Posted by
Barry Siskind
Community Manager
A year ago the stories from the middle east were filled with doom and gloom. Overbuilt, underutilized facilities in a recessionary economy left people wondering if the massive investment in this region was nothing more than a series of foolish bets.
That was then and this is now. In a recent media release, the Dubai World Trade Center Chief, Helal Saeed Al Marri reports that the year-to-year growth in exhibitions topped 13%. In the first six months of 2010 they hosted 59 exhibitions and conference attracting 22,000 companies from eighty-five countries. http://www.dwtc.com
He also reports that they have won the right to host major events for 2011 and 2012 in transportation, legal, and healthcare. This included the prestigious World Congress for Cardiology.
During the past eight months I have addressed a number of issues in our blog dealing with the effects of the recession and other factors that weigh heavily on our industry. It’s important to stop sometimes and talk about the good news from time to time. UFILive is always looking for positive stories whether they are a country or region like Dubai or an individual trade fair. Stories like these are inspirational. Let’s hear from you.
Dubai suffered mainly in the real estate, construction and banking sectors more than others (where the projects excelled the real market need crazily). But in other sectors it was not that sharp. The old game is still the same: Dubai is the peaceful, open and easy hub of trade shows for the closed, troubled and difficult huge neigbouring markets! Just think of how many visitors come to a Dubai trade show from neighbouring countries simply because the exhibitors coming from overseas can land only in Dubai, not in Riadhy, Tehran, Baghdad and son on. it is ture that Abu Dhabi had already entered the game, but needs some time, luck and patience to start find a real role in the game. Dubai started a decade earlier!