The Business Travel Show Middle East has confirmed the 2011 show dates as being the 31st October-1st November, at the Madinat Arena in Dubai.

Once again the event will be bringing together corporate travel managers, buyers and bookers from across the Emirates and the wider G.C.C.

Event Director, Paul Grinnall said: “The 2010 event has proved to be a watershed in the show’s recent history. Close consultation with the event stakeholders including exhibitors, visitors, media and trade associations, revealed a real thirst for a dedicated business travel event, but also more from us as organisers. More corporate attendees, more airlines and hotels exhibiting, more variety of education sessions and a wider geography of attendees.”

Grinnall added, “Whilst there is no resting on our laurels for subsequent events, starting with 2011, the anecdotal evidence from participants is that we delivered a positive Show - and are well positioned to continue this growth now”.

Independent audience statistics show that the attendance grew by 10.5% since the previous show to 2339 individuals and that the number of corporates attending also grew significantly.

The show audit highlighted the quality of attendees: 26% of the audience had travel budgets in excess of $1 million with the majority of visitors (72%) having a travel policy. Furthermore 45% of these visitors reported they will be reviewing this policy over the next six months, so the objective of delivering a high spending, quality business travel audience would appear to have been met. The visitation from the G.C.C. also showed an increase with buyers attending from Bahrain, KSA and Qatar, justifying the show’s claim to be serving the Middle East market in full.

Commenting on these figures, Grinnall continued: “The audience figures are particularly pleasing as it justifies the significant investment we have made, and will continue to make, in the show. The Hosted Buyer Programme, together with the free education conference were two significant investments that have reaped rewards by bringing in buyers with significant budgets for our exhibitors - and these initiatives as well as brand new developments, will continue to be the subject for much more investment from us”.

Grinnall further asserted, ‘Our commitment to the market is to deliver high spending, policy forming and decision making travel managers, buyers and bookers. Quality corporate Travel Managers came from across the G.C.C., the 2010 event was good, from there we build on this success and I am very confident that the 2011 Show will be even better.’