Dubai Business Events (DBE), part of the Department of Economy and Tourism, has announced that 232 bids for business events were won in 2022, twice as many as the previous year.
Set to be held over the coming years, the flagship conferences, corporate meetings, and international associations will bring in an additional 135,000 visitors including scientists, thought leaders and business executives to Dubai.
These include a record 57 association conferences won in a calendar year, the highest achieved by DBE. Major association events captured include the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine WorldLab Congress 2024, International Congress of Endocrinology 2024, World Sports Medicine Congress 2024, World Congress of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologies 2026, and International Symposium on Dental Hygiene 2028.
Meanwhile, the corporate meetings and incentive travel programmes that Dubai won bids for include IBM India and Europe Incentives 2023, Terpel Convention 2023, Envista EMEA Summit 2023 and Mary Kay Mexico Incentive 2024.
The strong performance in 2022 represented a 95 per cent growth in the number of successful bids from 2021 and a 92 per cent increase in the number of delegates added to the pipeline.
These successful event bids were won in collaboration with a range of stakeholders for the successful event bids including Al Safeer Congress Ambassadors and the public and private sector entities they represent, industry partners including Dubai World Trade Centre and Emirates, and hotels and professional congress organisers (PCOs) across the city.
These successful event bids also contribute to the goal of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33.
Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, said: “Inspired by the Dubai leadership’s economic vision, our goal has not only been to grow the business events sector and drive further visitation to the city, but also to ensure it can feed into the development of key sectors and professions.
“Dubai’s success in capturing business events in 2022, especially international association conferences, will play a vital role in further propelling innovation, professional development and knowledge exchange in their respective sectors and industries, and elevate Dubai’s standing within them. As we work to further advance the objectives of the D33 agenda for the next decade, the collaborative approach taken with public and private sector entities across the city will be more important than ever before.
“Combined with Dubai’s own homegrown trade shows and conferences, as well as other meetings being brought to the city, the business events sector continues to form an important pillar of Dubai’s destination offering and tourism growth.”
