Dubai’s exhibition industry is heading into its busiest stretch ever, with more than 100 shows packed into the final four months of the year after the war pushed the spring calendar into autumn. The twice-rescheduled Arabian Travel Market finally opens this week, while GITEX will bring 200,000 tech visitors in December.
Dubai’s two convention centers offer a combined 200,000 square meters of space — roughly as much as McCormick Place in Chicago, the largest exhibition venue in the US, and almost half as much as the world’s biggest, Shanghai’s NECC. A 10-billion-dirham ($2.7 billion) expansion is set to make the Expo City venue the Middle East’s largest indoor exhibition center by 2031, with its next phase due to finish construction this time next year.