TDIM receives strong endorsement from Dubai's tourism authority

TDIM will take place January 20 to 22, 2008 at the Dubai International Exhibition & Convention Centre and will focus on strengthening investment flows, resources and expertise into tourism development in the UAE and elsewhere in the region.

The event is being organized by Reed Exhibitions to provide an ideal marketing platform for the region's tourism destinations. It will also offer operators of globally-known tourism landmarks, networking opportunities to support their expansion plans within the region.

Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem, Director General of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), said: "TDIM provides an opportunity to address the challenges of boosting investment flows and know-how into the region's tourism sector. As the principal authority for the planning, supervision and development of the tourism sector in Dubai, the DTCM seeks to bring about continuous improvements in our promotion efforts and standards of hospitality. We believe that TDIM will help us in fulfilling this by offering an ideal platform to network and interact with major players in the tourism sector as well as other sectors that complement tourism growth."

Frederic Theux, President, Reed Exhibitions Middle East, said DTCM had a clear understanding of the vital issues concerning the tourism sector.

"The feedback from the industry since we announced the launch of TDIM has been excellent and major players from the UAE as well as from the rest of the MENA region have confirmed their participation at the show. This is an apt reflection of the impressive investment commitments that MENA countries have been making in tourism-related projects."

TDIM is likely to take up more than 15,000 square metres of exhibit space at the Dubai International Exhibition & Convention Centre, he added.

A recent market survey conducted by Reed Exhibitions in preparation for TDIM shows that AED 1 trillion has been committed to tourism-related projects in the GCC, expected to be completed by 2018. Of this, the UAE accounts for AED 858 billion or 85 percent of the total tourism project investments in the GCC.

Oman, with AED 61 billion in tourism project investments, and Qatar, with AED 31.1 billion, occupy the second and third slots among GCC countries. Bahrain (AED 20.77 billion), Saudi Arabia (16.44 billion) and Kuwait (12.67 billion) have also managed to attract significant investments into tourism project development. The figures exclude infrastructure costs such as power plants and transport networks.

Reed's survey has also shown that the UAE tops the GCC in terms of land area occupied by tourism projects. It has an area of 558 million square meters under development for tourism projects accounting for more than 75 percent of the combined land area under development for tourism in the GCC.