Top expo showcase for tourism sector

BAHRAIN will be showcasing its tourism strategy for 2022-2026 at a major regional travel and tourism event over the next two weeks.

The Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2022 exhibition will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre in a hybrid format, in-person from tomorrow until Thursday and then virtually from May 17-18, with the focus on ‘The future of international travel and tourism’.

The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) will also seek to explore more opportunities for the kingdom’s tourism sector, to accelerate its recovery from the effects of the pandemic, and to increase its competitiveness.

“The BTEA is participating in this international exhibition with a special pavilion that includes Gulf Air as well as 19 of Bahrain’s leading tourism facilities such as hotels, resorts and tour operators with the aim of establishing a distinguished presence among 111 countries participating in the event,” said a statement yesterday.

The pavilion is expected to draw a big crowd of more than 20,000 visitors, in addition to examining the potential for co-operation and partnership between Bahraini participants and almost 1,500 exhibitors.

The national airline’s participation in the Bahraini pavilion seeks to reaffirm its leading position among regional and worldwide airlines by showcasing its services to exhibition visitors and participating companies, as well as its expansion plans and development strategies.

“The presence of such a significant number of Bahraini tourism facilities at the exhibition will give visitors from the region and other countries an idea of the integration and harmony of the diverse components of the kingdom’s tourism industry, such as airlines, reservation offices, tour operators, hotels, resorts, restaurants, and others facilities,” said BTEA deputy chief executive officer Fatima Al Sairafi who also stressed the significance of Bahrain’s participation to increase its competitiveness, as well as to showcase Bahrain’s tourism strategy 2022-2026.

“We will explore the current developments in the tourism sector including technology, transportation, sustainability and international events with tourism experts from across the world and how to take the industry forward, investing all of this in the tourism sector’s further recovery and growth,” she added.

ATM 2022 will include several events and seminars that run across four days and feature a variety of speakers from the travel industry to help visitors gain better insight into the latest industry trends.

This includes ATM Global Stage, Travel Tech, Influencer Speed Networking, ARIVALDubai@ATM Forum which features sessions covering digital, tech, distribution and more for operators of tours, activities, attractions and experiences.

This is in addition to the Draper-Aladdin Startup Competition, which gathers startups to compete for the Startup Hero title.

The inaugural ATM Draper-Aladdin Start-up Competition, which was launched earlier this year, will see 15 travel, tourism and hospitality start-ups pitch for $500,000 of funding and potentially a further $500,000 of investment as part of the hit TV show, Meet the Drapers.

Making their debut at the live show, ARIVALDubai@ATM forum and the Global Business Travel Association will focus on current and future trends for tour operators and attractions.

The leading event for the travel industry in the Middle East will also include in-depth buyer forums dedicated to India and Saudi Arabia, live interviews with aviation and hospitality experts and will feature the return of ILTM (International Luxury Travel Market) Arabia with its focus on the lucrative luxury travel market.

Capitalising on the growth of regional tourism investment, the ITIC-ATM Middle East Summit – hosted jointly by ATM and the International Tourism Investment Conference (ITIC) – will spotlight on access to project finance in the post-Covid era and include a high-profile ministerial session.

Building on the success of ATM’s hybrid approach during the global pandemic, this year’s in-person event will be followed by the third instalment of ATM Virtual, which will take place on May 17 and 18.

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1071525/Top-expo-showcase-for-tourism-sector