Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), which organises Arabian Travel Market, the Middle East's premier travel and tourism show, says this year's event is "well on track to be the biggest show to date".
"It is safe to say that, to date, the uncertainty in the region has not affected Arabian Travel Market," said Matt Thompson, group exhibition director, Overseas Events, RTE. Reed Travel Exhibitions says that the 2003 Arabian Travel Market, which will be held at the Airport Expo, Dubai, UAE from May 6-9, is already larger than last year's record-breaking event. "Much of this space growth is taken by tourism boards which are increasing the size of their stands to meet demand from the private sector," explained Thompson. "Moreover, we are welcoming a number of fresh exhibitors to the show with new national pavilions from Saudi Arabia and Canada and the return of a Ugandan national pavilion after a break of seven years." Visitor expectations also remain unhindered by regional uncertainties, according to Matt Thompson. "We recently started our visitor promotional campaign and the early indication is that our pre-registration figures are on track to match those of last year," he said. Thompson stressed that Arabian Travel Market, now in its 10th year, was proceeding very much as "business as usual". Reed Travel Exhibitions is part of Reed Exhibitions, which manages over 450 events in 32 countries, serving 49 different industries in 12 key sectors with some 156,000 exhibiting companies and over nine million visitors per event cycle.