|By TAP Staff| The Dubai World Trade Centre on Saturday announced that 2.2 million trade delegates and attendees visited exhibitions centre last year – marking the first time the figure has crossed the 2 million milestone.
Dubai World Trade Centre hosted 373 meetings, incentives, conferencing, and exhibitions (MICE )and business events throughout 2013, up from 302 in the previous year. Exhibitors from more than 130 nations attended. Some mega-consumer shows attracting upwards of 100,000 people, such as GITEX Shopper, which also debuted a new Spring event.
The World Trade Centre attributed this growth to “last three years of strategic focus on investing in higher quality and stronger trade events across a range of industries including health care, ICT, energy, finance and economics, food, logistics and retail.
“The strong 2013 performance is a reflection of a more stable global economy, domestic market recovery in construction and real estate, and growing consumer confidence. Our focus on developing stronger events within key sectors for Dubai’s economy, and growing the international attendance at events hosted in our venue, has allowed Dubai World Trade Centre to sustainably increase the value created for all stakeholders within the MICE sector — ultimately driving even greater GDP contribution,” said Helal Saeed Al Merri, Director General of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre.
Additionally, Dubai World Trade Centre attracted several association and congresses in 2013 led by high-profile events such as Sibos, the premier forum for the international financial services sector and ITU Telecoms World.
“We operate in an extremely competitive global and regional MICE environment. To retain Dubai’s positioning as a global hub for regional networking, government entities, public sector stakeholders and all our international industry partners must continue to work collaboratively. Over the last decade, Dubai World Trade Centre has seen a trebling of its visitor numbers and we expect to continue strategically attracting more international business travellers, and incentivising higher spend with a more diversified event calendar, in line with His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai’s Tourism Vision for 2020,” he added.
Dubai World Trade Centre also saw a 59 per cent growth across its calendar of entertainment and live events. An increased portfolio of 54 consumer facing events in 2013, drew more than 631,000 guests, and included the popular Dubai Sports World and the inaugural Dubai Music Week, both due to return in 2014, as well as a broad range of concerts with local, regional and international acts.
