Dubai World Trade Centre Authority visitor numbers reach 2.45m in 2014

Visitor numbers at the Dubai World Trade Centre up 10% over 2013

May 27, 2015

Dubai: Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTC Authority) said on Wednesday that visitor numbers at DWTC reached 2.45 million in 2014, up 10 per cent over the previous year.

DWTC’s performance was attributable to its focus on three strategic areas, according to a statement. First, it enabled events to continue growing with capital investment in venue capacity expansion and facility enhancement.

Second, it delivered a more diversified calendar of events by partnering with organisers on content development and visitor acquisition.

Third, it increased attractiveness to international participants and drive GDP [gross domestic product] impact by working with the tourism sector to offer a “smart” business destination proposition.

“Our 2014 double digit growth across key performance metrics is testament to the committed efforts to lay a strong foundation, and build on it with regular strategic alignment of our plans with the wider Dubai Plan 2021. DWTC has delivered consistent year-on-year growth in the scale of our MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] calendar, not only in the number of events we host, but also in the variety and the quality of traffic we attract,” said Helal Saeed Al Merri, director general at the DWTC Authority and chief executive of DWTC, in the statement.

DWTC had a total of 93 exhibitions — delivering on average 23,000 visitors per event — last year.

It recently announced plans to build an event space adding a 15,500 square metre extension to its current indoor complex space, taking the indoor event and exhibition capacity to over 121,984 square metres, when it becomes operational from in the first quarter of 2016.