Arabian Travel Market short listed for Gulf Brands of the Decade Award

The Arabian Travel Market, the Middle East's premier travel and tourism exhibition, has been short listed for the inaugural 'Gulf Brands Of The Decade Award.'

The awards are being organised by the monthly trade magazine Gulf Marketing Review, which, like the Arabian Travel Market, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The Arabian Travel Market is one of five short-listed hopefuls in the awards' travel and tourism category. Five potential winners have been short listed for each of 10 categories from an original overall entry of 400 brands across the Middle East. The nominated brands have now been forwarded for independent market research.

The winner will be announced at a gala dinner at Dubai's newest five star Arabian theme hotel, the Mina A'Salam, Madinat Jumeirah.

"To be nominated for this innovative award in our 10th anniversary year is really great news and a true honour," said Matt Thompson, Exhibitions Director, Overseas Events, Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), which organises Arabian Travel Market. "It demonstrates how far the Arabian Travel Market brand has come in the past decade - which is also evidenced by the growth of the show."

When it was launched in 1994, the Arabian Travel Market featured 300 companies from 52 countries, spanned just over 2,000 square metres and attracted 7,000 visitors. Arabian Travel Market 2003 featured 783 exhibitors from 55 countries, spanned 9,000 square metres and attracted 12,111 visitors.

"The prospects for next year's show are looking extremely good with enquiries steadily coming in from new-to-market companies wishing to exhibit and some regular exhibitors, such as France, which missed last year, now returning to the show," explained Thompson.

The Arabian Travel Market 2004 will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre from May 4-7.

"We are extremely bullish about next year's show and conservatively predict growth of at least 15% in floor space," 

"The year-on-year growth of Arabian Travel Market also mirrors the rapid development of the travel and tourism industry both within the region, and its growing importance to the outbound sector." said Thompson.