Over the past year, the newly established DWTC Authority has served as a strong regulatory complement to the DWTC business networking proposition, with a focus on broader ecosystem enablement, developing unique commercial real estate value and creating a holistic destination value proposition.
H.H further remarked, "Today, thanks to the impeccable reputation built over the years as a world-leader in the global exhibitions industry, DWTC is widely recognised as the most conducive international platform for businesses from the East and West to access and service emerging markets in Africa and the wider region. I congratulate the Board, the management and the employees for committing to the long-term agenda of the organisation as a core economic contributor for Dubai's GDP and for their collective drive to continuous innovation that has enabled DWTC to stay ahead of the curve in the evolving global economic landscape."
DWTC's 2015 results are a continuum in the trajectory of double-digit year on year growth supported by an extensive and varied events calendar across strategic industry sectors that are well aligned with Dubai's wider priorities for economic diversification.
Last year saw 396 trade events being hosted at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) venue including 104 mega-events, delivering a total of 2.74 million MICE delegates and attendees with 53,547 exhibitors from 185 countries to Dubai. With nearly 41per cent international participation across its portfolio of events, DWTC contributed an incremental 1,066,865 global visitors to Dubai's business tourism figures.
The primary international source markets for visitors included: Saudi Arabia, India, United Kingdom, Pakistan, China, Qatar, Oman, Iran, Jordan and Egypt. These accelerating numbers are a further testament of its key positioning, both on a global scale and within a diversified and sustainable local economy that supports future growth, employment and prosperity.
"Building on our core strategic fundamentals of delivering an enabling commerce platform for the world to do business with the wider region, we have focused our efforts on setting in motion the next phase of DWTC 's evolution. During 2015 we launched several medium-long term initiatives centered on customer experience enhancement, with technology and innovation at the heart of powering future growth opportunities for our business. The performance results clearly reflect the resilience of our diversified venue calendar catering for various event types across a broad set of industry sectors that has allowed DWTC to deliver strong international traffic growth from key source markets. Over the next 3 years, our priorities are aligned to the economic diversification focus of the UAE and Dubai, so that DWTC sustainably drives long-term returns for the MICE industry and consequently builds its contribution to our GDP," said Helal Saeed Almarri.
The DWTC venue reported high occupancy levels as it expanded even further on the breadth and depth of its varied events calendar to incorporate new exhibitions, international conferences, consumer and live events. 27 new shows including 8 exhibitions and 19 associations and conferences, featured as new entrants within the 2015 calendar, with many of them showcasing the latest trending topics like the Digital Health and Medical Technology Conference, and Internet of Things.
"The sectors we cover within our calendar have always been very closely aligned with the industries that the government of Dubai seeks to invest in and develop over the medium to long term. Over the years, we have steadily worked on compressing the lead times to attract the right profile shows, curate the content and build the scale to attract quality participation, so that today, even the newest events in the calendar have the relevance and gravitas to drive thought leadership and global debate within the sector. Optimal scale is a critical success factor as we review our portfolio performance, as it is a self-fulfilling cycle for attracting the largest international exhibitors and the biggest regional buyers, ultimately driving trade volumes at the shows and consequently higher return on event investment for all our customers," continued Almarri.
Eighty of the top tier exhibitions reaching a threshold scale of 25,000 attendees in average traffic per event during 2015, and all of DWTC 's anchor mega-events uniformly experienced year-on-year growth in volumes across visitors and exhibitors, reflecting very strong confidence in growth prospects for their respective global sectors, from healthcare, security and food, to travel, technology, and construction. Notable mentions include Arab Health that saw a 5per cent uplift over 2014 with more than 140,000 delegates; Gulfood that attracted a record 84,642 visitors from 170 countries and 4,800 exhibitors from 156 countries; the Arabian Travel Market that witnessed a 22per cent spike in exhibitors and an unprecedented 34per cent increase in visitor numbers; Gitex Technology Week that brought together over 146,000 industry professionals and more than 4,200 suppliers from 144 countries; and the Big 5 that delivered 3,104 exhibiting companies from 67 countries.
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