With Saudi Arabia announcing a new MICE show and big new investment to attract foreign visitors, and Bahrain’s Exhibition World venue getting into its stride, the CMW team had the recent opportunity to hear about continued progress in one of the long-time regional MICE leaders, Abu Dhabi. Mubarak Al Shamsi, director of the Abu Dhabi Convention & Exhibition Bureau (ADCEB) at the Department of Culture and Tourism, headed the largest ever ADCEB contingent to IBTM World 2024 in Barcelona in November and met with CMW’s Paul Colston and Iain Stirling (pictured) to outline a new stage in the dynamic growth of the international business events business in the emirate.
Abu Dhabi ranks third on Cvent’s 2024 list of top global meeting destinations and, said Al Shamsi: “We have hosted 17 mega MICE events involving more than 1.24 million delegates during 2024 and are also the number one destination in the Middle East according to the 2022 ICCA rankings for the number of in-person meetings”.
ICCA, of course, held its biggest-ever annual Congress in 2024 in Abu Dhabi. Its 63rd Congress in October brought 1,563 delegates to the emirate, noted Al Shamsi, with a subsequent ICCA statement saying, in part: “This achievement would not have been possible without the exceptional collaborative effort of our host, ADCEB, whose outstanding work helped create a truly unforgettable experience for all.”
Al Shamsi reminded that delegates then had enjoyed a Challenge Night at Warner Bros World, made the most of spectacular views of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque during the Welcome Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal, and enjoyed a Gala Dinner at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental Hotel. “The ICCA Congress,” the ADCEB director said, “showcased Abu Dhabi’s role in shaping events legacy worldwide.”
Al Shamsi reminded that Abu Dhabi also had a good history in delivering on the legacy front, with the 16th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, held in Abu Dhabi back in 2015, one of the key high-level meeting that addressed the major threat to humanity caused by tobacco use. Now Abu Dhabi offers over 34,000 hotel rooms in a destination that is brimming with world-class business facilities and also top-class leisure and cultural experiences.
And, in terms of MICE infrastructure, the emirate’s flagship Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), is not only the largest conference centre in the Middle East, but recently hit the headlines in the UK with the acquisition of London’s Business Design Centre venue. In addition, the premier venue stock in Abu Dhabi includes Etihad Arena, the Middle East’s largest state-of-the-art entertainment venue, while Al Shamsi noted a second Sphere venue is planned for the city in the near future.
As for 2025 and beyond, Al Shamsi said: “The future strategy for MICE will see it dovetail with our Economic Plan for 2030,” adding that the key to future MICE success was getting all the local stakeholders to work together. “We can’t do it alone,” he said.
ADCEB is certainly well connected, and its high level contacts in government, means it is a powerful advocate for business events and for boosting the influence of organisers’ events in the emirate. And, for those with existing events in the city, Al Shamsi said Abu Dhabi could help organisers turbocharge them into ‘mega’ events of the future.
