MICE set to grow 7% in Abu Dhabi

Around 20,000 hotel rooms are expected to come on stream across the UAE this year, Mohammad Khamis Al Muhairi, director general of the National Council for Tourism and Antiquities, told reporters in Abu Dhabi yesterday. There are currently 110,000 rooms available in the country's hotels and hotel apartments, he said while speaking during the Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (GIBTM) exhibition taking place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. He said the UAE's tourism sector contributes seven per cent of GDP and employs almost 170,000 people. There has been much emphasis in the past few years on driving the Meetings Incentives Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) business as it is a major contributor to the tourism industry. It brings 20 to 30 per cent of the tourists to the country, he added. According to the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, the direct economic impact of MICE business events on the emirate of Abu Dhabi is expected to grow at seven per cent annually over the next eight years to Dh5.1 billion by 2020. The total contribution of these business events to the emirate is Dh2.4 billion, according to figures provided by the tourism authority. The authority said it has set targets for the MICE business for the coming eight years in which by 2015 it hopes to see the emirate viewed as the region's leading meetings destination and ranked among the world's top-100 meeting destinations. The target is a four-fold increase in the number of MICE events currently being held and a doubling of the number of MICE visitor arrivals. The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority will pursue major MICE businesses in the next two years targeting an increase of 16 per cent. Mubarak Al Nuaimi, international promotions manager, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, told reporters that the authority has increased its international participation and will be taking part in 23 road shows and exhibitions this year. "The destination has much more to offer the industry than it did a year ago in terms of MICE facilities and options," he said, adding that Abu Dhabi is in a much better position to secure major convention bids with the availability of over 20,000 rooms in its 127 hotels and hotel apartments. He said the World Ophthalmology Congress, which brought around 12,000 participants to Adnec in February, "delivered huge direct and indirect economic benefits to the city in the region of $45.5 million (Dh167.1 million)". "The business event visitor is traditionally a higher spender than the leisure tourist — sometimes by up to seven times as much," he said. Hotel chains are playing their part, launching new properties this year. Nasser Al Nowais, chairman of Rotana Hotels, told reporters yesterday that it will be launching three new properties in the UAE, two in Dubai and one at Adnec's Capital Centre which adds to a total of 34 Rotana hotels across the country. Millenium Hotel's general manager Mouin Kandil said two new hotels will open this year, one each in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, bringing the operator's total to nine. Kandil said almost 60 per cent of their activity comes from the MICE business. From gulfnews