UNWTO Ministerial Forum to chart out growth agenda
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The forthcoming Arabian Travel Market 2013 (ATM) is witnessing strong participation from key players in the industry.One of the key events lined up across the four-day event is the UNWTO/ATM Ministerial Forum, which will witness participation from Ministers of Tourism and aviation experts.
This year’s event will look to set a common agenda for air transport and tourism that allows the industry to fully seize the opportunities of future tourism growth in the region.
With the Middle East as a backdrop, the UNWTO/ATM Ministerial Forum will focus on how to remove current obstacles to the growth of aviation and tourism, how to align transport and tourism policies and how to promote connectivity between the Middle East and other world regions.
According to the UNWTO, extraordinary growth of international tourism over the six last decades – from 25 million tourists in 1950 to one billion in 2012 – is as much due to advances in air transport as to the rise of the middle class. Further forecasts indicate international tourists to reach 1.8 billion by 2030, 52% of which will arrive to the visited destinations by air, and issues such as taxation, regulation, visa facilitation or climate change require a strong aviation and tourism agenda.
The Ministerial Forum with an apt theme – ‘Tourism and Aviation: Building a Common Agenda for Growth’ is being held under the Patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.
Speaker for the event include HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, HE Reem Al Hashemi, minister of state and managing director of the higher committee on International EXPO Dubai 2020, HE Hisham Zaazou, minister of tourism of Egypt, HE Alain Saint-Ange, minister of tourism and culture of the Seychelles, HE Jamel Garma, minister of tourism of Tunisia and HE Issa Mohammed Al Mohannadi, chairman of the Qatar Tourism Authority.