More than 210 speakers, 80-plus sessions and a theme built around “new frontiers” arrive at a pivotal moment for global tourism, as resilience, connectivity, technology and changing traveller behaviour reshape the industry’s priorities. What ATM chooses to put on the agenda may reveal as much about where tourism is heading as what happens on its exhibition floor.
Global (Tourism Reporter) — The 33rd edition of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) opens at Dubai World Trade Centre on 14 September, running through 17 September under the theme “Travel 2040: Driving New Frontiers Through Innovation and Technology.”
On paper, it is an event theme. In practice, the programme built around it offers a revealing snapshot of the issues occupying the global tourism industry in 2026 — and the picture is more complex than the polished branding might suggest.
With more than 210 speakers across more than 80 sessions, the ATM 2026 agenda brings together some of the industry’s most consequential questions: resilience, international cooperation, artificial intelligence, changing traveller behaviour, aviation and connectivity, hospitality, business events, investment and sustainability.
The significance, therefore, may lie less in any single announcement from the stage than in the breadth of issues the industry has chosen to confront in one place.
ATM 2026 is not simply asking where tourism is going next. Its agenda offers clues about what the industry believes it must solve before it gets there.
Resilience First: A Deliberate Shift in Emphasis
Danielle Curtis, Regional Portfolio Director – UAE at RX Global, the organiser behind ATM, has acknowledged that the industry has faced significant challenges in recent months, reinforcing the importance of bringing the global travel community together to reconnect, strengthen partnerships and maintain dialogue. Her comments provide an important indication of the thinking behind this year’s programme: resilience, traveller confidence and collaboration have moved closer to the centre of the ATM conversation.
Rather than leading solely with growth figures or destination showcases, the opening day’s Global Stage features a ministerial debate titled “Building A Resilient Industry Through Collaboration”, bringing together UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, UN Tourism Secretary-General Shaikha Al Nuwais, Bahrain’s Minister of Tourism Fatima bint Jafar Al Sairafi and European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas.
The discussion will examine how the GCC can strengthen traveller confidence, enhance its global competitiveness and build the foundations for long-term tourism growth through coordinated destination messaging, crisis communications, policy alignment and closer cooperation between governments, source markets, airlines and the wider tourism industry.
That an event historically associated with deal-making, destination promotion and commercial networking has chosen to place resilience and collaboration at the centre of its opening ministerial conversation is revealing.
Tourism in 2026 is operating in a more volatile environment, where geopolitical disruption and sudden shifts in traveller confidence can affect demand, connectivity and destination performance. For tourism boards, airlines, hotels and governments, resilience has therefore moved beyond conference terminology. It is increasingly becoming an operational requirement — the capacity to protect traveller confidence, respond to disruption and maintain market momentum when conditions change.
The message from ATM’s opening agenda is therefore significant: before the industry can discuss how to accelerate the next phase of tourism growth, it increasingly has to discuss how to make that growth more resilient.
Technology Graduates From Sideshow to Centrepiece
If resilience sets the tone for ATM 2026’s opening conversations, artificial intelligence and digital transformation increasingly define the event’s wider architecture.
The clearest indication is the full debut of ATM Travel Tech, a dedicated co-located event running alongside the main show for the first time. It brings together more than 180 exhibitors from 30 countries, with a dedicated Future Stage examining how AI, fintech, digital distribution and connected platforms are moving beyond experimentation and into commercial application.
Dr Marwan Alzarouni, CEO of AI at the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, opens the Future Stage with “AI’s True Role in Rewriting the Travel Landscape”, examining how artificial intelligence is changing the infrastructure, policy and ecosystems underpinning travel. The focus is notably operational — reflecting a broader shift in the industry’s technology conversation from what AI might eventually do to what it is already changing across travel systems.
The calibre of technology and travel-platform executives assembled around the programme reinforces that shift. Schubert Lou, CEO of Trip.com, joins Ross Veitch, CEO of Wego, and Raj Rishi Singh, Chief Business Officer – Corporate, Flights and GCC at MakeMyTrip, for a discussion examining how AI, innovation cycles and accelerating technological change are reshaping the competitive landscape for online travel platforms.
For destination marketing organisations and hotel groups, that conversation has direct commercial relevance. As travellers increasingly discover, compare and book through digitally mediated journeys, the question is no longer simply where inventory is listed, but how it is discovered, ranked, recommended and ultimately converted into a booking.
Additional technology leadership from Sabre, Tripadvisor, Visa and other major travel technology companies extends the discussion into AI, digital discovery, online travel platforms and the evolving travel supply chain. Meanwhile, the Tech & Innovation Hub Demo Zone moves the conversation beyond the conference stage, offering attendees more than 15 interactive demonstrations from travel technology companies.
Hospitality is part of the same transformation. Haitham Mattar, Managing Director for India, Middle East & Africa at IHG Hotels & Resorts, brings the hotel sector’s perspective to the wider ATM conversation around technology, data, traveller expectations and experience. In the lead-up to the event, Mattar said the next phase for the Middle East’s hospitality sector would involve using technology and data to understand travellers better, reduce friction in the guest journey and deliver more relevant experiences.
The significance of ATM Travel Tech, therefore, extends beyond the creation of another event within the event.
Technology is no longer sitting on the edge of the tourism conversation. At ATM 2026, it has moved into the centre — because increasingly, it is helping determine how travellers discover destinations, how businesses reach them and how the tourism experience itself is delivered.
Business Events, Investment and the Quieter Commercial Conversations
Beyond the headline themes of resilience and technology, ATM 2026’s Experience Hub carries a substantial programme focused on business events, corporate travel, sustainability and industry networking. These areas may attract less attention than the ministerial sessions, but they can have a direct bearing on destination competitiveness, investment and commercial opportunity.
Organisations including the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO), the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) are leading discussions on meetings, incentives and the changing priorities of corporate travel. ICCA’s session, “Beyond Borders: The Middle East’s Collaborative Vision for a Global Business Events Future,” will examine how business events can support investment, talent and knowledge exchange, with participation from tourism and convention representatives across the region.
For destinations across the Gulf and wider Middle East seeking to strengthen their position in the international meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market, that emphasis is significant. Business events are increasingly being treated not simply as another tourism segment, but as part of a broader destination strategy encompassing investment, business connectivity, knowledge exchange and international profile.
The commercial conversation also extends into market intelligence. Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, returns to ATM with its annual ATM Travel Trends Report. Dave Goodger, Managing Director, EMEA, will present “Middle East Momentum & Market Shifts,” examining where international travel demand is moving and the opportunities emerging for the region. Euromonitor International will also contribute to the programme, with Global Insight Manager – Travel Stephen Dutton examining inflation, geopolitical uncertainty and changing consumer priorities in “The State of Travel: Inflation, Polycrisis & the New Travel Reality.”
Their presence points to another evolution in the way the industry is discussing tourism.
After several years in which geopolitical disruption, changing consumer behaviour and unpredictable travel demand have made conventional forecasting more difficult, destinations and tourism businesses increasingly need more than compelling marketing narratives.
They need evidence about where demand is moving, which markets are growing, what travellers value and where investment opportunities are emerging.
That makes the quieter commercial conversations at ATM potentially as important as the headline announcements.
The future of tourism will not be determined only by the destinations that attract attention. It will also be shaped by the destinations that understand the data, win the right business opportunities and position themselves early for where demand is going next.
Scale, Reach and What the Exhibitor Floor Reveals
Away from the conference stages, ATM’s exhibition floor tells another story — one measured not in keynote themes, but in the scale of destination representation, commercial participation and tourism investment.
The 2026 exhibitor listing covers 1,247 companies from 73 countries, organised across 48 national and group pavilions. The United Arab Emirates has the largest national contingent, with 481 companies, followed by the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Dubai’s pavilion, with 119 companies, is the largest individual grouping, followed by Visit Maldives Corporation and the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi.
The composition is revealing.
ATM may have broadened its conference programme to address global questions around resilience, technology, investment and the future of travel, but the exhibition floor remains a powerful expression of the event’s commercial DNA. Gulf destinations occupy a particularly prominent position, while South Asian markets are using the platform to strengthen international visibility and connect with buyers, investors and travel intermediaries.
For destinations, the value of a major trade show is rarely confined to visibility. National and destination pavilions provide a physical platform for tourism boards, hotels, airlines, attractions, tour operators and other businesses to pursue partnerships, develop distribution relationships and position their destinations in front of international buyers.
That makes the scale of ATM significant beyond the numbers themselves.
The exhibitor floor is, in effect, a map of where the tourism industry wants to be seen — and where destinations believe the next commercial opportunities may lie.
With more than 1,200 exhibiting companies represented across 73 countries, ATM 2026 is demonstrating the continuing importance of Dubai as a meeting point between the Gulf’s expanding tourism economies and the wider international travel market. RX describes ATM as a platform connecting destinations, travel suppliers, hospitality brands, airlines, technology providers and industry professionals across the global travel ecosystem.
The conference may tell the industry what it needs to think about. The exhibition floor shows where businesses are putting their money, people and ambitions.
Why the Agenda Matters More Than Any Single Announcement
What makes ATM 2026 worth watching closely is not necessarily any single deal, ministerial statement or product launch that emerges from its four days in Dubai, but the composite picture created by the programme itself.
The agenda reflects an industry recalibrating in real time. Rather than relying primarily on destination showcases and headline growth statistics, ATM 2026 has placed crisis communications, policy alignment, artificial intelligence, digital competition, connectivity, investment and evidence-based economic analysis firmly within its central programme.
That choice is revealing.
It suggests that the industry’s conversation has moved beyond the assumption that tourism growth can simply be forecast, marketed and delivered in a relatively predictable environment. Geopolitical disruption, changing traveller behaviour, technological acceleration, shifting aviation economics and evolving government policy have made resilience and adaptability increasingly central to destination strategy.
For tourism boards, airlines, hoteliers, technology companies and investors watching from outside Dubai, the most useful reading of ATM 2026 may therefore not come from the announcements made on its stages.
It may come from what the organisers decided the industry needed to discuss in the first place.
Because a conference agenda is more than a list of speakers and sessions. It is a statement of priorities.
And ATM 2026’s priorities suggest that the next chapter of global tourism will be defined not simply by how fast the industry can grow, but by how intelligently it can adapt to a world that is becoming harder to predict.
This report draws on official information published by RX Global, organiser of Arabian Travel Market (ATM), including the 2026 conference programme and statements from participating government and industry leaders. ATM 2026 takes place from 14–17 September 2026 at Dubai World Trade Centre, with more than 210 speakers across more than 80 sessions. Details and statements reflect information available ahead of the event and are subject to any programme changes announced by the organiser.
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