Danielle Curtis:
Hi, I’m Danielle Curtis, the exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market.

Breaking Travel News:
Danielle, thank you so much for giving breaking travel news some time here at ATM. Congratulations. We’re wrapping day one. What an incredible achievement.

Danielle Curtis:
Amazing achievement. The team have done such an exceptional job over the last 12 months to really gather the industry here today. It’s our 30th year in, in operation, and honestly, what a bang. It’s so fantastic to see the travel, trade together today. And if today is any sign of what’s to come in the next three days you know, we are, we are heading for a successful event.

Breaking Travel News:
You can really feel the buzz in the air and every conversation we’ve had, everyone is, as you said, so excited to be back here in person. Give us a few numbers?

Danielle Curtis:
Well, actually I can give some hot off the press numbers. And like I say, the industry’s here with a bang. At the moment, about 80% up from last year if we are talking about 2019, which everyone wants to talk about pre pandemic levels we’re already up in registrations 19% from 2019. So it’s fantastic to see, really good to see the industry you know, back together again, reconnecting for those all important business connections that they’re here to achieve.

Breaking Travel News:
So give us a flavour of the key themes of this year’s show?

Danielle Curtis:
So this year for our 30th anniversary, it’s all about net zero. So we are working towards net zero this year as an event. You know, we’re, we are really wanting to strive to be a more sustainable event, and it’s in line with our own Reed exhibition, global Pledges, to reach and achieve net zero by 2040. So there’s a lot of initiatives that we have on the show floor. We’ve worked very closely with Dubai World Trade Centre, our venue as you know in reducing the carbon footprint at this year’s event.

Breaking Travel News:
And you’ve also had some really interesting kind of new innovations for the show as well this year?

Danielle Curtis:
Yeah, this year a lot of, a lot of new actually. And in line with our theme, we have the sustainability hub. You can, you can find the bite size learning, the experts, the new, sustainable, innovative solutions that that will be on display and great sharing of best practice. So we also this year had the best sustainable stand awards. Fantastic. Actually, the industry’s really engaged with it. We have 23 submissions from our exhibitors. So it’s really the judges are looking for all things sustainable. And given the fact that it’s year one, you can really see some amazing content on the stands re really the industry is looking to, to kind of reduce their own impacts when exhibiting at ATM.

Breaking Travel News:
And it’s your 30th anniversary. Congratulations on that. Perhaps just looking backwards for a minute, and over those 30 years and really thinking about this market itself, what have you seen as being the real shift in changes over that period?

Danielle Curtis:
Well, that’s a loaded question, isn’t it? But yes, if you look over the last three decades we inaugurated in 1994, I think our first ATM had 7,000 attendees from 52 countries this year, actually, if you fast forward three years, we have over 2,100 exhibitors. We’re expecting over 34,000 attendees and from 150 countries. So, you know, a lot’s happened in the industry, and if you really look at Dubai and the UAE as the connectivity, how ATM’s grown alongside that. So you, you can certainly see the new destinations that have been popping up. LATAM is participating this year, some of the new destinations, the Caribbean, and across all of the key sectors of the show, you can see a growth this year. So it’s fantastic. And what’s even more amazing is the return of the private sector. This year we’ve had like 54% increase in our travel tech product that’s on the show floor hotels back or the global brands. You can see them on the show with a 35% increase. So all in all, fantastic event, and it’s really good to see the industry so alive again. It’s been, it’s been a challenging three years, but it’s certainly doesn’t appear that way here today.

Breaking Travel News:
So end of day one, what have we got left in store for us throughout the rest of the show?

Danielle Curtis:
So we’ve, we’ve got a lot going on. We’ve got our ATM startup competition in partnership with plug and Play. You’ll see seven entrepreneurs with their sustainability travel tech solutions. They’ll go head to head. Of course, you have many of the ministerial debates going on the global stage really tackling that key subject of climate crisis, that, that’s really important. A lot going on.

Breaking Travel News:
I think the way that you’ve blended the classic exhibition experience with the learning and thought leadership experience is really commendable.

Danielle Curtis:
Yes, thank you for that. You know, we really look to the industry experts, to global industry experts to come down to atm. It’s about raising that bar and obviously talking about topical key points in the industry, how the future of the industry is, is shaping up. And we like to, to make sure that we are covering the content surrounding that. So yeah, it’s fantastic all round.

Breaking Travel News:
Perhaps take a moment tell us a little bit about sort of what’s next, what’s coming up after Arabian travel market?

Danielle Curtis:
Well, I personally will be taking a holiday down under, so I’ll be off to Australia. But I mean, even if you look at the travel industry at large, there’s so many hot destinations to be travelling to. The world’s opened up again and just seeing all of those numbers come to fruition and destinations coming back to pre-pandemic levels is just phenomenal. It’s great. Very positive all around. There is the demand , activities are on the rise. So what’s next for ATM? We, we start all over again as of Friday. But, you know, watch this space…

Breaking Travel News:
Huge congrats for day one. It’s been an amazing experience so far. Looking forward to the rest of it. And thanks for taking time to talk to us today.