DWTC events contribute $3.5bn to Dubai economy

DUBAI / WAM

Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) events accounted for a record AED12.7 billion ($3.46 billion) in retained value towards Dubai’s economy, equivalent to 3.3 percent of emirate’s GDP in 2017, according to the latest Economic Impact Assessment report released by DWTC.
The study estimates the total economic output of DWTC’s large-scale events at AED22.5 billion, an increase of eight percent since 2015, of which nearly 57 percent is retained within the local economy.
Reaffirming the importance of the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector to Dubai, the 2017 report highlighted unprecedented sales within the sector from event participation related spends generated by large-scale events, driving 4.3 times its value in overall non-trade business activity across Dubai’s economy. In other words, every AED1,000 spent at a DWTC event generated AED4,300 in value for the Dubai economy in 2017.
The multi-sector impact of events driving incremental value across tourism, hospitality, aviation and entertainment, is estimated to have supported a total of 84,226 jobs as an immediate consequence of DWTC — hosted and managed — events, generating disposable household income of AED4.1 billion. Of the figure, MICE and adjacent sectors contributed the direct impact at 71 percent of the number of jobs created, while 29 percent of the number of jobs were result of indirect and
induced employment impact across wider domestic economy.
Out of the AED22.5 billion total value generated by large-scale events, AED16 billion was directly driven by event participants’ spend within the MICE and adjacent sectors relating to travel, tourism, hospitality and entertainment, supported by a 24 percent increase in MICE business services spend — from AED 4.2 billion in 2015 to AED 5.3 billion in 2017. The growth in total value generated was further catalysed by a 13 percent increase in the number of international exhibiting companies.