Some days ago Dubai’s world class event infrastructure was internationally recognized with the prestigious Crystal Award, the highest award in the incentive travel industry, at the SITE Global Conference held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The prestigious award for best ‘Distinctive Destination – Best Destination Based Experiential Incentive Travel Program’ was awarded for Dubai’s excellence in hosting the UAE’s largest ever incentive group.
During April of this year Dubai hosted 14,500 attendees, who had traveled from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as guests of Nu Skin, a skin care company celebrating its 30th anniversary. Dubai and neighbouring emirates collaborated to make the trip a successful and memorable one for all involved. The extensive and complicated logistics for the event included 77 flights which included 2 full Emirates A380 Charters, 40,000 room nights in 40 hotels, and over 370 coaches escorted the guests on a full City Tour of Dubai, a Dhow Cruise, and a visit to the Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and Palm Jumeirah. In addition, the group enjoyed full-fledged gala dinners in groups of 7,500 at the Bab Al Shams Desert Arena, and held educational seminars at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the Middle East’s largest event and exhibition centre.
Steen Jakobsen, Director of Dubai Business Events (DBE), a division of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), commented: “Being awarded the SITE Crystal Award validates the commitment and professionalism from everybody involved in delivering this event and proves that Dubai’s offering as a business events destination is more than comparable with anywhere in the World”. Steen went on to laud all the stakeholders who showcased their collective capacity including Arabian Adventures, Emirates Airlines, the Meydan Group, Dubai Airports, Dubai Customs and the Road and Transport Authority (RTA), in addition to the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), Emaar, Jumeirah Group, Alpha Tours and approximately 40 hotels that all played an integral part in showcasing Dubai and the UAE’s capacity to host large international mega-groups with efficiency and ease.
Through the presentation of this award Dubai has not only reinforced its position as a more than capable destination for large companies and associations who wish to meet in a welcoming international city but has also proven it is capable of hosting and delivering large and complex incentive events.
Paul Miller, SITE president 2014, stated: “With the Nu Skin incentives group Dubai displayed the hallmark we look for when awarding the Crystal Award, always striving, never settling in the creation of an exceptional motivational experience that delivers business results. This was the largest single incentive programme Dubai had hosted and they excelled in meeting an extremely demanding proposition which turned out to be an unmitigated success for not only the Nu Skin group and their delegates but Dubai as a whole.”
