Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum officially inaugurated Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2021 on Sunday, marking the start of the 28th edition of the Middle East’s largest travel and tourism exhibition, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
Sheikh Ahmed is also Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, and chairman of Dubai World.
He was accompanied on Sunday by Helal Saeed Al Marri, CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Director-General of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Claude Blanc, WTM & IBTM Portfolio Director; Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director Middle East, ATM and other VIPs who embarked on a tour of the show floor as the four-day event got underway at DWTC, WAM said.
Taking place on May 16-19, this year’s event has 1,300 exhibitors from 62 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, the Maldives, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico and the US.
The event will once again play an integral role in Arabian Travel Week, a 10-day long festival of travel and tourism events taking place in Dubai and online. In addition to the in-person Arabian Travel Market event, the travel events that are part of Arabian Travel Week are: travel technology exhibition Travel Forward, ARIVAL Dubai for the tours and attractions sector, GBTA’s half day virtual business travel conference, ITIC’s Middle East Tourism Investment Summit and regionally focused buyer groups including China, and of course ATM Virtual, the online edition of the ATM exhibition.
This year, for the first time in ATM history, a new hybrid format will mean a virtual ATM running a week later, from May 24 to 26, to complement and reach a wider audience than ever before. ATM Virtual, which made its debut last year, proved to be a resounding success attracting 12,000 online attendees from 140 countries.
