Sustainibility to drive business

Apart from the usual global stage and travel tech seminars, the special emphasis on Arabian Travel
Market Student Conference is a way to ensure the sustainable tourism future of tomorrow, believes
Simon Press, Senior Exhibition Director, Arabian Travel Market.

TT Bureau

Q) What will be new at ATM this year?
This year, ATM has partnered with the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) to present the inaugural destination investment panel. Taking place on the ATM Global Stage, the session will discuss what drives investment in travel destinations across the Middle East and neighbouring regions.
Also new this year, is the ATM Student Conference, ‘Career in Travel’, a programme clearly aimed at students and graduates. Taking place on the final day of  ATM, this programme will allow aspiring travel professionals and hoteliers to listen to guest speakers and travel industry leaders. It will also help provide a greater understanding of the industry and potential career paths.
Q) How many new exhibitors have been confirmed?
This year’s show will welcome over 2,500 exhibiting companies and an expected 40,000 attendees with over 150 countries represented, 65 national pavilions and more than 100 new exhibitors set to make their ATM debut. ATM 2018 will also showcase the largest exhibition of regional and global hotel brands in the history of ATM, with hotels comprising 20 per cent of the total show area.Taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre from April 22-25, ATM 2018 will feature 68 main hotel stand exhibitors, including eight new brands over an area of more than 5,000 sqm, in addition to over 100 Middle East hotels featured alongside their respective national tourism organisations.
Q) What is the theme and focus for this year’s ATM?
ATM 2018 has adopted Responsible Tourism, including sustainable travel trends, as its main theme and this will be integrated across all show verticals and activities, including advice clinics and focused seminar sessions, featuring dedicated exhibitor participation. Running throughout the event, professionals from across the industry will demonstrate how, with the correct strategy in place, the tourism industry can expand its responsible credentials. In celebration of its 25th year, this year’s show will host a series of seminar sessions looking back on the tourism revolution in the MENA region over the last quarter of a century, while exploring how the industry will shape up over the next 25 years, in light of geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainties, huge technological advances and, of course, the increasing trend of responsible tourism.
Q) What are the new seminars on travel tech?
Hyperloop and future travel experiences will kick off proceedings on ATM’s global stage with a host of high-profile panelists lined up to discuss the revolutions we can expect to see in the travel industry. Themes for other seminars during the show will include future travel experiences, aviation, travel technology, entrepreneurship, halal tourism, Virgin Hyperloop One, luxury tourism and Instagram.