One of the Middle East’s annual big-ticket industry events, the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), takes place this week in Dubai, while the UAE continues to attract visitors from around the world. Just this year, Dubai was ranked first in the Top 100 City Destinations Index 2023 by Euromonitor International.
This comes against a backdrop of the world recovering from Covid-19, high inflation rates affecting travel, and turmoil in the region. Although the global travel market continues to recover, few can doubt that the dark clouds that have hovered over the Middle East since the Israel-Gaza war broke out in October of last year have taken a toll on tourism and business travel alike in countries like Egypt and Jordan.
Gathering the industry’s stakeholders to work through some of its challenges, however, is part of what the ATM is about. This year, the number of exhibitors is up to 2,300, and they will attend a range of panel discussions about subjects such as strengthening the sector’s…