The debut Arabian Travel Market Virtual online event welcomed more than 12,000 attendees from around the world.
The show attracted guests from 140 countries as delegates addressed emerging trends, as well as the opportunities and the challenges which are directly impacting the travel and tourism industry amid the Covid-19 global health pandemic.
In total, the event facilitated 11,301 prescheduled one-to-one meetings.
A series of one-to-one pre-scheduled 30-minute meetings between editors, exhibitors, and buyers also took place, and 23 live video sessions included questions and polls which ran alongside the presentations to enable audience interaction.
Overall, the webinars had more than 24,000 views over the course of three days.
Danielle Curtis, exhibition director Middle East, Arabian Travel Market, said: “Considering that this was a debut event, the outcome clearly validated our strategy to virtually support and guide the region’s travel and tourism industry.
“The resilience and determination to get through these challenging times was clearly evident.
“It also underscored our commitment to organise an event with positive and constructive business insight and opinion, as well as offering networking opportunities across the entire community.
“There were so many highlights during the event, that it would be extremely difficult to single out any particular session.
“The event was seamless; each session complemented the next and it is also fair to say that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.”
The highlight of the opening day was an interview with Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, while Wizz Air chief executive Joszef Varadi was another standout.
“As an organiser we have learnt a lot from this virtual experience and to give our seminar programme broader reach and greater inclusivity, we will certainly be looking to integrate more virtual elements into our physical show next year,” said Curtis.
More Information
The sessions and other content are now available on demand via the WTM Global Hub – take a look here.