Sports | Wednesday 5 October, 2016 3:17 pm |

International Travel Week Abu Dhabi (ITW Abu Dhabi), the only global platform addressing key tourism niche markets such as halal, medical, shopping, and family-friendly sector, announces “World Sports Tourism Summit” as part of the week-long summit. 

Says Mr. Andy Buchanan, Executive Organizing Committee Director of ITW Abu Dhabi, “Sports Tourism as an industry has grown exponentially in past years. Increased frequency of sporting events for a wide variety of sports including golf, motor racing, cricket, rugby, football and extreme sports set against international backdrops helps celebrate the spirit of sport within the cultural flavor of hosting country .”

Sports tourism is acclaimed to be one of the world’s fastest growing sector of the global travel industry. The industry is estimated at a worth of $600 billion a year with an annual growth rate of 6%. According to UNWTO, Sports tourism accounts for 25% of global travel and tourism receipts with over 76% of sports travelers enlisting attending a sporting event as the primary purpose of a trip. 

Focusing primarily on progressing the Sports Tourism sector, the World Sports Tourism Summit provides a platform for international experts, buyers and sellers of sporting destinations, products and services and matches buyers and sellers in its unique hosted buyer programme. 

ITW Abu Dhabi takes place from November 25 to 28, 2017, at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center and aims to attract more than 6,000 global travel professionals from across the globe.  

ITW Abu Dhabi is a four-day summit that plays host to seven distinct travel and tourism elements simultaneously. Each sector represents a different aspect of tourism foremost of which is Halal Tourism. In addition to the World Halal Tourism Summit, other scheduled events include the World Halal Tourism Awards and other summits such as: World Medical Tourism Summit, World Shopping Tourism Summit, World Sports Tourism Summit, Ministerial Forum and Family Vacation Show.

Confirmed participants for ITW Abu Dhabi includes Accor Hotels, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Dinar Standard, Etihad Airways, HCA Healthcare, Holiday Bosnia, Jannah Hotels, Marjan Island Resort & Spa, Sofyan Hospitality, Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation, Swiss Medical Network, Turkey Health Tourism Association, Thomson Reuters, VPS Healthcare, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority and Wonderful Indonesia, the 2017 headline Sponsors.