ATM’s responsible stance

THE Arabian Travel Market (ATM) celebrated the 25th staging of the event at The Dubai World Trade Centre.

His Highness Sheik Maktoum and his accompanying delegation opened an event that attracted over 2,500 exhibitors and an estimated 40,000 visitors.

With a global spotlight on sustainability, ATM adopted Responsible Tourism as its official theme as the Gulf countries seek to diversify their tourism offerings.

The Middle East and North Africa regions can point to one of the world’s largest tourism and hotel development ‘pipelines’: the UAE currently has 194 projects, and 55,264 rooms in the construction phase.

Simon Press, ATM’s Exhibition Director said: “In a region renowned for some of the world’s tallest hotels, buildings, theme parks and infrastructure, responsible tourism is not just about a carbon footprint it’s multidimensional, taking in resource efficiency, environmental protection, climate change and preserving cultures while opening new areas to tourism to bring economic development to local communities.”