Arabian Travel Market 2016
Arabian Travel Market is the market leading, international travel and tourism event unlocking business potential within the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. Tourism destinations from around the world showcase a diverse range of accommodation options, breathtaking tourism attractions, travel technology and key airline routes.
More than 50 wide-ranging seminar and tech theatre sessions are scheduled at Arabian Travel Market (ATM), which is taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre from 25-28 April 2016. Panellists will be flying in from around the world to contribute to discussions, with topics including mid-market travel, luxury, aviation, technology trends, spa and wellness tourism, business, adventure and halal tourism.
The opening session, ‘The Future of the UAE As A Global Tourism Hub’, is taking place on 25 April from 13:00 - 14:30 on the ATM Global Stage located in Hall 8 and has an impressive line-up of speakers. Panellists Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM); Haitham Mattar, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority; Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, CEO Shurooq; Sultan Al Mutawa Al Dhaheri, Acting Executive Director, Tourism, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi); Gerald Lawless, Head of Tourism, Dubai Holding and Honorary President, Jumeirah Group; Thierry Antinori, Emirates Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates Airline; and Aligi Gardenghi - VP Marketing EMEA and Commercial Director MEA, Hilton Worldwide will discuss the grand vision for the UAE as one of the world’s leading tourism hubs and how will it evolve over the next decade and beyond.
The session will be moderated by Zeinab Badawi, Broadcast Presenter, BBC World News, who will steer the speakers through talking points such as unique selling points of each emirate and their tourism goals, the important role played by the UAE’s aviation infrastructure and airline industry, new mega projects in the pipeline and how Expo 2020 is set to put the UAE on the global tourism map.
Visitor statistics and hotel development across the emirates is showing signs of positive growth. Abu Dhabi experienced 4,105,846 hotel guest arrivals in 2015 – an 18% rise on the previous year – with an additional 1,000 hotel keys delivered, increasing supply to 20,700 keys by the year-end.
Welcoming 14.2 million visitors in 2015 – a rise of 7.5% on 2014 – Dubai is now a step closer to achieving its target of 20 million visitors by 2020. The hotel market saw the addition of 6,000 hotel keys in 2015, increasing the total supply to 98,330 keys according to Dubai Tourism.
