Sharjah announces its participation in the World Travel Fair (WTF) in Shanghai

This year Sharjah's participation will include a number of senior representatives from the emirate, including the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA), Sharjah Airport Travel Agency (SATA),Hotel Holiday International, Coral Beach Resort, Radisson SAS Resort, Millennium Hotel, and Embassy Suites Hotel.

The director of the SCTDA, Mr. Mohamed Al Noman, will head the Sharjah delegation to WTF 2006 in what will be their 2nd participation at this important international tourism event which has been designed to target China's tourism market. Akin to the emirate's involvement in the Beijing International Exhibition (Travel and Tourism / BITT 2005), their participation this year also has the end goal of improving the tourism industry of Sharjah.

Speaking on their involvement in the exhibition, Mr. Mohamed Ali Noman, director of the SCTDA, said:

"Our participation in this international tourism exhibition comes to ensure the great importance of the Chinese tourism market to our emirate. Their nation exports more than 20 million tourists yearly and it is expected that the size of this market will exceed 100 million tourists by 2020."

"The trade and tourism marketing operations should compliment the demand from the sector. The tourism sector in the Emirate of Sharjah has witnessed fast and continuous improvements in its infrastructure and service sector and this has gone a long way to improving investments into our hotel sector, the trade services and various other aspects of our tourism industry." He added.

He ended by saying: "We hope that our participation in this exhibition will help to attract more tourists as we believe that China holds the most promising new travel market in the world. More than 11 thousand Chinese tourists visited the Emirate of Sharjah in 2005 and our involvement this year will be sure to increase the number of Chinese tourists to the Emirate in years to come."

This year, the SCTDA intend to showcase extraordinary and eye-catching designs that will display graphics of the city on a space of 77 square meters. In addition to providing many authentic Arabian heritage activities, they will also distribute promotional materials featuring the main attractions of Sharjah, as well as providing accurate news and information about the Emirate of Sharjah in both English and Chinese.

The World Travel Fair (WTF) Travel & Tourism Exhibition is one of the largest exhibitions that specialize in the tourism and travel sector, which to date has attracted more than 331 exhibitors from 47 countries in 2005, on an area that covered up to 15 thousand square meter and accommodated more than 50 thousand visitors.

Since the start of the year, the SCTDA have been engaging in a variety of activities via their involvement with many international exhibitions that specialize in the tourism and travel sector, under promotional campaigns that intend to promote the Emirate of Sharjah as the best emirate for tourism in the region, with the end goal of enhancing their position on the world tourism map.

Their previous international engagement was at the Moscow International Exhibition (Travel and Tourism / MITT 2006), a successful event which gathered experts from the travel industry from all over the world and attracted thousands of visitors.