxury yacht charter operators in Greece will be at the show for the first time, indeed it's the first yachting supplier ever to be represented at the show."

Last year 59% of Arabian Travel Market visitors polled said they attended the show with the specific aim of finding new products or developments.

"Specialist services, such as yachting were also listed by trade visitors as one area they want to see more of," said Kavanagh.

RTE says it remains cautiously optimistic that this year's event will match last year's record showing when over 700 exhibitors from 59 countries took part and over 10,000 people, including 6,336 trade professionals visited.

New show attractions this year include an upgraded on-site educational seminar programme, which will run over the first three days of the show.

Topics to be presented include: 'Marketing To American Associations and Corporations,' 'Using Technology To Target The American Meetings and Incentives Market,' 'Sustainable Tourism' and 'How To Attract And Retain Customers Through A More Secure Online Payment Alternative.'

Corbin Ball, hailed by Meeting News Magazine as one of the world's most influential people in the meetings industry, will represent the Connected International Meeting Professionals Association (CIMPA), when he addresses the seminar on emerging web and wireless trends for meeting
professionals.

"The internet has changed the way we do business," said Thompson. "Delegates will be able to see some of the newest tools and features that are on the cutting edge of online technology, and discover how the Web can be used in almost every function of the meeting planning process."

Representatives of the Pacific Asian Travel Association, (PATA), Green Globe 21 and Paybox UK are among seminar speakers.

"There is a deliberate heavy focus on the US because American associations and corporations spend over US $110 billion in meetings annually, a great market for outbound destinations to tap", said Kavanagh.

Arabian Travel Market 2002, which is held under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, will this year also feature the Internet Café, run by Expatsite.com which proved so popular last year. The show's official carrier, the UAE's award-winning airline Emirates is offering delegates discounted fares to Dubai.

Arabian Travel Market 2002, staged under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai, is the ninth in the highly successful annual series.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Bahrain will this year host the Seventh Arabian Travel Market Conference, which will immediately precede the show. The summit will be held at Bahrain's Gulf International Hotel and Conference Centre from May 4-5.