Business events are poised to make a vital contribution to Dubai’s economic development and tourism growth with successful bids for international conferences, congresses, meetings and incentive travel programmes. The convention bureau Dubai Business Events (DBE) said it won 232 bids for business events in 2022, almost twice as many as the previous 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.

Beyond their direct impact, the events, which include conferences and congresses organised by international associations, as well as corporate meetings held by multinationals, will contribute to Dubai’s growth as a knowledge economy hub. Dubai won bids for a record 57 association conferences in 2022.

Reportedly, the 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 added to the pipeline.

Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, said: “The remarkable growth in successful event bids contributes to the goal of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 to make the city one of the top three global destinations for tourism and business.”

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.

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.

In addition to the bidding activity, DBE kept Dubai top of mind among meeting planners and association executives through an intense, year-round calendar of almost 200 global sales activities, including study missions, roadshows and participation in major trade shows. Overall, this resulted in Dubai’s business events proposition becoming more familiar to meeting planners in 33 markets globally through face-to-face interactions – all further boosted by marketing and PR activities.

Steen Jakobsen, Associate Vice President, Dubai Business Events said: “Engaging with meeting planners globally throughout 2022, we consistently heard that they were impressed with the way in which Dubai’s business events sector rapidly rebounded in the wake of the pandemic and appreciative of the platform the city provided them to safely resume their events.”

DBE is embarking on year-round activities in Dubai to further raise the profile of the city’s strengths and capabilities as a business events destination. These include sales missions to key target markets and participation in major trade shows including IBTM World and IMEX.