Adnec to attract 1.8m visitors
23 projects of hotels, hotel apartments and commercial tower are completed
abu dhabi — Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec) is targeting over 1.8 million people to visit its trade exhibitions and conferences to be held in the year.
In the year 2015, the Abu Dhabi exhibition centre saw visitors number grew 13 per cent year-on-year to 1.8 million, said Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, acting group CEO of Adnec, at a media round table.
He said since the Abu Dhabi’s economy has grown into a highly diversified where trade, logistics, finance and investments, real estate businesses are booming, the role of hydrocarbon has reduced due to which the impact of lower oil prices would not be that much.
The acting CEO said the Abu Dhabi is fast becoming an important hub for meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, or MICE business, as over 1.840 million people attended various events held at the centre last year. The number of participation is up 26 per cent on 2014, when 1.609 million people had participated in different trade events.
There is a consistent growth in visitor numbers to Adnec as in 2011, 1.029 million people visited Adnec, which rose to 1.530 million in 2013, Al Dhaheri said.
The events and conferences business had a huge impact on the economy as it generated 26 per cent more economic impact on Abu Dhabi’s non-oil economy to Dh3.478 billion, he said.
In the hospitality sector, these trade shows generated 522,000 guest nights including 4,20,000 guest nights in Abu Dhabi alone. This translates to a 21 per cent growth compared to 430,000 guest nights in 2014, Al Dhaheri said.
In 2015, Adnec attracted 12 new exhibitions and trade shows to the capital. “There has been a significant surge in the number of specialised conferences and congresses, which grew 110 per cent over the past year,” he said.
This year, with the assistance of Abu Dhabi’s Convention Bureau, the
Adnec supported the creation of more than 18,600 job opportunities within the UAE in 2015 across sectors associated with business tourism
Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri,
Acting group CEO of Adnec
exhibition centre is bidding for 1012 international congresses and conferences, the acting CEO said.
The defense show Idex-2015 remained the biggest show that attracted 101,000 visitors.
Adnec which has a convention centre in Al Ain and owns London’s Excel organised 369 trade events in 2015 up against 327 in the previous year.
Al Dhaheri said: “Adnec supported the creation of more than 18,600 job opportunities within the UAE in 2015 across sectors associated with business tourism, registering a 28 per cent increase over 2014.”
He further pointed out: “Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre marked the busiest month on its calendar of regional and international events in October 2015 when the region’s premier events venue hosted 41 scheduled events in a single month for the first time since inception.”
The acting group CEO said: “ExCeL London also marked its most successful year since its inception by hosting159 events in 2015.”
The venue welcomed a total of 3.2 million visitors across 313 events in 2015, compared to 2.3 million visitors from 309 events in 2014. The premier venue anticipates continued success with customer-focused events and will welcome 30 millionth visitors within the next three years.
Adnec’s Capital Gate Centre, which is home to A grade commercial properties, is 50 per cent occupied. The acting CEO said the number of complete projects has reached 23 that include commercial apartments, hotel apartments and hotels projects, with total room capacity crossing 2,500 rooms.