Dubai
Arabian Travel Market 2026:
Meetings that Drive Business Forward
Meetings, Innovation, and New Opportunities
September 21, 2026 · by LCI-MTC
From September 14 to 17, 2026, Dubai once again brought together major players in international tourism for the 33rd edition of the Arabian Travel Market. For four days, the Dubai World Trade Centre became a true hub for meetings between hotel groups, DMCs, destinations, distributors, airlines, and technology companies. More than 55 destinations were represented, and attending buyers came from over 115 countries.
The LCI-MTC Group teams were present in Dubai with a clear objective: to reconnect with partners, deepen existing collaborations, develop new relationships, and directly gauge the pulse of an evolving market.
At the end of these four days, the sentiment is particularly positive. The industry is once again looking to the future, projects are moving forward, and, as one of LCI-MTC Group’s executives present at the event summarized: “The general feeling is very positive: business is back in the Middle East.”
More Qualitative Meetings and Strengthening Partnerships
Arabian Travel Market remains first and foremost a place for meetings. But this year, our teams particularly appreciated the quality of the appointments and the depth of the discussions.
Meetings often allowed for getting straight to the point and taking more time to concretely address projects: market development, distribution, new properties, partner expectations, and collaboration prospects.
In a sector where human relationships remain fundamental, this opportunity to sit around the same table and engage in lengthy discussions retains considerable value.
“We had particularly constructive meetings, often longer and more detailed. Discussions were very direct, very business-oriented, with a real desire to move projects forward.”
ATM is not just about creating new contacts. The exhibition also provides a privileged opportunity to reconnect with partners with whom LCI-MTC Group already collaborates, to strengthen relationships built over several years, and to take the time to discuss directly the evolutions of each market, upcoming projects, and new collaboration possibilities.
These meetings with major players in international hospitality, including Jumeirah, Hyatt, and Mandarin Oriental, allow for going far beyond a simple product presentation. They offer the opportunity to better understand the groups’ development strategies, their new openings, their positioning in different markets, and the experiences they wish to offer their clients. For LCI-MTC Group, these exchanges are also essential for identifying products and destinations likely to meet the expectations of its partners and its various markets.
Each meeting can thus have a different scope: consolidating an existing collaboration, further developing an established partnership, discovering new projects within a hotel group, or paving the way for future business opportunities. It is this continuity in relationships, combined with the ability to create new connections, that constitutes the full value of an event like Arabian Travel Market.
“This is the richness of an event like ATM: reconnecting with the people we already work with, strengthening these relationships, but also discovering new contacts and new opportunities.”
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Technology is Already Transforming Travel
The other major trend of this edition was impossible to miss: technology is now at the heart of the tourism industry’s transformation.
ATM 2026 was held under the theme Travel 2040: Driving New Frontiers Through Innovation and Technology. Artificial intelligence, automation, digital distribution, smart mobility, and personalization of the traveler journey thus played a central role during the four days of the exhibition.
For the first time, ATM Travel Tech was organized as a dedicated event alongside the main exhibition. The space dedicated to technology doubled this year, while more than 90 conferences and sessions, as well as 28 technological demonstrations, punctuated the event.
Artificial intelligence was naturally omnipresent. But discussions now go much further than simple chatbots or recommendation tools. Industry players are considering its integration into the entire tourism ecosystem: hotels, destinations, airlines, distribution systems, and infrastructure.
For LCI-MTC Group, this evolution is particularly relevant. Technology makes it possible to connect different travel stakeholders more efficiently, improve distribution, and offer increasingly fluid and personalized experiences.
However, it does not replace the commercial relationship that was so visible in Dubai. Technology provides the tools; human relationships build partnerships. The two now advance together.
The discussions organized during ATM also highlighted this complementarity between technology, human expertise, and customer knowledge as one of the keys to the next phase of the sector’s development.
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The Middle East Confirms Its Dynamism
Finally, ATM 2026 above all allowed for a direct assessment of the energy of the tourism market in the Middle East.
Hospitality, new destinations, infrastructure, distribution, technology: projects continue to multiply in a region that now holds an essential place in the strategy of major international travel players.
The high-end segment remains particularly dynamic. Hotels and destinations continue to invest in more personalized, immersive experiences that are better adapted to new traveler expectations. Industry leaders gathered at ATM also emphasized this evolution towards more fluid, integrated, and customer-centric experiences.
For LCI-MTC Group, this dynamic lies precisely at the intersection of several of its businesses: hospitality, DMC, B2B distribution, and technology.
This convergence between different tourism sectors creates new possibilities. A hotel is no longer just accommodation to be distributed; it integrates into a destination, experiences, transportation, and a traveler journey that is progressively becoming more connected.
This is also what makes the meetings held at ATM particularly important: every strengthened relationship today can become a new product, a new destination, or a new collaboration tomorrow.
“Every conversation can open the door to a new destination, a new experience, and a new story to tell. We return from Dubai with a lot of energy and very promising prospects for the future.”
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A Future-Oriented Edition
For LCI-MTC Group, Arabian Travel Market 2026 was therefore four particularly rich days: reconnecting with partners, strengthening relationships, new encounters, in-depth business discussions, and numerous ideas for the future.
Beyond the technologies and major trends presented during the exhibition, ATM above all reminds us of an essential reality of our industry: tourism remains first and foremost a matter of trust, relationships, and long-term partnerships.
And in Dubai this year, all signs were green: conversations are progressing, projects are taking shape, and the Middle East continues to assert its major role in international tourism.
LCI-MTC Group leaves Dubai with strengthened partnerships, new opportunities to develop, and already looking ahead.
