Luxury travel show ILTM Arabia to launch at ATM

International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) Arabia is set to take place on the first two days of the four-day ATM (April 24-25) located in Hall 1 of the Dubai World Trade Centre. ILTM Arabia will target high net-worth travellers from throughout the GCC and wider Middle East region, with buyers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar expected to have a particularly strong presence.
Expenditure on outbound travel from the Middle East is expected to reach $165.3 billion by 2025, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Highlighting the buoyant outbound travel market, another report, issued by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (2015 Tourism Highlights), which includes research teams from Frost & Sullivan and Insights Middle East, revealed a 9 per cent growth in the number of outbound travellers from the region in 2015, while the total estimated value of outbound travellers from the GCC in 2014 was $64 billion.
Alison Gilmore, Portfolio Director for ILTM, said: “The Arabian outbound market is established and affluent, with a growing generation of individuals looking to spend their leisure time in the world’s finest places. This year we are inviting some of our closest partners to experience the new ILTM Arabia and explore the increasing business opportunities from the region’s highest net worth travellers.”
Simon Press, Senior Exhibition Director, Arabian Travel Market, commented: “Although low oil prices and sluggish economic growth at home might be stifling business confidence, the strength of the US dollar of which many of the GCC currencies are pegged to, means travelling overseas is invariably better value than it was in the past. The UAE for example witnessed a 19% increase in outbound trips to Europe in 2013-2015.”