The Arabian Travel Mart, one among the Middle East’s biggest travel and tourism fairs, has been cancelled this year and moved to 2021 due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, organizers said on Sunday.

In March, the exhibition, which was originally scheduled from April 19-22, had been rescheduled to June 28 to July 1.

However, ATM is going to be hosting virtual events across June 1-3, 2020. the web events will feature webinars, live conference sessions, speed networking events, 1-2-1 meetings and more.

“In light of the changing global situation relating to the COVID-19 virus, we have continued to monitor the impact it’s having not just on our industry, but on society in general. Many meetings took place with the Dubai World Trade Centre and we reviewed other options to organize an event in the last quarter.”

“However, after consultation with our key stakeholders and after taking note of our Industry, ultimately it became apparent that the best course of action, and with everyone’s best interests in mind, is to postpone the event to 2021,” reads a statement published on the ATM website.