January 2023

Business events are poised to make a vital contribution to Dubai’s economic development and tourism growth, with another exceptional year of successful bids for international conferences, meetings and incentive travel programmes.

The bid wins in 2022 include 57 association conferences, the most the city has won in a calendar year

Set to be held over the coming years, the events will bring in an additional 135,000 visitors including scientists, thought-leaders and business executives to Dubai, enhancing the value generated by the business events and tourism ecosystem.

Dubai Business Events the city’s official convention bureau, part of the Department of Economy and Tourism collaborated 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 across the city.

Beyond the direct impact of the events which range from flagship conferences and congresses organised by international associations, as well as prestigious corporate meetings held by multinationals, will contribute to Dubai’s growth as a knowledge economy hub.

The major association events captured in 2022 included 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

While 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 percent growth in the number of successful bids from 2021 and, a 92 percent increase in the number of delegates– all further accelerating the momentum of Dubai’s growth.

Business Events Sarawak has signed a collaborative agreement with Professional Convention Management Association to be the strategic partner in North America and worldwide in developing its International Journal of Business Events and Legacies.  The agreement was signed during the PCMA Convening Leaders 2023 event at Columbus, Ohio in USA.

Agreement signed by Mr. Sherrif Karamat, president and chief executive officer of PCMA and Ms. Amelia Roziman, BESarawak’s chief executive officer during the Convening of Leaders 2023 at Columbus, Ohio.

The collaboration is expected to open new opportunities for Sarawak, a second tier destination in Malaysia. The journal’s reach is also expected to expand through PCMA’s network of audience and members as well as, establish the periodical as an efficient tool for academic and practical use.

A foremost academic journal and the first in the world, to merge business events and legacy topics under one title. The periodical contains high quality research, reviews and viewpoints offering wide and varied perspectives on business events issues for the events industry contributed by practitioners, researchers, academicians, students and event enthusiasts.

The journal’s initial volume, was launched in November 30 last year with 11 articles published predominantly on legacy and sustainability.

Managed by Curtin University Malaysia, the International Journal of Business Events and Legacies has a total of 48 collaborators ranging from editors, advisors to association and academia partners from Asia, Australia, Africa, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau has signed an agreement to work with Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, to market meeting and incentive business through trade shows and road shows. The target is; quality meeting and incentive travellers from Asia and Europe.

The two parties expect the collaboration will attract at least 500,000 travellers and generate 33 billion baht in revenue.

“We will focus first on overseas market of meetings and incentive travel. This sector has been a huge market source of travellers for Thailand since the middle of this year. Our targets are both short-haul market in the Asia Pacific region and the long-haul one in Europe. The particular focus is the markets where THAI and THAI Smile Airways operate flight services, for example Europe, India, Australia, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar,” said Mr. Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, president of Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.

The major global trade shows for meetings and incentive travel sector are IMEX Frankfurt 2023 in May in Germany, IT&CM Asia and CTW Asia-Pacific 2023 in September in Thailand, IMEX America 2023 in October in the US and IBTM World 2023 in November in Spain.

While for the road shows, the first targets are Cambodia and Vietnam. In May there will be planned road shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

More pro-active marketing activities are in the pipeline for TCEB’s overseas representatives to tap into; India, Singapore, Europe, United Kingdom and China once the circumstances permit.

Currently, TCEB has overseas representatives in seven potential markets such as Australia, United Kingdom, Europe, North America, India, Singapore, Japan and China.

It was at a meeting in Paris on February 4, 1973 that an initiative was proposed and acted upon to create an association focused on the young and fast-growing incentive market from North America.

Euromic is a non-profit marketing association of the world’s leading destination management companies.

Members of the association are a carefully selected group of established professionals, who have a proven track record of consistently delivering exceptional events. This year marked the association’s 50^th year.

“50 years of euromic, makes us one of the oldest DMC networks in the business, is a huge achievement for all past and present”, says Mr. Rajeev Kohli, president of euromic. “In this fragile world, this kind of longevity expresses the strong foundation of this great alliance; it is a major milestone, one we are all proud of and of the foundations laid to get us here.”

The association will be celebrating its half a century of service with a series of events and programmes. This includes special events at industry tradeshows.  Also in the pipeline is a podcast entitled: ’50 Years Old – 50 Years Young’.