Arabian Travel Market bolsters Mid East management

Brought in to head up the company's regional office, Nadège will manage Arabian Travel Market's extensive sales and marketing requirements throughout the Arab world, as well as co-ordinating all international requests with the UK-based Reed Travel Exhibitions' head office team.

"With Arabian Travel Market now in its 16th year and with the regional office firmly established, we wanted a person that is capable of not only managing the day-to-day operations and a dedicated sales and administration team but also to provide the continued support and relationship development of our partners and clients throughout the MENA countries,"

said Simon Press, Exhibition Director, Arabian Travel Market.

"Having been based in the Middle East for the last 15 years, Nadège has accrued a wealth of extensive travel industry experience, covering event management, sales, account management, marketing and public relations. We firmly believe that she is ideally positioned to tap into this impressive knowledge pool to identify and capitalise on new business avenues that will allow us to continue developing Arabian Travel Market as the region's must-attend business show for the travel & tourism sectors." he added

Nadège joins Reed Travel Exhibitions from Marketing Pro-Junction, a Dubai-based multi-disciplined PR & Marketing company, where she held the position of Assistant General Manager. Prior to this, Noblet undertook a variety of roles including Assistant Director of Communications & PR at Coral International Hotels, Resorts & Spa - a quality-driven 5-star brand boasting a portfolio of 10 Middle East properties - and Senior Sales & Marketing Executive at the region's first eco-tourism hotel, the Emirates Group's Al Maha Desert Resort.

The 15th edition of Arabian Travel Market - which ran at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre (DIECC) from the 4-9th May - closed on a high with its most impressive showing to date.

The number of registered quality visitors was up more than 15% on 2007, and the event boasted its largest ever exhibitor base - with more than 2,200 representatives from 70 countries attending to promote their offerings to an increasingly affluent Middle Eastern customer base.

In addition, close to 90 new-to-market exhibitors signed up for the 2008 outing, with more than 62 national tourist bodies taking space, including show debutants Bangladesh, the Philippines, Djibouti, Georgia, Senegal and Nepal.

And, further flexing its business credentials, organisers of the show expanded its Hosted Buyer Programme for 2008 to bring in 119 top international, first time buyers up from 100 in 2007.

Targeting specialists from the leisure and golf segment and meetings sector, the programme offered the region's travel and tourism industry a unique opportunity to meet the right partners in a convenient one-stop-shop setting.

"An extremely promising aspect of the 2008 outing was the positive increase in the quality of visitor coming through the show's doors. With considerable purchasing power, these visitors had the authority to sign deals on the spot, reiterating the importance buyers place on the region as a key tourism market. We hope that Nadège will be able to use her knowledge to further increase this over the coming years," added Press.

Arabian Travel Market is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.