ADTA to utilize GIBTM 2008 business tourism show to tap growth opportunities

The three-day high-profile gathering of decision-makers of Meetings, Incentives, Exhibitions and Conferences (MICE) industry at ADNEC provides an ideal platform to reach out to the global players and enable them to take a closer look at the business tourism potential of Abu Dhabi and the robust growth opportunities regionally.

Dayne Lim Kok Chun, Director of Product Development Division at ADTA, said Abu Dhabi was a relatively emerging city on the global Business Tourism landscape and needs a focused drive to create better awareness about the destination and effective networking to attract MICE business from different parts of the world.

The five-year tie-up between the ADTA and Reed Travel Exhibitions, organizers of GIBTM - now among the five major MICE industry-specific trade shows worldwide - would go a long way in tapping the business tourism opportunities from established MICE source markets like Europe, Asia and Americas, he added.

"In the next 12 to 18 months, we will deepen our efforts in three key source markets of China, Europe and North America. We are confident of our bids to host major meetings and conferences in the emirate being successful. We are looking at major international meetings and conferences in areas like pharmaceuticals, medical, real estate, tourism, architecture and manufacturing," Mr. Dayne Lim said.

The ADTA, he said, was grappling with key challenges in promoting business tourism like availability of more hotel rooms and expanded conferencing and leisure facilities in the next two to three years.

Gillian Taylor, Business Tourism Manager at ADTA, said: "Our aim is to create a vibrant Business Tourism environment with strong industry players, robust alliances and world-class infrastructure so that Abu Dhabi can deliver best practice MICE business successfully and provide the resulting benefits to the stakeholders."

The ADTA's specific strategic objectives are to position Abu Dhabi as the premier business tourism destination in the world, increase business tourism coming to Abu Dhabi and maximize yield and optimize new investment and infrastructure to attract business tourism.

She said the ADTA was currently looking at additional ways that can help and support and makes it easy for decision-makers to select Abu Dhabi as their Business Tourism destination.

Mubarak Rashid Al Nuaimi, ADTA's Business Tourism MICE Development Section Head, said the ADTA website is being made more interactive with a Find a Supplier section and a Request for Proposal section. A major initiative is the production of 2008 edition of Abu Dhabi Business Tourism Planners Guide in both print and online formats.

For the GIBTM-2008, an Abu Dhabi Day has been planned for the Hosted Buyers to showcase the meetings potential of Abu Dhabi and in addition all our stakeholders can participate in the best business-to-business opportunities, best networking and the best professional education available during the exhibition.

He said a further initiative is our support of MPI Meeting Professionals International, the largest association and leading professional community for the global meetings industry with over 22,000 members worldwide. The Gulf Meetings and Events Conference, created and delivered by MPI (Meetings Professionals International) will take place in Dubai just prior to GIBTM.

Another initiative is the formation of a MICE Industry Advisory Panel (IAP) to tackle the major challenges and issues facing Business Tourism in Abu Dhabi. The purpose of the panel is to work together to develop the world class infrastructure required for Abu Dhabi to grow as a Business Tourism Destination and to be a driving force in securing and promoting profitable Business Tourism for Abu Dhabi.

The panel is about strengthening ADTA's partnership with our stakeholders through better communication and consultation and provides the industry the opportunity to play a crucial role in ADTA's planning process, bid opportunities and product development, facilities and services for Business Tourism in Abu Dhabi.

The Business Tourism Division of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority offers free advice, assistance and local knowledge to those considering the city as a meeting, incentive or exhibition venue.