Islamic Tourism: Dracula’s playground in Transylvania and a gorilla park in Gabon were among the weird and wonderful ‘different’ holiday options promoted at Destinations the leading consumer travel showcase held in London from February 1st – 4th.
Now in its 13th year in London the exhibition attracted over 54,000 passionate travellers all keen to check out the thousands of travel choices and exclusive deals. The show certainly lived up to its slogan ‘come and discover the world in a day’.
Muslim and Middle Eastern exhibitors included Libya, the UAE, North Cyprus, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Turkey. Central Asian destinations were promoted by the Silk Road And Beyond travel agency and Oasis Overland.
Morocco and Tunisia, veteran exhibitors at London’s international travel shows were keen to promote ‘something different: villas for rent in Tunisia and the Saidia resort in Morocco, which will open at the end of 2007.
Anatolian Sky promoted Turkey and North Cyprus as holiday destinations. North Cyprus looks to attract more visitors in 2007 as room capacity is set to double with the building of a multitude of new hotels and resort developments
Oasis Overland marketed an ambitious Silk Road Exploratory Trip passing through Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and ending in China. It is possible to do the trip in reverse or to depart from Morocco, Cairo, Turkey, or Kyrgyzstan.
Craig Baguley, the manager of Arkno Tours London office observed that Libya is becoming the in destination. “Everyone is talking about Libya – people have discovered the Roman and Greek cities and other magnificent historic sites. Since the country has come in from the cold politically there has been some encouraging press and magazine coverage highlighting tourismâ€Â.
While many Arab and Muslim countries were a bit backward in coming forward to promote their unique tourist sites and destinations the exhibitors who made the effort to attend the show displayed a commendable professionalism in the literature they presented and in the design of their stands.
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