Today's Edition
KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
The Middle East has emerged as the best-performing business leisure market worldwide, outperforming the global average in the post-Covid era despite increasing budgetary pressures on companies in the industry.
The region - particularly the UAE - has stood out as a conference haven due to its investment and connectivity, said Ibrahim Serhal, a seasoned event industry professional and executive for World Travel Market global.
"The UAE has invested heavily in building this infrastructure. They have state-of-the-art convention centres. There's the hotel industry, you have the restaurants, the airport, the airlines," he told Aletihad on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Tuesday.
"Everything that the conference business needs, it is available here in the UAE, which gives it a competitive edge."
While the Middle East accounts for only 1.2% of global business travel spend, it has performed better than any other region post-Covid with spend reaching 19.4% higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to the 2024 GBTA Business Travel Index Outlook Report.
The report estimated that business travel spending in the Middle East hit $18.1 billion in 2024 and forecast it to grow at an annual rate of 6.1% in 2025.
A large proportion of that business travel expenditure comes from the MICE industry (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions), Serhal said. This particular segment, he added, requires an incredible amount of infrastructure spend to run effectively.
In a sign that things were in fact growing, he said the ATM had for the first time introduced a dedicated section for the MICE industry – which spans cooperate events to large-scale conferences like the ATM or ADIPEC.
"The MICE sector is growing at a big rate. You can see this just by taking into consideration the level of events that's going on in the Middle East," he said.
"A lot of companies are coming to do their events here. So really, it is promising, and there is a big appetite from tour operators to capitalise on this sector because it's generating a lot of money."
According to Ciaran Kelly, Managing Director of Middle East & Africa at FCM Travel, the growth of business leisure has also been supported by the increasing growth of regional centres and mega-projects. This has resulted in an increased transfer of labour across state lines – generating more business leisure activity, he said.
"A lot of the growth is due to the public and private projects taking place. It is almost impossible to get a seat on a plane from Dubai to Riyadh, for example, and once you land, hotel availability is limited," Kelly said.
