Dubai has won its bid to host the 21st World Congress of Medical Informatics – MedInfo – the flagship biennial meeting of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).
Dubai will be the first city in the Middle East to host the Congress. The winning bid was led by the Emirates Health Informatics Society and supported by the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), Dubai Health Authority (DHA), UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention and Emirates Health Services, among other key stakeholders.
Dubai’s accessibility and connectivity should provide IMIA with improved reach into new markets in addition to enhancing MedInfo’s appeal to first-time attendees.
Helal Saeed Almarri (pictured), director-general of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, said: “Dubai’s success in bidding for MedInfo 2027 underlines the confidence that international associations across all sectors, including healthcare, have in bringing their major congresses to Dubai, and the powerful platform our city provides for knowledge sharing, professional development, and networking. It also reflects the culture of collaboration in Dubai and the ability of entities across the public and private sectors to come together to showcase the city’s strengths as a meeting destination.”
The pipeline of major conferences and congresses taking place in Dubai over the coming years includes key global medical and healthcare gatherings, with many bids championed by Dubai Business Events, part of DET and the city’s official convention bureau, in collaboration with DHA and Emirates Medical Society (EMA), as well as individual societies under its umbrella including Emirates Health Informatics Society, through its Al Safeer Congress Ambassador Programme.
The Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) has also awarded 70 hotels in Dubai with the ‘Dubai Sustainable Tourism Stamp’, a new sustainability initiative that seeks to recognise hotels with the highest level of adherence to DET’s 19 ‘Sustainability Requirements’. Dubai claims to be the first city in the region to mandate sustainability criteria for its hotel classification system, and the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Stamp (DST) initiative further reinforces its drive to become a leading sustainable destination.
Dubai has also secured the top spot as the No.1 global destination in the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Destinations Awards 2024 for the third consecutive year. The recognition comes as the city marks the first anniversary of the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33, that aims to further consolidate Dubai’s position as one of the top three global cities for business and leisure, and the best city to visit, live and work in.
Dubai welcomed a record 13.9m visitors from January to October 2023 compared to 13.5m during the corresponding period in 2019. Average hotel occupancy between January to October this year has reached 76%, up from 74% in the same period in 2019.
Source: CMW.
