The Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) welcomed 1.98 million delegates in 2022 driven by 244 conferences, exhibitions, trade shows and incentives.
Of these, 97 exhibitions and conferences attracted 1.18 million attendees of which 38 per cent were from overseas.
“DWTC’s 2022 results are an unequivocal endorsement of the emirate’s efforts in driving post-pandemic economic recovery and leveraging opportunity, delivered through strategic collaborative stakeholder commitment, across all sectors of the economy,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai World Trade Centre Authority.
“An unprecedented year for the MICE industry, 2022 underlined Dubai’s leadership, with its dynamic events sector, an acknowledged global platform for impactful knowledge sharing, effective networking and game-changing innovation.”
DWTC’s own portfolio of exhibitions and events, which includes flagship events GITEX Global and Gulfood, attracted 337,000 visitors, while the combined portfolio of events attracted 12,000 exhibiting companies.
DWTC also launched KAOUN International, an overseas market-focused international events company is set to deliver the inaugural editions of Saudi Food Show and GITEX Africa in 2023.
Consumer and leisure events also bounced back with over 790,000 visitors. DWTC hosted a total of 47 exciting entertainment, live and leisure events, welcoming back over 790,000 visitors, led by Dubai Sports World with a record attendance of 308,000.
DWTC’s experiential agency DXB Live witnessed record growth in 2022 providing services to over 400 events, marking its foray into new regional and international markets including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Germany.
“Ongoing recalibration, both for the global events industry and for DWTC, was our focus in 2022, and our year-end results are especially significant given its wide-ranging economic impact,” said Almarri.
