Dubai looks to gather business events momentum

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing has issued official guidelines on how business events can take place safely as the city prepares to resume its calendar of conferences, meetings and exhibitions. With locally organised meetings taking place from 15 September and international meetings returning to the city from 1 October, the guidelines focus on protecting the health and safety of all participants, including delegates and staff, while ensuring they are able to host and experience impactful meetings that meet the needs of all stakeholders involved. Key measures venues and organizers must implement include social distancing, temperature checks, the safe dispensation of F&B and regular sanitation of facilities.

Along with procedures already in place at the airport, hotels, restaurants, attractions and other visitor touchpoints around the city, the guidelines allow Dubai to be at the forefront of the global recovery of the business events sector, with a number of important conferences and trade shows already scheduled over the coming months.

Dubai is seen as the safest location to host international exhibitions and conferences in the coming months, while trade fairs will play a critical role in a post-COVID-19 ‘restart’, according to new research. A recent market survey of more than 4,000 professionals from 130 countries explored the impact of COVID-19 on the global exhibitions industry, delving into key areas such as travel, budgets, and the importance of trade fairs in a post-pandemic world. The study covered a wide range of industry sectors from the auto aftermarket and commercial security to beauty and cosmetics, showing that 77 percent of respondents viewed Dubai and Germany (41 percent of respondents), as the safest destinations to attend exhibitions post COVID-19.

“As with many business sectors, the trade fair industry felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in Dubai, which has a thriving exhibition sector at the Dubai World Trade Centre,” said Simon Mellor, Messe Frankfurt Middle East’s CEO. “The purpose of the ‘Exhibitions post COVID-19’ study was to investigate how this global virus affected businesses of MFME stakeholders, and how we can address their concerns collaboratively with our peers.  We will continue to run the survey over the course of the year and look to engage more parties as it evolves over time.”

Dubai’s tourism and hospitality sectors are benefiting from a rapid rebound driven by a multi-phase roadmap being executed by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). Prominent players in the industry have experienced a surge of interest from across the world since the reopening of the city to international tourists on 7 July.

“Dubai continues to take effective steps under the guidance of the visionary leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai to build on the strategic initiative to reopen the city to tourists on 7 July. Since then, we have been greatly encouraged by the market’s response in the current second phase of our recovery strategy, which was activated along with the gradual resumption of economic sectors, as well as the staggered and tentative restart of travel across the world,” said His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai Tourism.

Emirates and flydubai have announced that customers of both airlines can once again access a wider range of travel options around the world, connecting seamlessly and safely through Dubai. Following the progressive resumption of passenger flights to global destinations, the two Dubai-based airlines have revived their successful and strategic partnership to offer customers increased connectivity, convenience and travel flexibility. Emirates customers can now travel on codeshare flights to over 30 destinations on flydubai, while flydubai customers have over 70 destinations they can travel to on Emirates. Some of the favorite flydubai destinations for Emirates passengers include: Belgrade, Bucharest, Kyiv, Sofia and Zanzibar.

Commenting on the renewal of the partnership, Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer said: “We are delighted to announce that our customers can once again take advantage of the complementary strengths of Emirates and flydubai to access an enhanced network of cities on a single ticket and integrated loyalty program, enjoy a safe, smooth and stress-free transfer experience through Dubai and have their baggage checked through to their final destination. The partnership has crossed a number of successful milestones since its inception in 2017 and over the coming months, Emirates and flydubai will be working together to re-open even more of the world for our customers.”

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