DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 17th May, 2021) 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 28th edition of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Exhibition 2021, held in Dubai under the theme, "Reuniting the Travel Trade Industry."
In his opening speech, Al Falasi highlighted the need to build strong partnerships between various markets and tourism destinations in the region and the rest of the world to open safe passages for travel, facilitate procedures and ease entry restrictions for some countries, to ensure the sector’s speedy recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Since the start of the crisis, the UAE has registered remarkable achievements in terms of creating 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 travellers, he stressed.
"The UAE’s tourism sector was affected as much as other countries by this crisis. However, due to the directives and vision of our leadership, we were able to overcome these challenges and accelerate the sector’s pace of recovery and growth by adopting a wide array of measures, most notably the introduction of economic stimulus packages at Federal and local levels, which helped alleviate the effects of the crisis on the national tourism sector," Al Falasi said.
"Despite the challenges, the UAE witnessed exceptional tourism activity over the past year, when it launched its unified tourism identity and ran the ‘World’s Coolest Winter’ campaign to stimulate domestic tourism, enabling our hotel establishments to generate revenues exceeding AED4.5 billion in 2020," he added.
The proactive measures adopted by all tourism establishments yielded positive results and enabled the UAE to achieve better outcomes compared to other major international tourism destinations, he further added, noting that during the first quarter of 2021, hotel establishments recorded an occupancy rate of 63 percent and witnessed a 34 percent growth in the number of guests in March 2021 compared to March 2020.
Al Falasi then explained that World Tourism Organisation’s statistics proved that the UAE’s tourism sector was the least affected in the region and the rest of the world, as the decline in the number of hotel guests coming from abroad, was the lowest globally, enabling hotel establishments to maintain a high occupancy rate of 54.7 percent during this period compared to the global average of under 37 percent.
At the end of his speech, Al Falasi called on tourism authorities from around the world and on the Arab Travel Market platform to revitalise international tourism and continue supporting the sector, due to its great potential and key role in achieving the full economic recovery of global markets from the pandemic.
While touring the exhibition, Al Falasi visited the pavilions of the tourism departments of the country’s various emirates and was briefed on their packages, activities and tourism events aimed at attracting visitors, as well as on their efforts to ensure the sector’s recovery. He also visited several pavilions of other participating countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain.
The ATM’s current edition is being held in a hybrid format featuring an in-person event at the Dubai World Trade Centre that will run from 16th to 19th May, followed by a virtual event that will take place a week after the main event from 24th to 26th May, 2021, comprising several virtual sessions and meetings.
