• Home
• /
• Business

Dubai’s MICE sector grows 25% while events industry clocks Dh165 billion in 2023

Dubai’s exhibitions, conferences, seminars and business events sector has recorded a 25%

Dubai’s exhibitions, conferences, seminars and business events sector has recorded a 25 percent growth last year as Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the global events and exhibitions industry powerhouse and a leading business enabler, said it has attracted 2.47 million participants in 2023.

“[The] 2023 results with outstanding performance offer an insight into Dubai’s unprecedented economic growth and its position as a powerful international convening platform for business and trade enablement,” DWTC says. “The results were driven by 301 Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), business and consumer events, a notable 23 percent rise year-on-year.”

These results come as Dubai-based Alltech Events Group announces an expansion plan that will see the company expand its capabilities to boost the emirate’s events industry that generated Dh165 billion turnover last year. It is hiring 30 percent more professionals to manage the growth in business, reflecting what the DWTC said about the industry.

DWTC held 107 Exhibitions and International Association Conventions and Industry Conferences last year, collectively attracting 1.56 million attendees, marking a substantial 33 percent increase compared to the previous year. Of these, over 722,000 were international attendees, representing an unprecedented 60 percent growth year-on-year.

“The event industry in Dubai is estimated to be worth Dh165.15 billion (US$44.7 billion) in 2023, that is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 25 percent per year between 2023 to 2027, according to a report by Dubai Pulse published on Linked-In. “The events industry supports 100,000 jobs in Dubai while it will create a further 10,000 more in the next five years.”

However, there is an even bigger events market in the GCC and the Middle East region where events are getting bigger and better. Middle East Event Services Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.1 percent from 2023 to 2033 to $144.2 billion in 2033, according to Market Decipher, a research entity.

Alltech Events is planning to expand beyond the UAE to become a regional player in the next few years.

“We have invested more than Dh5.5 million to acquire new and technologically advanced audio-visual products that will help us to raise the bar in events production while expand our capacity in handling more events,” Rinu Basheer, CEO and Managing Partner of Alltech Events Group that includes Udaya Sound (US) Creations, says.

“Our turnover doubled to Dh15 million in 2023, growing from Dh7.5 million in 2022. We currently produce or handled between 250 to 300 events per year with a team of 72 professionals and sound engineers – which is very high in number compared to others.

“We are going to see a higher turnover this year and the years to come due to the increasing number of business and corporate events and our ability to deliver them on time, professionally and with the intended outcome by the clients. Due to the steep growth in business, we are hiring new professionals in order to expand our capabilities in the UAE and beyond. By the end of this year, we expect the number of our employees to grow by 30 percent to exceed 100 on direct payroll.”

The company currently has a huge events inventory of technical gadgets, including sound and vision equipment, LED screens, heavy-duty sound system and other accessories that are spread over six large warehouses, while his team is looking for more storage facilities to keep and maintain Dh100 million worth of equipment.

Alltech Event Group’s growth somewhat mirrors the growth of the events industry – one of the fastest-growing economic sectors – in Dubai and the UAE.

Events – corporate events, business events, seminars, conferences, channel partners meeting, exhibitions that are also collectively known as Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Exhibitions (MICE) sector – are a growing industry in the UAE and Dubai is the events hub of the Middle East and North Africa region. Directly and indirectly, they all contribute to the UAE’s tourism and hospitality industry as these events attract a large pool of foreign visitors who pay for air tickets, hotel stay, restaurants for food and local transport agencies, taxis and tour operators for local transport and site-seeing activities.

The MICE industry in the UAE will continue its exponential growth and sustain significant contribution to the national economy in coming years, according to industry reports that indicate that the UAE MICE market is expected to grow at 8.5 per cent during the 2023-30 from US$5.21 billion to US$9.22 billion by 2030 due to increasing business events, exhibitions and conferences in the country.

The UAE dominates the MICE market in the Middle East due to world-class infrastructure and facilities for hosting global events. Dubai World Trade Centre, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) and Expo Centre Sharjah are some of the leading players in the MICE industry and contributing significantly to national economy.

The region’s leading destination for business events, Dubai attracts a wide range of business travellers through its calendar of annual exhibitions and trade shows that are among the largest in the world. Major business and leisure events held in 2023 included Gulfood that attracted 134,000 visitors and 5,000 exhibitors, Gitex Global Dubai attracted 170,000 visitors and 6,000 exhibitors, the Dubai International Boat Show saw 30,000 visitors while the Arabian Travel Market saw a footfall of 40,000 visitors.

Established UAE at 2019, Alltech Events is a leading Dubai-based in-house event production company specialising in design and technical production. Whether it’s large-scale awards shows, banquets, conferences, exhibitions, experiential events and brand activations, or more intimate media launches, fashion shows, weddings and receptions.