DRMumbai: Dubai Business Events (DBE), the city’s official convention bureau, said there were 125 successful bids to host MICE events in H1, 2018. This registers a 29 per cent increase over the same time period last year. MICE will attract over 65,000 delegates from around the world to Dubai and have an economic impact of approximately AED 500 million ($136 million).
Dubai is also a constantly evolving world class city with new attractions coming up every year that no two visits offer the same experience
A 10-member trade delegation led by Karina Lance, Senior Manager – Congress Development & Convention Services, Dubai Business Events & City Operations visited Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru recently.
The delegation included DMCs, hotels and PCOs. Cruise Club is the India representative of DBE.
“We are doing well with the corporate meetings and group incentive travel segments in India. We want to grow the association congress segment here,” said Lance in an exclusive chat with Destination Reporter. “Currently 80 per cent business emanating from India is in the incentive-space and the remaining are corporate conferences. That’s the priority now.”
Among the major event wins in H1, 2018 are the Pro-Health China Incentive (2019), World Chamber Congress (2021), International Congress for the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (2021), World Congress of Gastroenterology (2021), as well as Asia Pacific Congress of Cardiology (2023).
As part of its efforts to highlight Dubai as a potential business event destination, DBE representatives attended over 70 trade events around the world, as well as facilitated 14 site inspections for 30 clients.
In emerging markets like India the first opportunity for overseas travel is primarily from the employer organisation. Incentive travel has a ripple effect as travellers/conference delegates will most likely return with family and friends, if they like the destination.
“From India last year we welcomed about 2 million visitors and about 30-40 per cent are corporate travellers,” she said. “DBE has a bid-to-business conversion ratio of 60 per cent for incentive travel and 30 per cent for association congress,” adds Lance saying “We can certainly do more in the congress space with India.”
DBE is trying to target professional associations of medical professionals, chartered accountants, company secretaries etc. who currently conduct their annual conventions mostly in India to explore Dubai as a future destination for their events.
Dubai is a young country which will turn 50 in 2020. So the local trade associations and professional bodies are quite young and relationships globally also are rather new. This has an effect on association congress business unlike Europe or US where trade and professional bodies are centuries old.
“Congress organisers doing events in Dubai also look at delegates from MENA, parts of Asia, India and China. China is also performing well for MICE as the Chinese do not require a visa to enter the UAE since November 2016, so MICE business is on the rise from China but in terms of overall numbers, India does better. China is a huge market, at number six or seven in total arrivals. The country also mostly has incentive travellers. We had the largest group, 14,500 pax from China, a direct selling company.”
Dubai and India have had very warm relations for decades with the Emirate being the first international destination many Indians visit, thanks to the short travel time, and family members and friends living and working there.
“Dubai is also a constantly evolving world class city with new attractions coming up every year that no two visits offer the same experience. Apart from such winning factors, Dubai’s vision and aggressive growth over the years resonate well with that of a client organisation’s brief while hosting an incentives group,” feels Lance.
Dubai has been adding 3 and 4-star accommodation, a critical component for growing MICE, for some time now. Zabeel House MINI by Jumeirah, Rove by Emaar, and Ibis and Mercure from Accor have grown in the mid-range inventory.
Dubai is planning to convert the expo site after Expo 2020 into a 45,000 sq.mt. convention centre.
“We will reserve DWTC for trade shows and the Expo Convention Centre will be used for conferencing and social events,” informs Lance.
Dubai Arena at City Walk, being developed by Meraas, is almost complete and should open by first half of next year – the 20,000-seater will be ideal for concerts, sporting events and conferencing. Dubai Parks and Resorts has many outdoor and indoor venues for MICE. Emaar’s Dubai Opera, a 2,000-seat, multi-format, performing arts centre in Downtown Dubai, is another perfect venue.
With latest landmark Dubai Frame that welcomed guests at the start of this year, Dubai Eye, the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, opening end of the year and theme park Six Flags to open in 2019 within Dubai Parks and Resorts – there seems to be no end to new attractions.
