by Expo Events Consulting Expo Events Consulting

Dubai Business Events (DBE), the city’s official convention bureau has reported capturing a total of 120 events over the past year and for the future. Collaborating with stakeholders across the public and private sectors, DBE has helped secure a combination of conferences, meetings and incentive travel programmes, set to feature almost 70,000 key opinion leaders, scientists, government officials and other experts. These meetings, the DBE says, firmly place Dubai at the heart of global conversations on the recovery of key sectors and professions, innovation and economic growth.

The robust performance, the DBE attributes partly to global recognition of Dubai’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dubai has provided a viable alternative for hosting many events held over the past 15 months including some where organisers could not realise their original plans elsewhere in the world.

His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, said the city’s handling of the pandemic and rapid economic recovery had continued to be recognised by the global business community.

“The experience of the past two years has only served to underline the importance of in-person business events and what they can offer to organisers, participants, sponsors, exhibitors and their wider networks,” Almarri said. “We therefore continue to explore all opportunities to host business events in Dubai and work with stakeholders in the city to provide meeting planners a safe, impactful platform for knowledge sharing, networking and creating lasting legacies.”

Among the major events won in 2021 were the 27th International Council of Museums (ICOM) General Conference in 2025 and the BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition (2022), Asian Congress in Pediatric Nephrology (2023) and the Congress of the International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis (2024).

Meanwhile, the city’s pipeline of corporate meetings and incentive travel programmes has also continued to grow, with the addition of McDonald’s Russia Convention, AIA Star Convention and Oriflame Anniversary Gold Conference, all taking place in 2022.

The additions to the pipeline come amid a growing focus on the business events sector in Dubai, underlined by the formation of the Department of Economy and Tourism. One of the key priorities for the department is to capture 400 global economic events annually by 2025.

Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: “The pipeline of association events coming to Dubai is testament to the city’s ability to provide a platform for the sharing of knowledge and the expertise in the city for both hosting events and contributing to their rich programmes. Similarly, the strong line-up of corporate and incentive travel groups experiencing Dubai over the coming years is a clear indication of the compelling proposition major businesses around the world can see here.”

After maintaining a strong calendar of promotional activities around the world in 2021, DBE will this year lead nine sales missions across four continents, showcasing the city in traditional strongholds such as India, Europe and China, as well as markets where it sees strong opportunities for growth, including Israel and Latin America. Groups from around the world will also continue to be hosted on study missions to explore the city, while DBE will once again be joined by stakeholders at all major trade shows.

Steen Jakobsen, assistant vice-president, Dubai Business Events, said: “Our partners across hotels, venues, service providers and others within the business events ecosystem have always embraced the city’s culture of collaboration, and in 2022 this will be more important than ever, as we look to leverage our world-leading tourism and events recovery and provide planners and associations with compelling reasons to bring their conferences, meetings and incentive travel programmes to Dubai. We are encouraging stakeholders to join and support DBE in our year-round calendar of activities both in Dubai and in source markets around the world, as well as of course in bidding for and hosting events.”