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QATAR MORE THAN DOUBLES ITS ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET PRESENCE Qatar Airways will have a 117 square metre stand at the show, the premier Pan Arab travel and tourism exhibition, while the recently-formed Qatar General Tourism Authority is mounting a 100 square metre pavilion. "Both are among some of the largest single participants," said Matt Thompson, Group Exhibition Director (Overseas Events), Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), which organises Arabian Travel Market. "The Qatar Airways' stand size is almost 20% bigger than last year while the official QGTA pavilion is more than double that staged in 2001 by the Qatar National Hotels Company." Thompson added that many Qatari hotel properties will also be represented at the show in pavilions led by international managing chains. Arabian Travel Market 2002, which takes place at Airport Expo Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from May 7-10, will feature strong GCC representation. "Saudi Arabian participation has also increased substantially and it would appear that the Gulf nations are going all-out to strengthen their intra-regional travel business, in line with sector growth over the past six months," said Thompson. Qatar will also be in the spotlight at the Seventh Arabian Travel Market Conference taking place at Bahrain's Gulf International Hotel and Conference Centre from May 4-5. Among the speakers is Mark Senior, General Manager of Qatar Airways Holidays, who will outline the concept of adding value to the airline's successful operations through the development of a dedicated inclusive tour operation. Opening the second day's agenda will be Hassan Ibrahim, media consultant and senior producer for Qatar's Al Jazeera Television. He will host a television-style debate to seek to establish what delegates truly feel about the industry they work in. Some of the GCC's leading travel buyers are again in the Arabian Travel Market visitor spotlight with some of the region's top purchasers being invited onto the show's special hosted buyer programme. "They will be among 50 of the world's leading incentive decision-makers and a group 20 tour operators to be hosted. They will meet Arabian Travel Market exhibitors and participate in buyer-meet-supplier sessions on the first day of the show," said Thompson. "As with 2001, the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) market is the focus of this year's hosted buyer programme due to industry demand and research amongst exhibitors." RTE is also hoping for its biggest turnout of professional travel and trade visitors from Qatar this year. "Last year trade visitor numbers from Qatar were up by almost a third on 2000 and that is a pattern we have managed to achieve year-on-year for the past three shows," said Lindsey Kavanagh, RTE's Marketing Manager, Overseas Events. "We believe the increase can be sustained again this year as Qatar is annually progressing its tourism infrastructure base with new hotel properties, tour provider operations and incentive houses opening. "And, with industry analysts predicting intra-Arab tourism is likely to double within a decade, it is more vital than ever that the foundations are put in place to address growth in this burgeoning sector." Qatar is among 47 countries from which, to date, exhibitors have registered for Arabian Travel Market 2002. "The profile includes 42 official destination pavilions and the mix is as great as ever, both in product and geographic destination offerings," said Kavanagh. "The Far East is well represented, as is Africa. Europe too remains committed. The only area not to have lived up to our pre-September 11 expectations is the USA, where perhaps the travel industry's focus has now taken on a more domestic approach. "But the good news for industry visitors is that the product profile is in fact growing, opening up more business opportunities - both outbound and inbound. For instance, one of the leading yacht brokers and operators of luxury crewed yacht charters in Greece will be at the show for the first time - indeed it is the first time a yachting supplier has been represented," explained Kavanagh. Last year 59% of Arabian Travel Market visitors polled said they attended the show with the specific aim of finding new products or developments. "Specialist services, such as yachting were also listed by trade visitors as one area they would like to see more of," said Kavanagh. Qatar is also a key target for outbound suppliers. "Turkey, for instance, is staging its biggest-ever Arabian Travel Market promotion this year and is aiming to keep up the momentum of traffic from Qatar, which more than quadrupled last year," said Kavanagh. "Despite the international travel slowdown we are cautiously optimistic that this year's event will match last year's record showing when over 700 exhibitors from 59 countries participated and over 10,000 people, including 6,336 trade professionals visited." New attractions this year also include an upgraded on-site educational seminar programme, which will run over May 8 and 9. Topics to be presented during the seminar include: 'Marketing To American Associations and Corporations,' 'Using Technology To Target The American Meetings and Incentives Market,' 'Sustainable Tourism' and 'How To Attract And Retain Customers Through A More Secure Online Payment Alternative.' Representatives from the Connected International Meeting Professionals Association (CIMPA), the Pacific Asian Travel Association (PATA), Green Globe 21 and Paybox UK are among seminar speakers. "There is a deliberately heavy focus on the US market because American associations and corporations spend over US $110 billion in meetings annually - a great market for outbound destinations to tap," said Kavanagh. "The seminar will explain how US organisers select meeting sites and professional organisers. Currently there are approximately 45,000 US-based associations, each organising anywhere from 5-120 meetings each year. About 46% of them organise international meetings, according to a state of the industry report by Deloitte and Touche." Arabian Travel Market 2002 will feature the Internet Café run by Expatsite.com which proved so popular last year and its official carrier, Emirates, which flies from Qatar to Dubai is offering bona-fide delegates concessionary fares to the show. Arabian Travel Market 2002 is the ninth in the highly-successful annual series. RTE, which is part of Reed Exhibition Companies (REC), organises 11 events worldwide, including World Travel Market, Arabian Travel Market, C.I.S. Travel Market, EIBTM, British Travel Trade Fair, PATA Travel Mart, International Golf Travel Market, Mediterranean Travel Fair, Top Resa, AIME and ICCA Exhibition in association with ICCA Congress. |
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