DWTC unveils 15,500 square metres expansion

Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the region's largest MICE venue operator, has announced plans to build a 15,500 square metre (166,800 square feet) extension to its current indoor complex space, taking the available multipurpose indoor event and exhibition capacity to over 122,000 square metres (over 1.31 million square feet).

With the continued increase in demand for new shows, and year-on-year scale up of strategic events within the DWTC calendar, the planned custom-built and flexible event space is expected to cater to the next five years of portfolio growth that will in turn support increases in Dubai's business tourism traffic.

Adjacent to the existing Zabeel Hall complex, three new halls - named Zabeel 4, 5 and 6 - will form the extension beyond Halls 1, 2 and 3. Construction is expected to commence later this month with the new space becoming operational from Q1 2016.

This infrastructure expansion will also support improved diversity within the DWTC offering, and most specifically the ability to host more events concurrently, both key pillars to fostering future business tourism growth - an important aspect of Dubai's target of 20 million international visitors by 2020.

Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, in his capacity as CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre said, "Dubai is already recognised as a leading events destination globally, and further development of the DWTC complex allows us to position ourselves as a dominant force in the international events delivery arena.

"At DWTC, we have witnessed strong year-on-year growth, an increase in quality visitor footfall, and rise in space demand from top-tier exhibitors across all major trade-shows and the strategic sectors within our calendar. This consistency in performance in the context of a very sluggish global economy has had an extremely positive impact, fuelling increase in the Emirate's share of the international MICE market.

"Dubai's location and connectivity infrastructure remains a strategic lever, allowing industries access to nearly two billion people in some of the world's fastest growing markets, all within a four-hour flight radius. The expansion of our venue will provide the supporting platform for home-grown local and regional businesses, as well as global corporations, to take greater advantage of commercial prospects being made available through existing events, and new entrants into the 2016 calendar."

Structurally designed to cater for both exhibitions and conferences, the three new halls will have four meeting rooms, be self-sufficient to house their own VIP Majlis spaces and organiser offices, and have a dedicated set of services and amenities like medical service zones, food & beverage outlets and others.

The location of the new halls is conveniently close to the Arena Plaza in the DWTC complex, allowing ease of access by metro, and is linked though the current Zabeel concourse for ease of internal connectivity with the rest of the exhibition complex. Accompanying the expansion will be a new 300-car park area with the flexibility to be transitioned into a 6,000 square metre (64,600 square feet) tented temporary event area, bolstering capacity when required.
Source: WAM