Al Falasi Attends Opening Ceremony Of Arabian Travel Market 2021

H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Chairman of the UAE Tourism Council, attended the opening ceremony of the 28^th edition of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) exhibition – ATM 2021 – which is being held in Dubai under the theme ‘Reuniting the travel trade industry.’

In his opening speech, H.E. underlined the need to build strong partnerships between various markets and tourism destinations in the region and the world to open safer passages for travel, facilitate procedures and ease entry restrictions for some countries, as it is a key pillar for the sector’s speedy recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.He pointed out that since the beginning of the crisis, the UAE has accomplished remarkable achievements in providing several safe passages with the help of its national carrier, while remaining fully committed to following the best health and safety standards to ensure the well-being of its travellers.

H.E. Al Falasi said: “The UAE’s tourism sector was affected just as much as other countries’ were by this crisis. However, thanks to the directives of our wise leadership and its forward-looking vision, we were able to overcome these challenges and accelerate the pace of recovery and growth in the sector. This was achieved through the adoption of a wide array of measures, most notably the introduction of economic stimulus packages at the federal and local levels, which had a tangible positive impact in alleviating the crisis on the country’s tourism sector.”

H.E. added: “Despite the challenges, the UAE witnessed exceptional tourism activity during the past year, as it launched its unified tourism identity and ran the ‘World’s Coolest Winter’ campaign to stimulate domestic tourism. This enabled our hotel establishments to generate revenues exceeding AED 4.5 billion during 2020.” He pointed out that the proactive measures adopted by all tourism establishments yielded positive results and allowed the UAE to achieve better results compared to other major global tourism destinations.He noted that during the first quarter of 2021, the hotel establishments managed to achieve an occupancy rate of 63 per cent and witnessed a 34 per cent growth in the number of guests in March 2021 compared to March 2020.

H.E. Al Falasi explained that the World Tourism Organization data proved that the UAE’s tourism sector was the least affected in the region and the world, as the drop in its number of hotel guests coming from abroad was the least globally.  As a result, these establishments maintained a high occupancy rate of 54.7 per cent during this period compared to the global average occupancy that did not exceed 37 per cent.

At the end of his speech, H.E. called on tourism authorities around the world and through the Arab Travel Market platform, for concerted global efforts to support and revitalize tourism at the global level. He urged them to continue to support the sector due to its great potential and important role in driving the full economic recovery of global markets from the pandemic’s impact during the coming period.

During his tour of the ATM exhibition, Al Falasi visited the pavilions of the tourism departments from various emirates of the country. He was briefed on packages, activities and tourism events offered by each emirate to attract visitors and discussed the efforts made by these departments to enable the recovery of the sector with their officials. He was also briefed on the ideas it provides during their participation in this session. In addition, he visited a number of pavilions of the other participating countries, including those of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain.

The current edition of ATM is being held in a hybrid format, which includes an in-person event at Dubai World Trade Center, which runs from 16 to 19 May. This will be followed by a virtual event that will take place a week after the main event, from 24 to 26 May 2021, featuring several virtual sessions and meetings.