Arabian Travel Mart to start in Dubai

Shirajiv Sirimane

The Arabian Travel Mart, one of the largest travel and consumer fairs in Asia will be held from May 6 to 9 in Dubai. Sri Lankan participation has seen a steady increase in recent years and this year too nearly 30 companies would participate.

Deputy Minister of Tourism Faiser Mustafa who leads the local delegation said that the Gulf market has shown a 30 per cent increase in arrivals and attributed it to marketing done at the last two ATM events.

"This is a very healthy sign as their spending power is very high. Due to this we are also opening a regional office in Dubai," he said.

The Japanese are the highest spenders averaging around 116 US dollars per day while Gulf and European tourists average spending per day is US $ 90 and 80 respectively.

Due to the promotions the Gulf, public who only knew about Sri Lankan tea and HR is now seriously looking at the local tourism.

The contract SLT signed with Al Jazeera television would also help to promote Sri Lanka as a destination in the Gulf.

In addition to tapping the tourist arrivals the Gulf is also opening up employment opportunities for rural unskilled youth in the their hotel sector.

"Already over 300 youth without previous hotel experience had found employment in the Gulf," he said. The Arabian Travel Mart was launched in 1994, and the 2007 event welcomed over 23,000 travel industry professionals from 108 countries to its 14th event.

The Arabian Travel Market is part of the Reed Travel Exhibitions' portfolio, which includes 15 of the world's leading travel industry events.

Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest organiser of exhibitions and conferences, brings together over 90,000 suppliers and more than 5.5 million buyers from around the world every year generating billions of dollars in business.