Travel and tourism exhibition in Dubai set to welcome 20,000 visitors
▶ Expo 2020 Dubai and continued rebound of the emirate’s tourism industry led to increased air traffic
Mapping out the future of travel will be among the topics discussed at the Arabian Travel Market, which opens today at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
The event will offer an insight into tourism industry trends in the Middle East that will shape the year ahead.
More than 1,500 companies are taking part in the four-day exhibition that will welcome about 20,000 visitors.
A total of 112 countries aiming to revive their tourist numbers will take part.
The soaring price of oil and the effects of the war in Ukraine are tempering the travel industry’s resurgence from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Arabian Travel Market 2022 will highlight the importance of the travel industry as we continue to address the challenges of Covid-19, while also outlining how we drive the industry forward,” said exhibition director Danielle Curtis.
During a busy conference programme, industry leaders will discuss trends in technology, transport, sustainability, events and business.
The opening session will feature a discussion on this year’s theme of “The future of international travel and tourism”, with speakers including Issam Kazim of Dubai Department for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, and Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics.
Andrew McEvoy, managing director of tourism at Neom, will outline the vision and strategy for Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion futuristic mega-city.
Zeina Dagher, chief executive of Emaar Entertainment, will give her view on the future of visitor attractions.
Fifteen travel, tourism and hospitality start-ups will pitch for $500,000 of funding as part of the inaugural ATM Draper-Aladdin Start-up competition. The winner will have the chance to compete for a further $500,000 of funding on US reality TV show Meet the Drapers.
The conference will use new technology that will eliminate the need for business cards and allow exhibitors and visitors to share details, brochures and marketing material using scanners and badges.
The in-person event will be followed by the third instalment of Arabian Travel Market Virtual, which will take place from May 17 to 18.
Low-cost airline flydubai carried 2.35 million passengers in the first quarter of this year, up 114 per cent compared with the same period last year.
The surge in passenger traffic came as the travel industry continues to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have continued our growth in 2022 capitalising on the tremendous results we reported for 2021,” Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive of flydubai, said yesterday.
“We have seen the number of passengers carried in the first quarter of this year more than double compared to the previous couple of years as we welcomed the world during Expo Dubai 2020, connected underserved markets to Dubai and added more frequencies around the network.”
Dubai successfully concluded Expo 2020 at the end of March with 24 million visitors in six months, Issam Kazim, chief executive of DTCM said last month. The emirate hosted 2.2 million visitors in the first two months of this year, he said.
Air passenger traffic showed a strong rebound in February, as the Omicron-related impact receded outside Asia, said the International Air Transport Association.
Passenger traffic in February grew nearly 116 per cent annually and was up almost 55 per cent compared with February 2019 levels, Iata said in its Air Passenger Market Analysis report last month. The conflict in Ukraine, which began on February 24, had only a limited effect on air travel demand during the month, it said. Passenger traffic also grew compared with the previous month.
Flydubai operated 19,000 flights in the first three months of this year as governments eased movement restrictions and the travel industry rebounded. Demand for connecting traffic also jumped during the period, with 43 per cent of passengers connecting to the carrier’s network, compared with 28 per cent in the same period last year. Business-class travel also increased in the first quarter.
“Our strong business model, supported by our ongoing recruitment drive to grow our workforce in parallel with the scheduled aircraft deliveries this year, will see that we are well-placed to accommodate the surge in demand as more people get ready to travel again over the summer,” Mr Al Ghaith said.
Flydubai has taken delivery of four new aircraft this year, expanding its fleet of Boeing 737s to 63 planes. The airline is expected to take delivery of 18 more aircraft over the next few months.
Flydubai, which is the sister airline of Emirates, has expanded its network to more than 100 destinations across Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Central and South-East Europe, the GCC, Middle East and Indian subcontinent. Flydubai has already exceeded the number of destinations it operated before the pandemic.
It relaunched flights to Yanbu in Saudi Arabia in February and added AlUla and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen to its network in March.
It is also planning to start flights to several new destinations, including Pisa in Italy and Izmir in Turkey, starting this summer.
Flydubai swung to profit last year, as passenger numbers grew on the back of easing of travel restrictions and improving economic conditions worldwide.
The airline posted a profit of Dh841 million ($229m) last year, as opposed to a loss of Dh712.6m in the preceding year, when travel industry was hit hard by the pandemic.
Flydubai’s revenue grew 86 per cent to Dh5.3 billion last year as passenger numbers rose 76 per cent to 5.6 million.