Arabian Travel Market 2001 expands into additional halls

"Since its inception in 1994, Arabian Travel Market has grown at a phenomenal rate, mirroring the rapid growth and development of the Middle East's tourism industry." Comments Matt Thompson, Exhibition Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions. "Each year, we see more tourism boards participate at the show, and each year national pavilions are dramatically increased in size to accommodate the growing number of private sector participants. And as the tourism product becomes more diversified, niche areas are becoming more and more popular: cruising, golf, adventure travel, health resorts and Eco tourism are now all on display at Arabian Travel Market." Said Thompson.

"Established destinations such as Europe and Asia have gone from strength to strength, with new destinations such as New Zealand and Tahiti experiencing very successful shows; Eastern Europe was heavily represented for the first time, and benefited from a huge amount of interest in their health resorts and spas. As always, the Middle East turned out in force, with official representation from all of the GCC states and a large showing from the pan Arab world, from Morocco to Iran." Said Thompson.

"Whilst Arabian Travel Market has traditionally shown a 10% year on year growth, all expectations were exceeded for the 2000 show, which increased by almost 20%. For the first time, the show completely sold out of all the booked space at the Dubai World Trade Centre, and we actually had to turn away a number of companies who wanted to book space late on." Said Thompson.

"As a result of this continued expansion, we are now expanding Arabian Travel Market to incorporate Halls 3, 4, 5, 5a and 6 of the World Trade Centre. This will afford us the opportunity to accommodate future development, especially as more destinations become accessible and popular, like the Americas and Africa."

"After the outstanding success of the 2000 show, most exhibitors have signed up for next year's show, with many increasing their stand space even more, and many new exhibitors applying to exhibit for the first time. With this new room for expansion, and the remarkably positive response to last year's show, all the signs indicate that next year's event will be another outstanding success" said Thompson.

RTE is part of The Reed Exhibition Companies Ltd., (REC), which manages over 300 events in 25 countries, serving over 55 different industry sectors with some 112,000 exhibition companies and over eight million visitors. As a member of the Reed Elsevier Plc Group, the world-leading business and information providers, REC is unique in offering integrated market access programmes covering exhibitions, trade publications, direct marketing and the Internet.

Reed Elsevier's business titles are closely linked with REC's exhibition activities across both geographic and industrial markets. It also has a growing portfolio of electronic publishing and information services, including LEXIS-NEXIS, the world's leading provider of on-line information services and management tools.

RTE organises ten 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 and AIME.