Dubai is aiming to be the “meeting place of the world” as global events in the emirate ramp up and other parts of the world struggle to host as they continue to cope with lockdowns and restrictions.
The latest live event to take place at the Dubai World Trade Centre was the MEA conference of UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibitions Industry, described as ‘a conference about conferences’.
The event came following the success of the Arabian Travel Market, which last week saw thousands of visitors attend from 90 countries.
In an on-stage conversation titled ‘Dubai, a global safe destination’, Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Tourism, told a packed, socially distanced room, that the emirate could become the meeting place for the world.
He said: “To be honest, that is our hope. When you look at it from the Dubai Tourism mandate, we have leisure tourism as one of the key priorities, and yes it probably contributes roughly around 80 percent of visitors. However, we also have another big chunk that contributes quite heavily on the GDP, which is the business tourism side of things, and that is of course to attract conferences to Dubai and video conferences.
“We have the convention bureau that works within the Dubai Tourism team actively and successfully bidding for global conferences. We’ve had an amazing period during the pandemic where we were able to submit and win an amazing number of bids as well.
“So for us, that will remain a key priority, and of course another part of that is attracting visitors to come and attend a lot of the other conferences and exhibitions that are continuously being held in Dubai.
Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Tourism
“Going forward, the way that we see this, is there are other destinations that might not be in the privileged position as Dubai at this stage, so we are reaching out to them to understand if there is an event that has been cancelled or postponed. We are a destination that’s ready and willing and we have a very capable team across the private and public sector to ensure that these events can continue in Dubai.”
Research carried out after events such as Gulfood and Gitex is helping Dubai gauge the confidence among attendees, with surveys showing that almost 90 percent felt safe at every stage of the experience visiting an exhibition.
Earlier the audience heard from Shady Elborno, senior director, group research for Emirates NBD, who gave an economic update on the region for the events industry.
He told the audience that the UAE’s response to the pandemic, and being able to reopen events earlier than other places in the world, had put the country in ‘pole position’.
He said: “The events industry in particular benefits from the experience the different players in the UAE service industry have built up since opening in July. We’ve gone through the trials and errors of working in a post-pandemic world, and the industry, whether it’s hotels, airlines – the whole logistics infrastructure around travel, is much better prepared than other different sectors around the world.
“The health services sector is one of the sectors that is also quite proud of the fact that we were able to accelerate vaccines at a much faster pace than many economies around the world, which is another plus factor.”
On Tuesday, officials revealed that the UAE is now the first country globally in the number of vaccination doses administered per 100 people in the total population.
In opening the event, Helal Al Marri, the director general of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: “I believe that the industry is very hungry, the businesses from across the world need these types of events to accelerate their business.
“I’m so happy to see everybody here. Hopefully this can work as a launchpad for us all to continue to grow, and to continue to interact in-person between all of us.”
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