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Reed Travel Exhibitions, organisers of Arabian Travel Market, the Middle
East's premier travel and tourism exhibition, say space bookings for this
year's show remains up on last year despite uncertainties in the region.
"Space contracted to date is 10% up on last year," explained Matt
Thompson, Group Exhibition Director, Overseas Events, RTE. "In the last
couple of weeks, we have had a small amount of participants withdraw from
the event, predominantly European private sector companies. The lost space of 209 square metres is counteracted by an additional 247 square
metres booked since the second week in March."
Recently contracted exhibitors include newcomers to the show from
Pakistan, South Africa, Malaysia, Kenya, Vietnam and Yemen.
"These include tour operators and hotel and resort operators," explained
Thompson.
"With six weeks to go, we have already grown this year's ATM to 9,000
square metres. Much of this space has been taken by existing exhibitors,
particularly tourism boards and hotels, some of which are taking on more
space to accommodate demand from the private sector and partners. Moreover, we are delighted to welcome a number of new countries to the
show as well as a number of destinations, which are returning after missing
previous events, the Maldives and Uganda in particular. There are more than
50 countries represented at ATM and stand bookings are still coming in, particularly from the
region [Middle East] and Asia."
To date, some 556 exhibitors from 55 countries have contracted for Arabian
Travel Market, which will be held at the Airport Expo Dubai from May 6-9.
Thompson added that visitor registrations for this year's show are also looking positive.
"This time last year, we had received 1,509 visitor pre-registrations and to
date, for this year's show, we have pre-registered 2,120 travel and tourism
professionals, with applications still coming in." |
