Amin Abbas

Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the leading international travel and tourism event in the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals was held from 9 – 12 May at Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) and attracted over 23,000 visitors in four days.

Over 30,000 participants, including 1,500 exhibitors and attendees from 150 countries were at ATM 2022, and Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) was one of the main exhibitors.

They featured Ikebana live demonstrations done by members of Ohara School of Ikebana UAE Chapter, including official 4^th Master Yuka Iwai and Instructor Kayoko Sotowa.

Mizuki Onishi, Senior Director at the JNTO Dubai office shared with Arab News Japan how the booth at this year’s edition of ATM was bigger than last year’s event and “many visitors came to our booth to get information about the latest updates regarding the Tourism in Japan these days.”

Daisuke Kobayashi, Deputy Manager for Europe and the Middle East section at JNTO shared exclusively with Arab News Japan about their participation in this year’s edition of ATM compared to last year: “Our participation in the ATM 2022 show was an opportunity to strongly feel the enthusiasm and energy of the market for the resumption of international tourism around the world.”

“We thank the people who are looking forward to visiting Japan for their patience, please keep Japan in your wish list for a little while until the day the immigration restrictions are relaxed,” he added.

Regarding JNTO’s upcoming plans for activities for the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between UAE and Japan, Kobayashi shared how its under discussion on what activities will be held,  but they hope to aid in strengthening relations between the two countries.