Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (Adnec) will be showcasing its business tourism offerings at the upcoming IMEX exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings and Events in Frankfurt, in a bid to woo Europe’s Mice industry.

Adnec owns and operates the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, which boasts of  73,000sqm of indoor live event space in the UAE capital.

Business tourism remains a cornerstone of Abu Dhabi’s overall tourism agenda and Adnec is pleased to be working closely with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) to highlight Abu Dhabi’s attractions globally, said its top official.

"Targeting Europe’s Mice industry is a key focus area for us and we look forward to our participation at IMEX – an event which has proven quite successful for Adnec in the past,” said Simon Horgan, CEO of  Adnec Group.

"The venue, which has come to be regarded as the largest and most modern exhibition venue in the Gulf, is also one of the few in the world capable of staging major indoor, outdoor, and marine events simultaneously," he noted.

The attractiveness of the venue is complemented by the Aloft Abu Dhabi, a 408-room hotel that is inter-connected to the exhibition centre, he added.

Adnec’s presence at the three-day IMEX follows the company’s successful participation at a number of other international trade shows over the last few months, including ITB-Asia (Singapore), WTM (London), EIBTM (Barcelona), SATTE (New Delhi) and MATTA (Kuala Lumpur).

“In keeping with Abu Dhabi’s emergence as one of the most desirable events destinations, Adnec has witnessed continuous growth in the number of events we stage. We hosted 119 events in 2009, an eight-fold increase over 2005 when 14 events took place at the previous exhibition facility,” noted Horgan.

Soon after this, Adnec will take part in a set of trade events in Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and London, providing further impetus to advance Abu Dhabi’s Mice attractiveness, said the official.

The expo centre is part of Adnec’s Dh8 billion Capital Centre, the world’s first exhibitions lifestyle destination.

When fully developed, Capital Centre will comprise 23 towers including 7 hotels as well as the 5-star Hyatt Capital Gate, to be housed in the iconic Capital Gate tower, which is currently under development.-TradeArabia News Service