Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), organizer of Arabian Travel Market, the Middle East's travel and tourism show, which opened at the Airport Expo Dubai on May 6, for the ninth annual series, announced that this year's event has surpassed all of its post September 11 expectations, according to a company press release.
"Despite what has been a very difficult period for the international travel industry, over 700 exhibitors from 56 countries have contracted for the show," said Tom Nutley, RTE managing director. "This result demonstrates the resilience of this industry and we view it as a positive sign that the sector is now truly rebounding. We are particularly encouraged that the show has managed to expand its geographic exhibitor spread as well as product range."
Arabian Travel Market 2002 will, for the first time, have official participation from Algeria, South Africa, Mauritius, Korea and Greece. The show will feature 212 stands, 68 of which are Arabian Travel Market newcomers and will cover 8,500 square meters. The show also has its first exhibitor from Senegal and its debut participation by the Palestine National Authority.
"In pure space terms the show is two percent bigger this year than last, so yet again it is the largest Arabian Travel Market on record," said Nutley. “Originally, and in line with past performance, we had targeted double-digit growth. However, we revised our targeted downwards after September 11 and focused our efforts on client retention."
Growth has resulted from an influx of new-to-market suppliers and expansion by regular participants including the British Tourist Authority, Cyprus, Switzerland, Slovakia, France and Turkey, asserted Nutley. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
