Dubai emerge as the most-appealing 'MICE' destination

The DTCM's promotional and marketing drive for Dubai as an ideal year-round business and leisure destination and its MICE strengths gets aggressive with 56 co-participants from emirate's booming tourism industry joining the global fraternity for networking and business deals during the third edition of IMEX.

The DTCM, which acknowledges Germany as its crucial source market, and its co-participants are sparing no efforts to tap the growth opportunities that this major annual gathering of hosted-buyers and MICE industry decision-makers offer.

Dubai, Mr. bin Sulayem said, has proved its strengths in hosting major conferences, exhibitions and meetings and has several coveted gatherings to host in the coming years. The global confidence in Dubai's strengths and opportunities is best reflected in the successful hosting and year-on-year expansion of major exhibitions like GITEX, Dubai Airshow and ATM. "We always strive for delivering more than the expectations. We have been successful and confident about continuing the inspirational trend," he remarked.

He said Dubai could immensely benefit from the immense growth opportunities that exist in the $280 billion-strong global MICE industry. A number of initiatives are in place to tap these niche markets to the maximum and bring to Dubai a significant number of over 400,000 major conferences that are held around the world annually.

At the 5th Global Travel & Tourism Summit held in New Delhi recently, Mr. Jean-Claude Baumgarten, President of The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has praised Dubai and said that the world could learn from its success in tourism and other economic sectors.

Mr. bin Sulayem said tourism, as one of the largest industries in the world, has been providing employment to more than 200 million people and generating $600 billion annually, which is over 10 % of the global GDP.

Dubai has successfully increased its tourism share in the economy by posting impressive year-on-year growth. Dubai stunned the world in 2002 when the World Tourism Organization praised the emirate for posting the highest growth in visitor arrivals.

The IMEX-2004 show united more than 12,000 industry professionals, including 2,500 exhibitors from over 130 countries. More than 3,000 German buyers attended the show, including 250 from long-haul markets outside the Western Europe.

The DTCM participated in the IMEX-2003 with 16 co-participants. At 255 square metres, the Dubai stand at the IMEX-2004 was one of the biggest at the high-profile fair and saw the participation of 53 co-participants.

The number of Dubai co-participants increased by a whooping 350 per cent this year compared with the first edition of IMEX in 2003. The stand size also increased from 250 sq m in 2004 to 300 sq m this year.