The 2019 list of Top 10 Meeting Destinations in the Middle East & Africa is here!

With the aim of helping planners choose the right meeting destination in the Middle East and Africa, Cvent curates an annual list of Top 10 Meeting Destinations in Middle East & Africa – and this year too, we’ve got a familiar name for the no. 1 position – Dubai.

With a rich inventory of conventional and non-conventional meeting venues spread across more than 6,84,701 square metres of meeting space, this “city of gold” offers a prosperous MICE market, attracting thousands of meeting and event planners from across the world.

"For Dubai to once again be named as Top Meetings Destination in the MEA region is a testament to the city’s visionary leadership, as well as the efforts of all our partners and stakeholders. Business events play a critical role not only in driving visitation and making a direct economic impact but contributing to the development of key sectors and industries and encouraging knowledge exchange. As we look to build on our momentum and underline Dubai’s status as a business events destination of choice, we will continue to communicate to meetings planners the easy accessibility, diversity in hotel choices, and wide range of venues in the city, as well as compelling choices when it comes to activities, attractions and dining."

Steen Jakobsen, Assistant Vice President, Dubai Business Events & City Operations

Abu Dhabi climbed up two places this year to take the number two spot, followed by Cape Town at number three (same as last year), Johannesburg at number four and Marrekesh at number five. Cairo jumped up four places to secure the sixth rank, owing to its growing popularity amongst the meeting planners as a preferred MICE destination.

Beirut (#7) and Ras Al Khaimah (#10) are the two debutants to this year’s list giving a tough competition to Doha and Nairobi sitting at eighth and ninth position respectively. With that, it’s a wrap to this years’ Top 10 Meeting Destinations in Middle East & Africa.

All the destinations featured on Cvent Supplier Network are evaluated on various qualifying parameters such as the total number of profile views, percentage of qualified meeting venues, unique request for proposals received, total room nights requested in request for proposals (RFPs), awarded RFPs, awarded room nights and quality of services. In 2018, more than 42 million room nights worldwide and $16 billion of business were sourced through the Cvent Supplier Network – helping to support more than 790,000 events around the globe – that is more than 2,000 events every day!

Click here to know more about Cvent's Top 10 Meeting Destinations in the Middle East & Africa.