Dubai promotes its world-class conventions facilities to lucrative U.S. market at key MICE event in Chicago

Dubai's world-class meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) facilities - as well as its tourism potential, attractions and infrastructure - are being showcased to North America by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

The DTCM is participating in the largest incentive show for executives in North America - the Motivation Show (IT & ME), which runs from September 16th to 18th in Chicago.

Khalid bin Sulayem, Dubai 2003 Steering Committee member and DTCM Director General, stated that the MICE sector in North America is one of the largest contributors to the continent's hospitality industry accounting annually for billions of dollars worth of business.

"One-third of all hotel room sales in the USA come from conventions," said bin Sulayem adding that even the industry season timings are perfect.

"The global conferences and convention season runs from September to May which is perfect for us in the Gulf. It is the best time of the year here as far as the weather is concerned," he added.

DTCM has had a booth at the show for the past 12 years. "But this time our participation is different. This time, we are building our presence in North America on our successful track record in organising a global event like the Annual Meetings.

"We are extremely pleased with the response. Many incentive companies and corporate planners have anticipated our presence and sought us out even before the show started," bin Sulayem stated.

According to DTCM they will concentrate on promoting the UAE as a global centre for conventions. "We will present our capability in successfully hosting the Annual Meetings as a case in point, and the centre piece of our display will be the newly-built Main Hall of the Dubai International Convention Centre (DICC) which can hold 6,000 seated and 15,000 people standing," added bin Sulayem.

"Dubai is the first city in the Arab world to host the World Bank Group and IMF Annual Meetings. We have successfully demonstrated our capability. But now, we need to capitalise on this momentum and ensure that we attract a larger number of world renowned conferences, international companies and organisations to the region to demonstrate what we have to offer," explained bin Sulayem.

The Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund were first held in Washington DC in 1946. They are hosted by an international city one year in three. The UAE and Dubai were selected because of their highly developed transportation and logistics infrastructure, growing importance as a financial hub and its established position as an oasis of opportunity.