Dubai is home to a majority of the Middle East and Africa's (MEA) top meeting hotels with close to 20 hotels out of the region's 'Top 25' business hotels located in the UAE emirate.

The 'Top 25 Meeting Hotels in the Middle East and Africa' list, compiled by Cvent - a market leader in meetings, events, and hospitality technology - ranked JW Marriott Marquis Dubai as the top hotel for meetings, followed by Conrad Dubai and InterContinental Dubai Festival City in second and third place respectively.

Grand Hyatt Dubai and Fairmont Dubai rounded out the top five hotels in the MEA region.

The list was compiled by analysing group booking activity through its Cvent Supplier Network, which sourced more than $14.7 billion and more than 40 million room nights in 2017, helping to support more than 715,000 events worldwide.

“With industry research showing the current global value of the meetings and events industry at $750+ billion and growing substantially, there is huge potential for hotels across the region to capitalise on group business opportunities,” said Bharet Malhotra, senior vice president of sales for Cvent’s Hospitality Cloud.

“In the Middle East and Africa, Dubai continues to dominate in the group business category, but it is great to see seven different hotel chains represented in the top 10 on our list, demonstrating the highly competitive marketplace and the wide variety of high-performing hotels available in the region,” said Chris McAndrews, vice president of Marketing for Cvent’s Hospitality Cloud.

According to the list, Marriott and Radisson Hotel Group (in that order) are the top two hotel chains represented on the list, while Hilton, Hyatt and AccorHotels all come in third with five properties on the list.

Top 10 hotel properties in Middle East and Africa:
                
2018 Rank                                      Hotel Name
     1                                                  JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai
     2                                                  Conrad Dubai
     3                                                  InterContinental Dubai - Festival City
     4                                                  Grand Hyatt Dubai
     5                                                  Fairmont Dubai
     6                                                  The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre
     7                                                  Radisson Blu Hotel Sandton, Johannesburg
     8                                                  The Westin Cape Town
     9                                                  Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
    10                                                 Madinat Jumeirah


Cvent evaluated hotel properties that generated business through the Cvent Supplier Network from January 2017 through December 2017. The properties were ranked according to various criteria, including total requests for proposals (RFPs), awarded RFPs, total room nights, awarded room nights, major metropolitan area (MMA) market share, conversion rate, and the hotel's unique profile visits in the Cvent Supplier Network. The criteria are designed to provide the most accurate reflection of the top meeting hotels in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions. - TradeArabia News Service