What: UNWTO & ATM Industry Forum, Future of Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa: Ensuring sustainable growth in challenging times,
When: Monday, 30 April 2012 (15.00)
Where: Arabian Travel Market, Al Multaqua Ballroom, Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Tourism ministers and travel industry leaders from across the Middle East will meet at the UNWTO & Arabian Travel Market Industry Forum in a first-of-its-kind event to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing tourism in region the years ahead.
Topics on the agenda include how to sustain and boost tourism demand, foster employment and future plans for investment in infrastructure around the Middle East. The forum is to be moderated by John Andrews, a consultant editor for The Economist and one of its most experienced foreign correspondents.
The event will be opened by UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai and by Reed Travel Exhibitions Managing Director, Reed Richard Mortimore.
Confirmed public sector speakers the UNWTO & Arabian Travel Market Industry Forum, entitled The Future of Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa: Ensuring sustainable growth in challenging times, include:
· His Excellency Mr. Mounir Abdel Nour, Minister of Tourism, Egypt
· His Excellency Mr. Nayef H. Al-Fayez, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Jordan
· His Excellency Mr. Ahmed bin Nasser bin Hamad Al Mehrzi, Minister of Tourism, Oman
· His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Abdulla Al-Nuaimi, Qatar
Alongside tourism ministers from across the region, chief executives of major companies will also take part in the forum. Among those joining ministers will be Mohammed Rashed, Chief Executive Officer, Hotel and Tourism Sector of the Al Kharafi Group; Gerald Lawless, Executive Chairman of the Jumeirah Group Dubai as well as Frederic Bardin, Senior Vice President of Emirates Holidays.
The forum, which takes place on Monday 30th April 2012 at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, is a sister event to the successful UNWTO & World Travel Market Ministers’ Summit, which has been run for the past five years. The Ministers’ Summit regularly attracts up to 100 tourism ministers and aides to London to discuss the most important issues affecting the tourism sector around the world.
