Dubai’s Department of Commerce and Tourism Marketing (DTCM) highlighted its new brand and mega-incentive hosting capabilities at Imex 2014, a leading incentive travel, meetings and events exhibition, in Frankfurt.

 

A delegation comprising more than 50 local travel industry partners including airlines, hotels and tour operators joined DTCM at the three-day tradeshow.

 

The department highlighted the emirate’s proven capacity to host mega-incentive group following the hosting of 14,500 delegates from Nu Skin Enterprises last month and shared details of the recently launched Dubai Association Centre (DAC). It announced an agreement with the International Association of Professional Conference Organizers (Iapco).

 

Steen Jakobsen, director of the Dubai Convention and Events Bureau (DCEB), a division of DTCM, said: “The look of Dubai’s new brand has been very well received here at Imex and our successful hosting of the 14,500-delegate incentive group from China has shown the world what we in the emirate have long known – that Dubai has the expertise, infrastructure, dynamic leisure attractions and key partnerships to host events and groups of any size and scale, from anywhere in the world.”

 

Dubai’s agreement with Iapco, a global organisation whose members include key global events decision-makers, will enable the emirate to attract major international conferences and exhibitions by efficiently providing Iapco members with the support and information they require to make recommendations to clients.

 

The DAC is a new legal platform that will allow international associations to establish their regional headquarters in Dubai, and grow their membership numbers not only in the UAE, but also in regional emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia.

 

With a firm focus on promoting the quality and breadth of the emirate’s tourism offer during the exhibition, members of Dubai’s delegation held over 650 meetings with key buyers and conference organisers from around the world with the DTCM team alone meeting with over 100 key clients.  As a result, officials have received various expressions of interest from groups wishing to organise large incentive trips to Dubai, said the statement.

 

The flurry of activity at Imex comes following the launch of a new Dubai brand identity and marketing blueprint earlier this month, which prompted the emirate to state its ambition to become the most visited city in the world. Under the Tourism Vision 2020 strategy, the emirate hopes to double visitor numbers from 10 million guests in 2012 to 20 million in 2020, it added. - TradeArabia News Service