Ibtm arabia, the region's leading one-to-one business event for the Mice industry, has confirmed the attendance of over 65 regional exhibitors from UAE and Bahrain alone at the event this this month.

Taking place at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, the event will run from February 9 to 11.

Exhibitors include Yas Viceroy Hotel, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), Radisson Blu Hotel - Abu Dhabi Yas Island, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), and St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort - Abu Dhabi, among others, as well as a host of suppliers from Bahrain. These include The Ritz-Carlton - Bahrain, Mathias Tourism Company, Gulf Hotel Bahrain, At Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain - Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The event also sees support from many other suppliers in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar as well as a strong international contingent.

The success of last year’s event with over 95 per cent of both exhibitors and Hosted Buyers saying they were satisfied with the event and the business they did has served as a catalyst for attendance this year with international buyers from major companies including Coca-Cola, Peugeot Citroen, Abbott, Maersk Line A/S, Cadillac, and Cognizant, among many others, confirmed to attend.

Shinu Pillai, event manager for ibtm arabia, said: “The GCC’s $1.3 billion meeting, incentive, conference and event (MICE) industry is set to experience further robust growth according to a recent Alpen Capital report. The number of international association meetings taking place in the region has more than tripled over the last 10 years, earning for the Gulf global prestige as a popular meeting and incentive hub.”

Mubarak Al Shamisi, director Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau, said: “Given the successes witnessed over the last 10 years and the continued commitment to investing in the MICE industry, we expect to see significant growth in the years ahead.

“Abu Dhabi is now recognised as a major player on the world events stage, able to excel at hosting the world’s most prominent conferences and exhibitions. We recently fought off stiff competition to host the 2017 World Diabetes Congress, the largest gathering of experts from over 200 national diabetes associations in more than 160 countries, and the 2019 World Energy Congress (WEC), one of the world’s most important energy forums. We expect to be hosting many more such important events in the future,” he said.

Abu Dhabi generates $1.4 billion per annum from the MICE sector and this figure is expected to rise to $2.4 billion by 2020.

Today, we see other Middle East destinations including Qatar and Oman at the beginning of the same journey towards this success. Qatar has been on the scene for some time with its Qatar National Convention Centre (opened in 2011) and Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre is set to make its grand entrance this year. – TradeArabia News Service