GIBTM in Abu Dhabi a big success

The meetings and business industry is playing a big role in the travel industry and in the occupancy of flights and hotels around the world.

The meetings and business industry is playing a big role in the travel industry and in the occupancy of flights and hotels around the world. Spending at meetings and travel fairs exceed spending in leisure tourism. In one of the latest studies, it was revealed that a business traveler spends three times more than a leisure traveler.

Reed Travel Exhibitions organizes 5 international events around the world – the GIBTM (Gulf, Incentive and Business Travel) in the Arab Gulf region is one of them, which took place for the 4th year in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates between March 29-31, 2010 at the ADNEC Convention.

The idea in MICE (Meetings, Incentive, Convention and Exhibitions) events is to attract the meeting planners, conference organizers, and business travel agencies interested in meeting with suppliers to organize their events in the region. The meetings between buyers and suppliers are done through pre-scheduled meetings.

GIBTM this year was a great successful event that started from the airport, where a GIBTM team were all wearing orange shirts and welcoming guests and taking them to their hotels, followed by three days of meetings between the 277 buyers and thousands of trade visitors who came form different parts of the world. Of them, 80 buyers were from the Middle East region and met with 227 exhibitors mainly representing the Gulf region, with some international exhibitors offering incentive programs in their cities and countries for hosted buyers and trade visitors to encourage and invite them to organize their events in their cities.

Foreign exhibitors came from Argentina, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, United Kingdom, SriLanka, Brussels, Turkey, Germany, Spain, USA, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Amsterdam, Maldives, Indonesia, Luxembourg, South Korea, Monaco, Ireland, Greece, India, Cyprus, China, and Maldives.

Arab and GCC exhibitors came from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qarar, and from UAE exhibitors came from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, and Al Ain . UAE had one of the biggest stands with big participants from the private sector. Also airlines, airports, entertainment, meetings venue, cruise lines, hotel chains, destinations, event and support management service, ground-handling services, spas, and media where exhibiting. Most of the luxury hotels and hotel chains that can provide event services were also exhibiting.
Two social events took place in the Fairmont and YAS island, and seminars and professionals education programs was also part of the event.

What most impressed me was the organization of the event in general. I was fortunate to take a photo of the GIBTM team, who took good care of the hosted buyers.

Most of the exhibitors, hosted buyers, and trade visitors whom I met were satisfied, and I would recommend GIBTM to exhibitors from around the world. I would also recommend hosted buyers not to miss the chance to attend GIBTM 2011 in Abu Dhabi, as the Middle East and the Gulf are expecting excellent MICE business in the years to come.

About the author

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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