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  • INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL CATERING EXHIBITION BENEFITS FROM MIDDLE EAST GROWTH
    Mar. 9, 2009

    Middle East only region to show passenger growth ensuring ITCA Dubai positioned at the heart of the world's travel catering market.

    Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Despite the impact of the global economic crisis the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently announced international scheduled traffic results for January showing the Middle East is the only regional carrier market forecasting continued growth.

    According to IATA worldwide passenger demand fell by 5.6% in January 2009 compared to the same month in 2008. Middle East Carriers however, reported positive growth up 3.6% ensuring the region will play an increasingly important role in supplier's business development and investment strategy.

    Against this compelling commercial backdrop, the Dubai World Trade Centre in association with the International Travel Catering Association (ITCA) formally announced the 4th ITCA Dubai Exhibition is to be held from the 27th -29th October 2009 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre alongside the successful ITCA Dubai 2009 Conference.

    Welcoming the announcement, Mr David Young, President of the International Travel Catering Association explained "The Event in Dubai is growing in popularity with operators, suppliers and caterers all focused on the world's most exciting and vibrant region. ITCA is again excited to be partnering with the Dubai World Trade Centre for our Middle East Conference and Tradeshow in 2009"

    The event has expanded rapidly in recent years to bring together the entire travel catering market representing Airline, Cruise, Ferry, and Railway Hospitality industries from across the Middle East, Africa and Indian Subcontinent.

    Julian Roach, Project Manager at the Dubai World Trade Centre said, "Dubai is the perfect location for such an event- a recognised business hub for the Middle East and ten Middle East airports are building enough capacity to handle 320 million passengers per annum by 2012. Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports alone increased their annual passenger handling capacity by a total of 32 million passengers with the opening of new terminals for Etihad and Emirates Airlines. If one factors in that the Gulf has also become the major internal hub for the winter cruise season with Royal Caribbean, Costa Cruises and Silversea all planning to use Dubai as the Winter Cruise destination and the new cruise terminal development based at Port Rashid as part of the major Nakheel waterfront project, it's not surprising that the event has become such an important showcase for suppliers keen to expand operations here."

    For more details on ITCA Dubai, please visit www.itcadubai.com or contact Julian Roach on +971 4 308 6462 or travel.catering@dwtc.com. The exhibition is combined with the prestigious ITCA Middle East Conference taking place from the 27th-29th October 2009. For information on the ITCA Middle East Conference, please visit www.itcanet.com or contact Lee Walton at +44 (0)1483 419449 / itca@associationservices.co.uk.