Arabian Travel Market (ATM) has announced ‘Travel without boundaries: Shaping global travel through experience’ as the theme for its 2027 edition, highlighting how travellers’ interests, passions and expectations are transforming tourism and creating new business opportunities across the industry.

Taking place from May 3–6, 2027 at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), ATM 2027 will explore how destinations and travel businesses can develop distinctive experiences that attract visitors, encourage spending and deliver lasting value for local communities.

According to the ATM Travel Trends Report 2026, produced in association with Tourism Economics, 56% of consumers are more interested in exploring new destinations than they were two years ago. This rises to 68% among prospective visitors to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA). Meanwhile, 50% report greater interest in sampling local food and drink, while 40% are more interested in meeting local people.

The report highlights growing demand for passion-led travel, with culture, gastronomy, adventure, wellness, music and sport increasingly influencing destination choices. Around 30% of consumers also report greater interest in event-related travel compared with two years ago.

For tourism businesses, this trend creates opportunities to develop experience packages, additional services and partnerships with local providers. Restaurants, sporting events and hotels can increasingly serve as key attractions, encouraging visitors to discover destinations through distinctive local experiences.

Danielle Curtis, Regional Portfolio Director – UAE, RX Global, said: “Travellers are looking more closely at what a journey allows them to experience, whether that is discovering a culture, pursuing a passion or sharing something memorable with the people around them. For destinations and businesses, the opportunity is to understand those motivations and build an offering that gives people a compelling reason to visit.

“‘Travel without boundaries’ reflects how these opportunities extend across the industry. The same journey can combine business and leisure, wellness and adventure, or premium experiences and everyday value. Through ATM 2027, we want to explore what businesses can create together when they look beyond traditional categories and consider the experience as a whole.”

The 2027 theme will be explored through four pillars: Experience without boundaries, Opportunity without boundaries, Innovation without boundaries and Possibility without boundaries. These will examine evolving traveller preferences, emerging markets, commercial opportunities, technological developments and cross-sector collaboration.

Technology will remain a central focus, particularly its role in creating personalised and seamless travel experiences. The report highlights the growing influence of artificial intelligence on travel planning, alongside the continued importance of human expertise, local guides and host communities. ATM Travel Tech will return as a co-located event showcasing technologies and innovators shaping the travel experience.

The report also forecasts international arrivals to grow by 8% worldwide and 17% across MENASA in 2027, as travel recovers following disruptions in 2026. Worldwide visitor nights, covering domestic and international travel, are projected to exceed 29 billion by 2030, with spending within destinations reaching US$10 trillion.

ATM 2027 will feature discussions on these trends across its Global Stage and Future Stage, while the Experience Hub will return with peer-to-peer roundtables, specialised industry discussions and networking opportunities.

The event will bring together destinations and travel businesses to examine how experience-led tourism is reshaping products, investment priorities and opportunities across established and emerging markets. -TradeArabia News Service