The World Islamic Travel Summit (WITS15), a showcase of Halal Travel & Tourism solutions, will debut in Abu Dhabi, UAE in October. The pioneering conference and exhibition will run over two halls at the state-of-the-art Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), from October 19-21.
The event will include an exhibition with over 200 participants plus a 1,000-delegate conference, comprising keynote sessions, panel discussions, a ministerial debate, and 150 presentations from 70 international speakers.
Organised under the theme ‘Driving The Halal Tourism Revolution’, the event will bring together an array of international specialists, projects, suppliers, and policymakers.
The Halal Tourism market is booming with analysts saying it now represents 13 per cent of the global market, according to Hosam Moustafa, Events Manager, WITS15 . A recent Muslim travel report, released by the consultancy, Dinar Standard and rating agency, Crescent Rating, projects that until at least 2020, Muslim International Tourism will increase faster than conventional tourism – 4.79 per cent versus 3.8 per cent. At that point, overall annual spending for Muslim International Tourism is expected to reach USD 192 billion and these figures do not include estimated Hajj and Umrah expenditures.
WITS15 is being brought to the UAE capital by organiser, Cacti Events with the support of Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau – the business events promotion arm of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).
“Many Muslim-majority markets are now fast emerging economies, with higher-than-average population growth rates supported by a young demographic. Against this background, expenditure by Halal tourists is expected to rise more than six per cent per annum for the foreseeable future, which is almost double global industry growth,” said Sultan Al Dhaheri, Acting Executive Director Tourism, TCA Abu Dhabi.
WITS15 is expected to draw high-profile international attendance from government delegations, tourism associations, market-leading private sector operators, and leading financiers funding Islamic tourism projects. More than 60 countries will be represented at WITS15, with many exhibiting and others contributing presentations and speakers to the conference sessions.
WITS15 will focus strongly on the intra-tourism between the 57 members states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – the second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations with a membership spread over four continents.
Keynote conference sessions will focus on practical applications to increase intra-OIC tourism productivity, innovative technologies, capacity building and entrepreneurship, the role of the private sector, and the way that local bodies can quickly adopt and adapt the best international thinking.
Al Dhaheri said that Halal Tourism will become more prominent in its destination promotion in terms of exposure and quality of product offering. “We envisage receiving increasing numbers from this segment, particularly given that Abu Dhabi serves as a hub for traffic transiting from East to West and vice versa. We can link the highly populous Muslim countries of the East to the West and those in the opposite direction via Abu Dhabi International Airport, and we hope that many will choose to break their journey in the emirate and eventually become convinced to stay longer. We are now airing this topic with all our stakeholders and encouraging the creation of Halal packaging where appropriate. We will also be looking to encourage tour operators to offer segmented product,” he stated.