World Travel & Tourism Council and Arabian Travel Market to bring heightened International Tourism Industry focus to the gulf with joint marketing deal

Arabian Travel Market (ATM) – the Middle East's premier Travel & Tourism trade show – and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) – have joined forces to jointly market their events planned for May this year in the Arabian Gulf.

WTTC is staging its 4 th Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Doha, Qatar from May 1-3, 2004 , just days before the opening of the Arabian Travel Market at the Dubai World Trade Centre, United Arab Emirates from May 4-7.

"The synergy between these events is extensive," said Matt Thompson, Group Exhibition Director, Overseas Events, Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE), which organises Arabian Travel Market.

"The Summit is the highest-level meeting in the international Travel & Tourism calendar and together with Arabian Travel Market, we will ensure the eyes of the global industry are firmly focussed on the Gulf in May."

The 4th Global Travel & Tourism Summit will be attended by the Chairmen and CEOs of the world's top Travel & Tourism companies, over a hundred of the world's leading travel and business journalists and numerous government officials. The Summit will be held at the Sheraton Doha and will discuss the future of the industry in a series of highly interactive panel discussions. The programme will also include a golf tournament, which will be open to all delegates, a gala dinner and a spouses' programme.

Confirmed speakers due to address the Summit , which is themed ‘Driving Change' include: Stelios Haji-Ioannou of Easy Group; Lalit Suri MP, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Hotels; Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, Edouard Ettedgui, Group CEO of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Dr Michael Frenzel, Chairman of TUI AG and several others of similar standing.

Many of the Summit 's speakers and delegates are expected to travel on to Dubai for Arabian Travel Market 2004, which currently has contracted exhibitors from 36 countries, including 31 official destination promotion authorities.

Now in its 11 th year, Arabian Travel Market is set to be the largest yet with new-to-market exhibitors and increased participation from key traditional participants.

"The joint promotion with Arabian Travel Market means the Summit will now reach the 40,000 travel trade delegates Reed Travel Exhibitions is targeting in the show's direct mail campaign," explained David Tarsh of WTTC. "It will also feature in the ATM's extensive e-marketing campaign and on its website. Conversely ATM will feature in WTTC's promotion and the cross-marketing should encourage more senior travel trade professionals than ever to make the trip to the Gulf this May."

BBC World has recently been appointed the Global Broadcast Sponsor for the 4th Global Travel & Tourism Summit.

ABOUT THE ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET ORGANISER:
RTE, which is part of Reed Exhibitions (RX) organises 13 events worldwide, including World Travel Market, Arabian Travel Market, C.I.S. Travel Market, EIBTM, LACIME in Brazil , British Travel Trade Fair, the International Luxury Travel Market, La Cumbre, International Golf Travel Market, Mediterranean Travel Fair, Top Resa, AIME and ICCA Exhibition, in association with ICCA Congress.

RX is the world leader in creating high profile, targeted industry events where buyers and suppliers come together to do business. Each year, RX events bring together 156,000 suppliers and over nine million buyers from around the world. Today, RX events are held in 19 countries throughout the Americas , Europe , the Middle East , Africa and Asia/Pacific and are organised by 30 fully-staffed offices.

The RX portfolio of over 440 events services 49 industries in 12 key sectors. As a member of the Reed Elsevier Plc Group, a world-leading business and information provider, RX offers integrated market access programmes covering exhibitions, trade publications, direct marketing and the Internet.

For more information on Arabian Travel Market: Barbara Saunders/Nathalie Visele, MCS/Action, PO Box 20970 , Dubai , United Arab Emirates . Tel: +971 4 390 2961; fax: +9714 390 8161. Email: barbara@mcsaction.com or nathalie@mcsaction.com or visit the show online at: http://travel.reedexpo.com