JEDDAH, 5 March — Haj and Umrah tours will be on focus at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2002, described as the region’s premier travel and tourism exhibition, being held at the Airport Expo Dubai from May 7-10.
Giving details of the Kingdom’s increased participation at the ninth annual event, Matt Thompson, group exhibition director for overseas events of the Surrey-based Reed Travel Exhibitions, told a press conference at the Sheraton Jeddah Hotel yesterday that new to the show were tour operators Mawassim Tours, Shaayert and Attar Travel Center, all based in Jeddah.
“In addition, several exhibitors from the Kingdom, who were present in 2001, have increased the size of their participation this year. They include Makkah’s Hospitality Wings for Tourism and Madinah’s Taiba Residence Suites, both of whom have boosted their stand sizes by 25 percent, while Saudi Arabian Airlines has increased its stand by 50 percent.
Thomspon added that many of the Kingdom’s hotels would also be represented at the show taking part in pavilions mounted by their international managing chains. “The sustained Saudi participation is in line with the Kingdom’s more focused efforts on developing an inbound tourism infrastructure and industry and reflects new opportunities opening up from intra-regional travel, which has surged since the effects of Sept. 11.”
While international outbound travel might have been negatively impacted, the industry was reporting greater-than-ever interest in intra-regional travel and this would be in strong focus at this year’s show, he added.
In addition, a Saudi exhibitor — Dar Al Manasek of Jeddah — will deliver an address at the educational seminar program running at the ATM on May 9. Jamal Abbas, chairman of Dar Al Manasek, will outline to delegates developments in the Kingdom’s Haj and Umrah travel and tours sector. Other topics to be presented 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 deliberate heavy focus on the US market in the program because American associations and corporations spend over $110 billion in meetings annually - a great market for outbound destinations to tap,” Thompson said. “The seminar will explain how US organizers select meeting sites and professional organizers. Currently there are about 45,000 US-based associations, each organizing anywhere from five to 120 meetings each year. About 46 percent of them organize international meetings, according to a state of the industry report by Deloitte and Touche,” he added.
The Kingdom’s leading travel buyers are again in the ATM spotlight with some of the Kingdom’s top purchasers being invited onto the show’s specially hosted buyer program. Twenty Saudi tour operators as well as 50 of the world’s leading incentive decision-makers will be hosted. They will meet ATM exhibitors and participate in a buyer-meet-supplier on the first day of the show.
The Saudi Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) market is the focus of the ATM’s buyer program due to industry demand and research among exhibitors, Thompson added.
The Kingdom is among 47 countries from which, exhibitors have registered for the show.
Last year, some 338 trade visitors from the Kingdom visited ATM - which was up 5.3 percent on 2000.
“Despite the international travel slowdown, we do expect this year’s event to 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,” Thompson said.
