Popular awards
programme recognises exhibitor creativity and investment in five independent categories;
judging panel of top industry and design professionals select the most
eye-catching and innovative stands; winners are now being put to the public
vote for the People’s Choice Award
The hotly anticipated winners of the Arabian
Travel Market (ATM) 2016 Best Stand Awards were announced at a photo-call on
the show floor on 27th April.
The four-strong panel of judges had toured
more than 423 main stand holders across 10 exhibition halls covering the full spectrum of the industry
to find those with the biggest ‘wow’ factor. The winners are as follows:
- Best Stand
Design: The Address Hotels + Resorts
- Best Stand for
Doing Business: flydubai
- Best Stand
Personnel: Nassima Royal Hotel
- Best Stand
Feature: Etihad Airways
- Best Stand
within the Travel Tech Show at ATM: Amadeus IT Group
The
judging panel comprised a line-up of top industry and design professionals: Leo
Fewtrell, Managing Partner, Gulf Reps; Fiona McAndrew
Sharp, Sales & Marketing Director, TTN; Nicholas Hall, Managing
Director, Digital Tourism Think Tank and Bruce Martin,
Managing Director, Ginger Juice.
“We enjoyed seeing all the
new ideas and even more creativity on the show floor this year,” said Nadege Noblet-Segers, Exhibition Manager, Arabian
Travel Market. “These awards reflect the huge effort, investment and thought
that go into creating and manning exhibitor space that is a reflection of a
brand.”
The judging criteria for the Best Stand Design award
focused on identifying an eye-catching stand with a creative
design that made the best use of available space and attracted a high level of
visitor traffic.
“The
Address Hotels + Resorts stand stood out thanks to its hotel-like feel, good
food and engaging video screen, as well as an impressive scale model of the area,”
said Martin. “This is a brand new build being showcased at ATM, which
demonstrates a notable investment from their side.”
“We
are pushed by His Excellency Mohamed
Alabbar, our chairman, to be the best we can be and
we take this direction very seriously,” said Chris Newman, Corporate Director
of Operations, Emaar Hospitality Group. “The concept for the stand was created not
just from a visual perspective but we wanted it to be workable, serving good
food and offering our guests a lifestyle experience. Winning the award is a
fantastic achievement.”
The winner of the Best Stand for Doing
Business needed to create a busy B2B atmosphere and present a well-planned and
easily navigable layout with a good presentation of the stand and its services.
“The flydubai stand offers everything
you need from a low cost carrier,” said McAndrew. “It showcases every aspect of what the product is about,
with its business class seats on display, an informative interactive route map,
friendly staff and a great space upstairs for meetings.”
“I
would like to thank everyone who has put the time and effort into bringing to
stand to where it is today,” said Hamad Obaidalla, Chief Commercial Officer,
flydubai. “The pressure is now on us to win this award every year.”
The award for Best Stand Personnel is an
especially important accolade considering hospitality is a people business.
“Nassima
Royal Hotel stands out for its attentive service,” said Fewtrell. “The staff
all have big smiles and, when they saw me approaching, made eye contact,
engaged with me from the get-go, offered me a coffee and looked extremely happy
to help. It’s clear the staff have a desire to assist and inform their guests.
They know their product extremely well and did a great job of informing me
about it. Their overall approach personifies great customer service.”
“We
are very proud to win this award as it is the first time we are exhibiting at
Arabian Travel Market since the rebrand,” said Pinar Kirlar Kaya, Marketing
& Communications Director, Nassima Royal Hotel. “We have put a lot of
effort in and it is great to see it paying off. We pride ourselves on providing
excellent service and this award is a great refection of that.”
The Best Stand Feature award was
awarded to the stand that has an innovative ways of drawing in visitors.
“Etihad Airways’ live cooking concept
is a hit,” said Hall. “There are a number of excellent chefs demonstrating how
to cook with simple ingredients, including local produce and using some
innovative techniques. Live cooking is nothing new but the way they have
executed it, with two cameras – one looking down on what the chef is preparing
and one that provides a live streaming service that people can log into from
anywhere in the world – is especially engaging. While I was on the stand all
the chefs assembled for a team photograph which demonstrated the huge effort
the company has made to bring this feature to life.”
The
award was accepted by Haitham Hasan Al Subaihi, VP UAE Sales, Etihad Airways.
The Best
Stand within the Travel Tech Show at ATM specifically highlights the importance
of technology to the industry.
“It was a difficult choice this year
but Amadeus excelled as their mood wall concept is unique and really well
thought through,” said Hall. “For the mood wall, there is an artist drawing a
reflection of the interviews taking place on the stand. In order to do this,
they are handing guests iPads to fill out a short quiz that assigns you to one
of nine different profiles, such as entrepreneur or scaled business, for
instance. After a further video interview to find out how the guest associates
themselves with this profile, the insights are then visualised on the wall.
Ultimately, this tool helps them create a deep understanding of their customer.
Amadeus also has a large vertical picture frame that hosts an iPhone screen
that is connected to Apple TV showcasing live product demos – another strong
concept that people are very engaged by.”
“This
is our fourteenth year of participation, and this recognition comes from a
great team effort,” said Ehab Yasin, Regional Marketing Manager Middle East and
North Africa, Amadeus. “We are very proud and now we want to win again in
2017.”
The
winners are now being put to the public vote for a chance of walking away with
the People’s Choice Award. Calls for votes will be made via social media, with
the winner announced by noon on 28th April.
Launched
in 2015, the Best Stand Awards were created to recognise the design creativity
and business-friendly appeal of exhibiting companies’ physical presence at ATM.
For more information on Arabian Travel Market
2016, please visit the website at www.arabiantravelmarket.com