Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company has announced that it will be working in association with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) to jointly promote Abu Dhabi as a world-class meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) hub at more than 13 global events during 2008.

The promotional tour, which takes in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East, will highlight the emirate’s world-class business environment, and the ongoing developments at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre (ADNEC) and the surrounding AED 8 billion Capital Centre development.

Simon Horgan, CEO of ADNEC, commented: “Our state-of-the-art projects have significantly contributed to Abu Dhabi’s rising popularity as a global event destination. In addition to providing a platform for the direct promotion of business activities, MICE events encourage business relationships, boost economic diversity, encourage development and create raised regional profiles.”

“We are very focused on promoting ADNEC and Capital Centre, as we believe they will serve as the cornerstones on which major new investments, industrial growth and business tourism will be built. We look forward to working closely with the ADTA to strengthen our position as one of the world’s leading event destinations,” Horgan added.

Both ADNEC and ADTA will be participating at many high-profile events, targeting destination and association management companies, the business-to-business tourism sector, and the global MICE industry. ADNEC promotional materials will also be included in ADTA stands at several separate exhibitions, in addition to being promoted through ADTA’s London, Paris and Frankfurt offices.

The promotional tour comes only months after Abu Dhabi was ranked as the top Arab city for business trips by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), in a study that assessed and compared 127 cities around the world as potential venues for business travellers and weeks after British travel website, expedia.co.uk ranked the city as one of the world’s top ten destinations to visit in 2008.

“We are keen to leverage the growing interest about Abu Dhabi by increasing our participation at leading events. As a large proportion of the visitors to Abu Dhabi are business-tourists, the MICE sector is a very important economic driver and certainly a sector we are keen to boost,” said HE Ali Al Hosni, Promotions Director, ADTA.

On completion of Phase 2, ADNEC will become the largest exhibition centre in the Middle East. The venue will consist of 55,000 square metres of fully interconnected exhibition floor space spread over 12 halls, an 18,000 square metre visitor concourse, a multi-purpose hall suitable for events ranging from huge conventions, to pop concerts and two multi-storey car parks with spaces for thousands of vehicles.

Surrounding ADNEC is the Capital Centre development, which will house a new micro-city of 23 towers with a GFA of 8 million sq ft, including 7 hotels, 5 commercial buildings, 5 serviced apartment buildings, 3 residential and serviced apartment complexes and 3 mixed use developments.. On completion in early 2011, Capital Centre will also feature Capital Gate - the 35 story iconic Feature Tower, a 2.3km waterfront Marina Zone; a proposed monorail and the ‘Galleria’ - a shopping mall with restaurants, retail outlets, and cinemas.