Optical Middle East organisers anticipating strong visitor response from Saudi Arabia

Airline staff have reported that flights from Saudi to Dubai during the days preceding the exhibition are heavily booked and seats are hard to find.

World of Events UAE, the DWTC's appointed events support company, says that inquiries in general about the Optical Middle East exhibition are up significantly as compared to the previous edition.

Gulf Air reports that flights from Riyadh to Dubai between February 9-14 in both economy and business class are booked solid. While there are still spaces available between Jeddah and Dubai, some dates are not available. Meanwhile, Emirates reported that there is only one seat available in economy class and first class is fully booked between Jeddah and Dubai February 13, but there is still space on the ll and 12. However, according to Biuba Alhatmy a senior staff member with Emirates, there are no seats available for flights from Riyadh to Dubai on February 11, 13 and 14.

"Optical Middle East has always attracted significant interest from optical and ophthalmic specialists throughout the GCC region. The international scope of the event, which is stronger than ever this year with more than one-third of exhibitors from Europe present, is a definite attraction. This year we are anticipating a particularly strong presence from Saudi Arabia because we know travel to some of the major international optical fairs held in the fall was limited due to world events," said Jackie Reed, International Project Manager for Optical Middle East.

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