Event Review: The Hotel Show

The Hotel Show event organiser Christine Davidson shows His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum around the exhibition.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, The Hotel Show proved to be a strong marketplace for suppliers to showcase their latest products, with the Vision Conference providing a stimulating forum for debate and discussion

As the region’s largest hospitality-focused trade event, The Hotel Show is always a key date on the Middle East industry calendar, and the most recent edition came at a time when the hotel sector is in the middle of its most buoyant period in recent years.

Held once again at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the three-day event took place on September 28-30, and this year had extra significance, with 2014 marking its 15th anniversary.

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Hotelier Middle East and sister title Caterer Middle East were the official exclusive publications for the event, which attracted around 600 international and regional exhibitors, up from 560 last year.

While the final numbers are still to be audited, organisers were confident at the closing of the show that there was a 10% rise in attendees over the 2013 event, during which 16,700 industry professionals visited from 98 countries.

Coincidentally, one of the most iconic hotels in the Middle East, if not the world — the Burj Al Arab — is also celebrating its 15th birthday this year, and this landmark anniversary provided an opportunity to reflect on the phenomenal growth of the hospitality industry over the course of those years.

Opening the Vision Conference, Dubai Corporation for Tourism Commerce Marketing CEO Issam AbdulRahim Kazim spoke about how hotels formed the “backbone” of the tourism industry, which is in turn a key pillar of the emirate’s growing economy.

“In the space of a mere 15 years, the number of hotels and hotel apartment establishments in Dubai has increased from 378 to 637, with more than three and a half times the number of rooms, rising from 25,000 to 89,000.

“To put this into context, that’s an average of more than 17 hotel openings every 12 months, which, I’m sure you will agree, is a phenomenal rate of growth,” he said.

Kazim also detailed why quality is just as important as quantity, and diversification was one of the buzzwords of the three-day conference at the show.

“Moving forward, we need to not only build more hotels and increase the supply of rooms in order to meet growing demand, but also continue to diversify our hotel sector,” he said.

“Great steps have already been taken to broaden the offering so that we can offer quality products to match the full spectrum of visitors’ budgets, requirements and tastes.

“Dubai’s hotels should cater for all types of tourists, whether they are here on business, here with family and kids in tow, or simply in need of a relaxing getaway.”

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