Dubai means business

Dubai - The emirate joins world's 20 most popular cities for business travel

Dubai attracts not only leisure and medical tourists but also a large number of business travellers from around the world as the emirate is among the world's 20 most popular cities for business travel, driven by the Mice sector, strategic location, strong connectivity and its regional hub status.
According to Egencia, the business travel booking platform of Expedia Group, Dubai stands at 11th position among the 20 most popular business travel cities in the world, outranking Mexico City, Boston, Montreal, Beijing, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Casablanca and Seoul.
Dubai is the only city from the Middle East and Africa region to be among the top 20 cities. The emirate's regional hub stature is increasingly growing on the global level, thanks to the government's investor-friendly policies for high net worth individuals and multinational companies to make the emirate their home.
According to the business research firm Infomineo, Dubai and Johannesburg are the top destinations for foreign entities when it comes to the number of regional headquarters. The emirate hosts 155 regional and sub-regional headquarters that are overseeing business activity in either the Middle East or the entire Middle East and Africa region. While Johannesburg is ranked far behind with a combined 29 regional headquarters.
Harvey Monk, executive manager, grmc Advisory Services, said Dubai is a leading global destination for business travel due to strong Mice (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry.
"Strong Mice market, with over 100 large scale mega-events each year plays a critical role in driving business travel to Dubai. In addition, Dubai continues to be the business hub for accessing North and East Africa, CIS and broader Middle East markets, supported by world class infrastructure and airline connectivity," Monk said.
Upcoming mega event Expo 2020 Dubai will also give a fillip to the business travel with 25 million visitors and thousands of officials will flocking to the city during the 6 months period.
"Expo 2020 is expected to provide a strong impetus to further development and growth in business travel to Dubai. Moreover, Dubai Tourism's concentrated efforts to promote Dubai as not only a regional but a global business destination will further enhance Dubai's attractiveness as a Mice destination," Monk added.
"As we get closer to Expo 2020, part of Dubai Plan 2021, there is much to be optimistic about. Dubai remains one of the best places in the region to do business and the 4th most-visited city in the world," said Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO, flydubai.
"We are excited about the role we will play in removing barriers to travel and creating free flows of trade and tourism," he added.
Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, divisional senior vice-president for commercial operations centre at Emirates airline, said Dubai is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with fantastic propositions for business and leisure travellers alike because the city sees strong growth in both inbound and outbound corporate travel due to its superior connectivity, world-class infrastructure, market accessibility and ease of doing business.
"Dubai is eight hours away from two-thirds of the world's population, offering corporate travellers' greater access to mature as well as emerging markets and economies. It is home to many flourishing industries within the tourism, technology and financial sectors, allowing businesses to specialise in areas where they have a comparative advantage.
"Many large organisations, as well small and medium sized enterprises, choose to set up their headquarters and offices in Dubai due to its state-of-the-art infrastructure and enormous opportunities. This diversified landscape will continue to attract businesses from around the world, into Dubai. For Emirates, corporate traffic has always been strong, and we continue to see a steady, upward trajectory of growth each year for this vibrant segment of customers," he said.
As the Expo inches closer, Al Mualla noted that the emirate will continue to see a strong boost in corporate and leisure tourism, diversify local economy and creating more jobs in dynamic industries.
"The Mice segment also continues to grow with a very eventful calendar of trade shows and exhibitions every month, attracting international and regional visitors to Dubai," he said.
Globally, according to Egencia, New York continued to outpace London as the most popular business travel destination globally, as it tops the list for the fourth consecutive year, Egencia said. London last held the top ranking in 2014 before being overtaken by the Big Apple the following year. New York's dominance is likely to continue as flight data showed that business trip flight bookings to New York were nearly 10 per cent higher than bookings to London in 2018.
Egencia data captures flight booking and reservation trends from small, mid-cap and multinational companies in more than 60 countries between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2018.
- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com