HH Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed opens biggest-ever Arabian Travel Market

Accompanied by Tom Nutley, Chairman of Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), HH Sheikh Abdullah toured the show for over two hours accompanied by HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President, Department of Civil Aviation, Government of Dubai and Chairman of the Emirates Group and Khalid bin Sulayem, Director General, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.

HH Sheikh Abdullah stopped at a host of national pavilions, including most of the country displays from the Middle East. He was also on hand to witness the unveiling of the latest project to come out of Dubai by Al Nakheel - a group of off-shore islands taking the shape of the world.

At Arabian Travel Market's first Saudi Arabian pavilion, HH Sheikh Abdullah was welcomed by Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Secretary General of the Kingdom's Supreme Commission for Tourism. At the Kuwait pavilion, HH sat and chatted for a short while with Mrs Nabila Al Anjaari, the country's Assistant Undersecretary for Tourism.

At the Emirates airline stand - designed as a replica of the new Airbus A380 - HH toured the multi-storey aircraft in the company of Sheikh Ahmed.

Some 783 exhibitors from 55 countries are exhibiting at Arabian Travel Market 2003 - 60 of them are brand new to the show. Pavilions new to the show this year are Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

The show is 10% larger than last year and Tom Nutley revealed it is the fastest-growing of 13 worldwide events organised by RTE and the second largest in the portfolio.

"This growth has been spurred by the huge regionwide development of the tourism infrastructure and also the fact that outbound destinations are all keen to win a share of the lucrative business coming out of the Middle East, particularly the Gulf," said Nutley.

Arabian Travel Market 2003 is open to trade visitors only today and on Thursday morning. On Thursday and Friday evenings, the show will also be open to the public.