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Arabian Travel Market 2010 Echoes Renewed Strength of Travel and Tourism Industry

Dubai, UAE. 7thMay 2010:Arabian Travel Market 2010 closed on a high note today as four days of the Middle East’s premier travel and tourism event clearly reflected the industry’s built-up momentum for growth. With significantly increased number of participants and visitors maximising every opportunity at further developing renewed business opportunities, brought about by steadily recovering economies previously affected by unfavourable global economic conditions, the show lived up to its billing as the most important to date.

Onsite statistics recorded an overall visitor increase of three percent; Arabian Travel Market also witnessed an increase in GCC visitors. Turkey registered the largest visitor increase amongst participating countries. Most importantly there was an increase in quality visitors with participants returning day after day to conduct business.

“Even before the show opened, Arabian Travel Market already witnessed positive consolidation of exhibitors and stand-sharers, and a record 72 participating countries which included more than 60 new-to-market representatives,” said Mark Walsh, Group Exhibition Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions - organisers of Arabian Travel Market 2010. “More importantly, such growth figures were strongly reinforced by the increased number of visitors which translated into an equally significant increase in business activity, to the benefit of exhibitors.

“As one of the most critical editions in Arabian Travel Market’s 17-year history, the introduction of several new initiatives, such as our expanded seminar programme, brought added value to all participants as an event that not only serves as a platform to announce new initiatives and projects, as well as promote enhanced inbound and outbound tourism products, but also to further enhance industry knowledge about strategies and issues that were thoroughly presented and discussed by well-renowned industry experts,” added Walsh.

With exhibitors comprising the industry’s top tour and hotel operators, international carriers, private jet operators, car rental companies, destination and country tourism boards, positive feedback from participants reverberated across the halls of the Dubai International Conference and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) throughout Arabian Travel Market’s four days.

Celebrating their seventh year anniversary, Royal Jet – the Abu Dhabi-based international luxury flight services company, chaired by His Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan - launched at Arabian Travel Market 2010 the ‘100 Club’ - a new corporate relationship programme. 

“Prospects for the region as a whole look promising with green shoots of recovery evident in many sectors in the first quarter of this year, leading to organic growth overall,” said Shane O’Hare, President and CEO, Royal Jet. “Royal Jet’s presence at Arabian Travel Market 2010 provided us with a valuable platform to sustain the company’s growth trajectory whereby being amongst the industry’s key players from across the globe allowed us to keep the market abreast about Royal Jet’s global benchmark for in-flight luxury through the combination of cutting-edge technology and unmatched opulence.

“Having been recognised on the eve of the start of this event by the World Travel Awards as the Leading Private Jet Charter Operator in the Middle East for the third consecutive time, this year’s Arabian Travel Market also served as a fitting venue for us to launch new initiatives highlighted by our corporate relationship programme – ‘100 Club’ - which allows all customers, from individuals to corporate, to profit from an attractive range of benefits and take cost-effectiveness and efficiency of private jet travel to another level,” added O’Hare.

Amongst a number of leading international airline operators from the region who constantly participates at Arabian Travel Market was Qatar Airways.
“Qatar Airways was once again delighted at participating in Arabian Travel Market this year which clearly is the region’s premier travel and tourism event,” said Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer. “It is important we maintain and step up our presence each year to reflect the continuous growth we have, are having, and will have as part of the airlines’ strategy to be the leading player in the global aviation industry.

“We used this opportunity to showcase our award-winning hospitality and promote our new destinations for 2010 - Bengaluru (Bangalore), Copenhagen, Ankara, Tokyo, Barcelona, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires,” Al Baker added.

Having its own dedicated stand as a new-to-market exhibitor, Turkish Airlines used this year’s Arabian Travel Market participation to enhance its brand presence, raise further awareness and reach out to more clients.
 
“With so many airlines exhibiting this year, Arabian Travel Market has been a positive for us as we were able to see how our competitors are acting in the market place. At the same time, this situation helped the public become more aware of the aviation sector in general,” said Ayse Misirli MIrza, Director Dubai and Sri Lanka, Turkish Airlines. “Turkish Airlines finds its participation at Arabian Travel Market 2010 very worthwhile as we met the right people in a business focused environment. It had indeed been very fruitful for us.”

Hospitality Management Holdings (HMH), one of the region’s top hotel operators took exceptional notice of the year-on-year improvement within Arabian Travel Market, which continuously served as a catalyst for business opportunities within the travel and tourism industry.

“Every year, Arabian Travel Market gets better and better,” said Michael Noblet, Chief Executive Officer, HMH. “This year’s event provided us with a fantastic platform in which to showcase our various products. And every year, the show provides us with great business leads from people all over the world.

“The quality of visitors to the show is exceptional, and people really came here to do business. This is why Arabian Travel Market is so important to us and will continue to be so in the future,” added Noblet.

Echoing a similar sentiment as Noblet, and participating this year for the fourth time, Tourism Ireland praised the quality of visitors at Arabian Travel Market 2010. “The quality of visitors is excellent, and we have managed to get some great leads,” said Aiveen Ryan, Manager Middle East, Tourism Ireland. “Our participation at Arabian Travel Market 2010 allowed us to reach the right people in the right business environment – making it quite successful with some positive results.”

AminathHudha, Senior Marketing Officer, Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, added: “The high quality of visitors meant that we could capitalise on strong leads, which of course is of great benefit to us. Our main objective is to promote Maldives to operators and hoteliers, and Arabian Travel Market allowed us to do exactly that.”
 
A statement from the National Greek Tourism Board, which had been participating for seven years now, said that new initiatives at this year’s show allowed them to present themselves to the market in a different way: “It's been a great show this year and very fruitful for us. Arabian Travel Market 2010 allowed us to promote ourselves through several avenues.

“The introduction of the culture zone gave us an opportunity to showcase Greece to a different audience and in a different environment, in addition to the usual business-to-business set-up.
 
"We've had some very positive results this year and our participation has opened up new markets for us. We don't currently have a strong presence in India but Arabian Travel Market has allowed us to meet important contacts from India whereas otherwise we would never have had a chance to reach this important emerging market.”
 
Adding to that, Lic Marino Vila, Market Coordinator Asia Pacific & Africa, Argentina National Institute of Tourism Promotion, said: “We come to Arabian Travel Market because it is the perfect place to capture a huge market and present the varied elements of Argentina to a captive audience.

“This year’s Zone 8 gave us an added advantage as it allowed us to interact with the audience in an unusual way. We put on a Tango show, which showed people what Argentina is all about - the passion, the heritage and the glamorous lifestyle. All of which, we believe attracts the Middle East audience,” added Vila.

TawfikMelli, Market Manger, GCC, Switzerland Tourism, added: “Arabian Travel Market helped us build a presence in the crucial Middle East market. It is the most important trade fair in the UAE, and it would be strange not to be here.”

For others, specifically those from Asia, Arabian Travel Market provided them with the window of opportunity to the extremely important Middle East market. As such, the event has become an integral component in the annual marketing and promotion calendar of several government tourism authorities.

“Our participation this year is good as we have made several deals,” said Hari Wibowo, Manager of International Relations, Tourism and Culture Office, Jakarta City Government, Indonesia. “The Middle East is an important market for us as we have had a good number of visitors from this region last year. This year, we are targeting 1.5 million tourists to visit Jakarta and 7 million to visit the whole of Indonesia, and we hope to get good tourist numbers from the Middle East this year.

“Arabian Travel Market is a good venue to achieve this objective, to reach the people from this region and to create awareness about Jakarta’s Tourism. We have been in Arabian Travel Market every year and we would like to maintain our presence.”

ZainunMohamed Ariff, Assistant Director of Sales, The Zon Hotels, Malaysia, added: “We have participated here to support our local region and explain to our potential visitors from the Middle East the attractions and new properties we have in Malaysia. This year was better than last year and we can see that 2010 has already picked-up a little. We have received a lot of enquiries and we are optimistic that we will get more visitors in Malaysia during this period.”

Kim Bae Ho, Regional Director, Korean National Tourism Organization, Dubai Office, said: “Our participation this year is better than last year. Arabian Travel Market is a big brand in the region and we are still looking at participating next year. We just hope that organisers will also promote the exhibition to direct consumers as we wish to target them to come here.”

The 2010 show had nearly 60 national tourist bodies representing six continents, including new-to-market showings from Fiji as well representation from the private sector in Nigeria, Monaco, Swaziland, the Ukraine, Nepal, Malta, Libya, Republic of Korea and Iraq.

This year, Europe boasted 18 new stand holders including Turkish Air, which took 105m² of space, and St Petersburg, which returned after a three year absence. France and Turkey were the biggest increasers of space, raising their offerings by 40m² and 50m² to 200 m² and 600 m² respectively. The development of key source markets in Europe by Middle East tourism bodies and vice versa also witnessed above-average exhibitor number rises from France, Germany, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

Asia also saw an increase in first time exhibitors including representatives from Uttarakhand Province in India, Nepal and China Southern Airlines. Thailand, Malaysia and India continued to be the largest space contributors with 440 m², 402.5 m² and 400 m² respectively. The Philippines had the area’s greatest space increase, going from 60 m² in 2009 to 101.5 m² in 2010.  

Africa, The Americas and Australasia all made strong returns this year with the Maldives, United States, Canada, Kenya and Tunisia all seeing positive growth in exhibitor numbers.

The Middle East has seen impressive exhibitor number increases over last year’s figures, rising from more than 830 in 2009 to more than 960 in 2010 – representing 15 percent growth. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the UAE all brought in increased tourism contingents this year. For the UAE alone, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah made significant space increases.

The show also saw delegations, led by senior government Ministers, from a host of international and Middle East nations and states, including Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, Bahrain, Kenya, Kuwait, Spain, Indonesia, Jordan, South Africa, Argentina, Romania, India, Morocco, Greece, Thailand, the Philippines and Nepal.

Arabian Travel Market is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.