Good mix of Thai exhibitors represented at Arabian Travel Market 2017

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Dubai: A contingent of 53 Thai hotels, tour operators, medical service institutes, and tourism related agencies attended the 24th Arabian Travel Market (ATM) during April, 24-27 2017, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
This year’s Thai pavilion was held under the theme concept, “Discover Amazing Stories through Local Experiences”. At the Thai pavilion, visitors enjoyed a demonstration of unique Thai Benjarong ceramics decoration and Khon Mask painting from Samut Songkhram province, as well as English and Arabic speaking officers providing Thai tourism information.
Attended by more than 40,000 senior members of the travel trade and media, the timing of the show is a perfect match for the outbound summer travel period from the Middle East and the inbound monsoon season in Thailand.
Thailand has been exhibiting at the ATM for 18 years and benefitted enormously from the business, networking and knowledge that the event produces.
The Thai contingent included 29 hotels, 7 travel agents, 2 medical service institutes, 5 tourism-related agencies and 10 tourism operators in Pattaya. This included only the companies exhibiting under the umbrella of the Thai pavilion. Many other multinational hotel chains were exhibited independently.
Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said, “We have a very good mix of exhibitors in terms of geographical distribution, ranging from the new Chiang Mai International Exhibition and Convention Centre (CMECC) in the North to the luxury boutique hotels of the South. It also caters to the different customer segments of the Middle East market, especially the family market. We are also happy to see many small and medium sized enterprises amongst the exhibitors.”
He also noted the presence of the Al Meroz Hotel, one of many new properties emerging in Thailand in support of the national strategy to boost the country’s profile as a Muslim-friendly destination.
In 2016, Thailand welcomed 32 million visitors. Of these, 671,202 visitors came from the Middle East. The UAE is the top source market with almost 177,700 visitors. Kuwait is the second largest source market with 67,600 visitors, followed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia with the number of 25,700 and 30,800, respectively.
Although the numbers are small, the Middle East market has a very high average length of stay and average daily expenditure. For example, in 2016 visitors from the UAE had an average length of stay (ALS) of 10 days and average spending of US$205. Visitors from Saudi Arabia had an ALS of 11 days, and average spending of US$203, and visitors from Kuwait had an ALS of 12 days, and average spending of US$188.