Arabian Travel Market 2005 expected to be yet another record breaker

Within four weeks of the official launch of its sales campaign, 42% of space for the Arabian Travel Market 2005 has already been reserved.

“This is a fantastic start to the campaign which still has six months to run,” explained Chris Chackal, Group Exhibition Director – Overseas Events, Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), which organises the annual show.

“As we are aiming for 20% growth on stand space meterage, we are highly optimistic that we will reach a final show size of 14,200 square metres – the largest in the exhibition’s 12-year history.”

According to Chackal, growth is being fuelled by the entry of new exhibitors and the expansion of a number of national pavilions.

“New-to-show entrants are coming particularly from the Middle East’s mega projects and big ticket developers, including The Pearl-Qatar, Yoharah LLC Dubai and the Majid Al Futtaim Group.” 

Already shaping up as the mega stand show, the Arabian Travel Market 2005 has received huge pavilion allocations from The Palm which has booked the largest stand ever at any Arabian Travel Market, Dubailand which has tripled the size of its allocation this year, and the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai, which is increasing its stand to cater for the rising pavilion space demand from private sector sharers.

“Sizeable stand increases have also been booked by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and the pavilion organisers for Australia, Singapore, India, Thailand and Turkey.

“Obviously the sheer scale of some of the stands means this really is going to be a show with an immense visual impact – even more so than usual,” said Chackal.

The Arabian Travel Market 2005 will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre from May 3-6, 2005. To date, exhibitors from 16 countries have reserved space for the show.

“We are optimistic about another record-breaking show particularly in view of the fact that 93% of all exhibitors this year, both local and international, completed rebooking forms onsite at the 2004 event,” added Chackal.