Oman looks to make headway in events with Muscat convention centre

The Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre entrance. Courtesy of Oman Convention.

Oman hopes to cash in on the region’s growing events industry with a new convention centre in Muscat that is expected to open in the first quarter of next year.

The first phase of Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC) comprises 22,000 square metres of exhibition space and 10 meeting rooms to host up to 10,000 people, according to Omran, the government agency that is overseeing the project.

It will also include a total of 1,000 hotel rooms in a mix of star ratings across four hotels, a shopping mall and a business park covering 1.8 square kilometres.

A key feature of the project is that the convention centre will not rely on the grid for its energy needs as it will have a dedicated power plant. In 2017, when the second phase is completed, it will include a 3,200-seat auditorium, a 456-seat tiered lecture theatre, additional meeting rooms and two ballrooms that will lift its capacity to 15,000 people a day.

“Within the international and regional convention industry, Oman has been asked to host significant world congresses, but so far has not had a suitable venue to accommodate global conference organisers’ demands until the OCEC’s completion,” said Trevor McCartney, OCEC’s general manager.

It is hoped the convention centre will attract 200,000 people in the first year, he said.

Oman built the region’s first exhibition centre – Oman Oil and Gas Exhibition Centre in Muscat – in 1979. It hosts on average of about 30 trade and consumer exhibitions annually.

Europe, which is home to many international associations that organise meetings and congresses that travel around the world, followed by North America and the Indian sub-continent are the target markets for the centre.

It would compete with Dubai’s meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (Mice) industry, the strongest in the region.

In 2013, Dubai ranked first in Middle East and North Africa, hosting 37 international association meetings, Abu Dhabi hosted 23 and Muscat 10, according to the International Congress and Convention Association.

“Dubai has established itself as the trading hub for the region and where there is trade there is Mice,” said Matt Denton, a senior vice president at dmg events, which organises trade shows such as Big 5, Index and Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference.

“As companies were becoming more adventurous and reaching further into other developing markets in the region in recent years they have focused on the larger UAE events.”

The number of business tourists to the Arabian Gulf region grew by 5 per cent annually between 2009 and 2012, according to the consultants Euromonitor and Strategy&. But even then, the region lags behind Europe and North America in the global Mice market share.

“Only about 2 per cent of all the exhibitions in the world take place in the Middle East,” said Richard Shediac, a senior partner with Strategy&. “By contrast, Europe and North America, combined, are home to more than 80 per cent of the world’s exhibitions.”