Beirut, August 21, 2008

The Arab World Travel and Tourism Exchange (AWTTE 2008) is expected to flourish this year particularly after the reconciliation of the last political conflicts in Lebanon. The event will take place on October 16-19 at BIEL Center in Beirut, which makes it a perfect time for AWTTE to convene coinciding with the quick revival of the tourism sector.

AWTTE 2008 is organized by the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism and Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group in cooperation with Middle East Airlines. Its main purpose is to promote tourism trade between Lebanon, the Arab world and international destinations.

This regional travel tradeshow forms an important opportunity to showcase and promote the latest travel products, new destinations and launchings. During these 4 days, AWTTE presents a unique experience of networking channels between exhibitors and buyers in a friendly and social environment.

To date, AWTTE 2008 has registered 14 national pavilions represented with their national airlines, hotels and tour operators. The United Arab Emirates will be exhibiting for the first time at AWTTE in addition to the Kurdistan region in Northern Iraq. At the same time Cyprus, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey will be re-exhibiting as every edition.

This year, AWTTE is expected to have a 20% increase in new exhibitors’ rate and more than 50 exhibiting companies from Lebanon alone.

Over 100 tour operators have been invited to participate at the exhibition as hosted buyers. Their company profiles and schedule details will be available online for exhibitors starting September 15^th. In addition, several free promotions and prizes will be given out to the public during the last 2-exhibition-days which is expected to attract over 10,000 from the Lebanese public.