Dubai attracts events and conferences as business revives

RIYADH: Dubai is moving full-speed ahead with in-person events on the back of fewer travel restrictions and one of the world’s most-connected airports, Bloomberg reported.
The UAE also has among the fastest vaccination programs, with 15 million doses administered in a population of 10 million.
Dubai is fast becoming a winner in the more than $1 trillion global events industry, while restrictions hamper travel to hubs including London and Singapore.
The emirate plans to host one of the biggest gas conferences and an African investor summit this year, while top cricketers are set to gather in the UAE for a popular tournament and later, for the T20 World Cup, according to Bloomberg.
Conferences and events accounted for 3 percent of Dubai’s $112 billion economy in 2019, said the director general of the emirate’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Helal Al-Marri.
The return to normalcy is expected to support the entertainment industry, which was undermined by the pandemic, he said.
It’s “an opportunity to showcase that Dubai is open and if this can be done while keeping new Covid infections in check -- and the vaccine rollout will help with that -- then visitors’ confidence in traveling to Dubai will be high,” said Chief Economist of Oxford Economics Middle East in Dubai, Scott Livermore.

Dubai attracts events and conferences as business revives