Dubai has proven its potential at the business event segment achieving 175 worldwide bids at the start of the second half of 2024. Compared to the year 2018, this year is expecting over 93 thousand delegates marked a 24% growth boosting the city’s business event pipeline up to 2028.
Such accomplishments place Dubai on the map as a preferred venue for prestigious global conferences, congresses, and incentives in the given fields. It aligns with the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which is to more than double the size of Dubai’s economy by 2033 to make it one of the most preferred global cities to visit, live, and work in.
Dubai Business Events (DBE) which falls under the Dubai Department of Economy & Tourism engaged stakeholders and key industry opinion leaders known as Al Safeer Congress Ambassadors to facilitate these conventions. Recent achievement includes ICCA that ranked Dubai as the number one city in the Middle East for association meetings in 2023, and Cvent putting it as the leading meeting destination in Middle East and Africa.
Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment reiterated on the importance of business events to the tourism and economic growth. He pointed out that these events contribute towards solidifying Dubai’s position as the knowledge based economy and in the pursuit of the vision of the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33 of making Dubal the favored global city for commercial and tourism.
Thus, Dubai is gradually gaining popularity as a destination for corporate and incentive events because of the variety of products, the presence of foreign hotels, well-developed transport and communication infrastructures. Sustained key event productions are Modicare Advisors Incentive 2024, Vkusno i Tochka Convention 2024, World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit 2024, and OPPO Guangdong Mobile Communication Incentive 2025.
This has also contributed to the cities increasing reputation as a leading association destination; where large convention events like The International Cotton Association Conference 2025, IFHNOS Summit 2025, WCA World Annual Conference 2025 and Rhinology World Congress 2028 are present.
