27th March 2003
 
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), organisers of Arabian Travel Market, the Middle East’s premier travel and tourism exhibition, say space bookings for this year’s show remain up on last year despite uncertainties in the region.
 
“Space contracted to date is 10% up on last year,” explained Matt Thompson, Group Exhibition Director, Overseas Events, RTE. “In the last couple of weeks, we have had a small amount of participants withdraw from the event, predominantly European private sector companies. The lost space of 209 square metres is counteracted by an additional 247 square metres booked since the second week in March.”
 
Recently contracted exhibitors include newcomers to the show from Pakistan, South Africa, Malaysia, Kenya, Vietnam and Yemen.
 
“These include tour operators and hotel and resort operators,” explained Thompson.
 
“With six weeks to go, we have already grown this year’s ATM to 9,000 square metres. Much of this space has been taken by existing exhibitors, particularly tourism boards and hotels, some of which are taking on more space to accommodate demand from the private sector and partners. Moreover, we are delighted to welcome a number of new countries to the show as well as a number of destinations, which are returning after missing previous events, the Maldives and Uganda in particular. There are more than 50 countries represented at ATM and stand bookings are still coming in, particularly from the region and Asia.”
 
To date, some 556 exhibitors from 55 countries have contracted for Arabian Travel Market, which will be held at the Airport Expo Dubai from May 6-9.
 
Thompson added that visitor registrations for this year’s show are also looking positive.
 
“This time last year, we had received 1,509 visitor pre-registrations and to date, for this year’s show, we have pre-registered 2,120 travel and tourism professionals, with applications still coming in.”
 
-Ends-
 
ABOUT THE ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET ORGANISER:
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 9 million visitors per event cycle.
 
As a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, the world-leading business and information provider, Reed Exhibitions 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 Reed Exhibitions’ 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.

Reed Travel Exhibitions organises 13 events world-wide, including World Travel Market, Arabian Travel Market, C.I.S. Travel Market, EIBTM, British Travel Trade Fair, Asia Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME), Asia Business Travel Market, International Golf Travel Market, La Cumbre, Top Resa, Mediterranean Travel Fair, International Luxury Travel Market and ICCA Exhibition, in association with the ICCA Congress.
 
For further information:
MCS/Action,
PO Box 20970,
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates.
Tel: +9714 3902961;
Fax: +9714 3908161
email: barbara@mcsaction.com or nathalie@mcsaction.com .
Or visit Arabian Travel Market online at:http://travel.reedexpo.com

© Press Release 2003