Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), organizers of Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the Middle East's travel and tourism exhibition, say space bookings for this year's show remain up on last year despite uncertainties in the region.
"Space contracted to date is 10 percent up on last year," explained Matt Thompson, RTE group exhibition director for overseas events. "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 meters is counteracted by an additional 247 square meters 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 meters. Much of this space has been taken by existing exhibitors, particularly tourism boards and hotels. 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 and Asia," he added. 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." — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
