No. 1 Meeting Destination in Middle East and Africa: Dazzling Dubai

Apart from being a home to luxury, a breeding ground for innovation, a dream haven for shoppers, a cultural odyssey and a paradise of nocturnal fun, the thriving city of Dubai is also an unparalleled choice of destination for organizing meetings and events. This emirate city offers a flourishing MICE market, attracting thousands of meeting and event planners from across the world. A progressive government, favorable geography and top-of-the-notch MICE infrastructure are just a few of the reasons why Dubai has become a popular MICE destination and is constantly picked for hosting world-class events like EXPO 2020, IAMRA International Conference on Medical Regulation, GITEX Technology Week, World Green Economy Summit etc. It makes perfect sense why Dubai has managed to occupy the number one position on Cvent’s 2018 list of top meeting destinations in the Middle East and Africa. This list was compiled based on the sourcing activity through the Cvent Supplier Network, which is valued at more than $14.7 billion and including more than 40 million room nights in 2017 – helping to support more than 715,000 events worldwide.

“We’re delighted to see Dubai named as the Top Meetings Destination in the MEA region, an accolade which reinforces the city’s status as a business events destination of choice. This recognition is a testament to Dubai’s visionary leadership, as well as the efforts of all our partners and stakeholders across the city, who contribute to our business events and overall tourism proposition.” — Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing

Offering a perfect concoction of business and leisure in one setting, Dubai is clearly a leading business events destination in the Middle East. Let’s take a look at the city’s offering for the MICE market.

IMPRESSIVE COLLECTION OF MEETING HOTELS AND VENUES

As a popular MICE destination featuring a total of 7,370,062 square feet of convention space, Dubai’s annual roster of business events, conferences, exhibitions, and summits is always full. The rich inventory of both conventional and non-conventional meeting venues makes this city a favorite of global meeting planners. Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) is the best choice when organizing large-scale meetings and events. With more than 1.3 million square feet of flexible and configurable space, the center offers a wide range of meeting spaces to accommodate both smaller company meetings as well as grand conferences and exhibitions. Dubai is also famous for its collection of meeting hotels. The city offers 96,280 sleeping rooms across 501 hotels to accommodate all sizes of groups. Planners can choose to organize their grand events at the world’s tallest hotel – Gevora Hotel or the second-tallest hotel – JW Marriott Marquis Hotel. The city is expected to attract more than 20 million visitors during EXPO 2020 Dubai. To accommodate the guests of this six-month-long exposition, the supply of guestrooms in the emirate is expected to increase at a high-speed. In fact, as per a study conducted by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), the city’s room supply is set to reach 132,000 by the end of 2019, growing at a two-year (2017-2019) CAGR of 11.1 percent*. AN EASY-TO-ACCESS DESTINATION More than 87 million passengers traversed through Dubai International Airport (DXB) in 2017, making it the world’s busiest airport by international passenger traffic. With flights to more than 240 destinations across 6 continents on more than 100 scheduled airlines, DXB has the world's first and largest purpose-built A380 facility at Concourse A. A newer facility, Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), operates 153 flights weekly to 30+ international destinations. It is home to 20 scheduled cargo operators that fly to as many as 68 destinations around the world. “As an easily accessible, safe destination, able to cater to a wide range of needs and budgets, Dubai has developed into a compelling option for meetings planners, and this has been reflected by the success the city has had in hosting international meetings and conferences. We look forward to building on our momentum, driving further growth in visitation to the city and contributing to its evolution as a well-diversified knowledge economy,” adds Issam Kazim

Want to know more about meeting and event planning in Dubai? Visit Cvent’s Dubai City Guide.

   

*source: https://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/tourism/dubai-s-hotels-room-supply-set-to-grow-by-11-1-from-2017-19-1.2176640