Dubai: Dubai’s business events sector and wider economy are poised to benefit from another year of successful bidding activity led by Dubai Business Events (DBE), the city’s official convention bureau.
Collaborating with stakeholders across the public and private sectors, DBE has captured a total of 120 events for the year 2021 and beyond. These events, a combination of conferences, meetings and incentive travel programmes, feature almost 70,000 key opinion leaders, scientists, government officials and other experts, which put Dubai at the heart of global conversations on the recovery of key sectors and professions, innovation and economic growth.
The robust performance, achieved despite continued disruption to the global business events sector, is largely attributable to worldwide recognition of Dubai’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dubai provided a viable and attractive alternative for hosting many events held over the past 15 months and now many are in the pipeline after organisers’ original plans elsewhere in the world could not come to fruition.
“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. 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,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism.
Among the major events won in 2021 were the 27th International Council of Museums (ICOM) General Conference in 2025. Dubai Business Events (DBE) collaborated with the UAE’s chapter of ICOM (ICOM-UAE), Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and Dubai Municipality to win the bid for the event.
Other key events captured over the past year for the associations segment included the BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition (2022), Asian Congress in Pediatric Nephrology (2023) and the Congress of the International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis (2024).
Strong pipeline
Meanwhile, the city’s pipeline of corporate meetings and incentive travel programmes 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.
“Beyond just attracting more visitors to Dubai, business events have a significant economic impact and contribute to knowledge development and innovation in the city. 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,” said Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
