CIMGlobal, the professional conference organiser, has opened an office in Abu Dhabi to tap the growing business tourism market in the emirate.
“We see huge potential in the Mice [meetings, incentives, conferences and events] sector in Abu Dhabi,” said Kruthika Naveen, the business coordinator for CIMGlobal Abu Dhabi. “We have been exploring the market in the GCC and found Abu Dhabi to be the heart of the region with business links and initiatives that go beyond most other cities. This is our first time in the UAE, but we already have two projects under way and believe there will be many others in the pipeline.”
The company will be based in Adnec, with Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, the acting group chief executive at Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, saying that Adnec will support “CIMGlobal to develop their portfolio of international conferences and exhibitions”.
The capital’s conference centre hosted 327 events and 1.6 million visitors in 2014, reporting 5.2 per cent annual growth in visitor traffic last year, according to the industry watcher TRI Consulting.
In addition, hotels and other venues in the city hosted hundreds of events not included in the above figure.
The Mice sector in the Arabian Gulf is valued at US$1.3 billion, with the UAE accounting for half of that at $653 million, according to Dubai’s World Trade Centre.
The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority targeted specific geographies for 2015, looking to grow the India market by 20 per cent. It provided 231,702 guests last year.
It also looked to grow the Gulf market, which welcomed 240,478 guests last year, by 30 per cent.
The region’s key Mice destinations include the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Bahrain and Qatar in the GCC, and Egypt, Morocco and Jordan in the wider Mena region – excluding Turkey which is a major international Mice destination.
Based on a recent study by Pacific World, India, the US, eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Benelux were the key source markets for the UAE, with the majority of clients coming from the pharmaceutical, IT and automotive industries.
“Mice events bring significant volumes of visitors to a destination,” said Rashid Aboobacker, an associate director at TRI Consulting.
“Mice travellers generally tend to spend more money at the destination on shopping and tourism activities than leisure travellers, and also offers strong opportunity for the city to attract the visitors back to the city as leisure tourists with their families and friends.”
ascott@thenational.ae
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