Mid East coveted outbound market say South Korea and Seychelles

Korea National Tourism Organisation (KNTO) and Seychelles Tourism Office, Dubai, are two of more than 50 national tourism bodies from across the world participating at next month's Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2005, the region's premier travel and tourism exhibition.

"The Middle East, and especially the GCC, is very important to our inbound sector because Gulf nationals are amongst the top spenders while on holiday," said Lee Chang-Yong, Director, KNTO, Dubai Regional Office.

"As a result of our participation at ATM 2004, we have seen a strong year-on-year increase of up to 5.8% in the number of GCC tourists visiting Korea, and the introduction of Emirates' daily flights from Dubai to Seoul which will be launched on May 1st, will further boost traffic between the two countries," he said.

"Theme parks, shopping and entertainment are the hottest holiday activities amongst the 48,000 Middle East tourists visiting Korea every year."

The Seychelles has also seen a dramatic increase in Middle East visitors, according to Nathalie Arora, Account Sales Manager, Seychelles Tourism Office.

"With the launch of Qatar Airways' direct flights to the Seychelles and a frequency increase in Emirates' scheduled flights, we expect to receive nearly 6,000 visitors from the region for the 2005-2006 season, which is a 45% improvement on last year," she said.

"At last year's ATM, we managed to create some basic awareness about our product and this year we will target the general public as well as travel agents and tour operators to aggressively position Seychelles as an ideal beach holiday destination, easily accessible to the Middle East."

Currently, exhibitors from 63 countries, including 56 national tourist boards, have confirmed their participation for ATM 2005, which runs from May 3-6 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

"Middle East residents are extremely discerning and destinations competing for a slice of this lucrative market need to continuously reinvent themselves in order to maintain their competitiveness and regularly participate at the region's most influential trade event," said Chris Chackal, Group Exhibition Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), the organiser of ATM.

"We look forward to welcoming again the tourism heads of the Republic of South Korea and Seychelles to ATM, which this year is going to be the biggest ever."

Reed Travel Exhibitions says it has already exceeded its target on the size of this year's ATM. Floor space now totals 15,936 sqm, the biggest in the event's history.

"At least 99 exhibitors will make their ATM debut introducing fresh products and services into the Middle East and further raising the number of new business opportunities for the show's visitors," said Chackal.

This year, entry fees from ATM's consumer session will be donated to the 'Just A Drop' charity to provide fresh water to communities ravaged by the December tsunami in Asia.

Arabian Travel Market 2005 is held under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister and under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.