SITE expanded its global community in late 2023, with both SITE NorCal and SITE Arabia experiencing a busy start to their first full year as chapters.
SITE Arabia will play an especially crucial role in helping SITE build and bridge cultures in emerging incentive regions, with most of the Chapter's members currently concentrated in the UAE, Oman, and Qatar.
Here's a short preview of what the chapter has planned for the rest of 2024, featuring a Q&A with Chapter President Moammer Mohammed Al Marzooqi.
Q: Tell us a little bit about the make-up of your chapter, as it gets fully off the ground. How many members do you have, and what segments of the incentive travel industry do they primarily represent?
A: The make-up of the Chapter is a joint effort between the DMOs and DMCs from various cities in the region, reflecting the strong relationship between Governments & the private sector when it comes to supporting tourism generally, and incentive travel specifically.
The idea of setting up the SITE Arabia Chapter is to develop a Chapter that will overlook the growth of the incentive travel segment and position the Region as a premier business events hub. We have more than 30 members so far representing DMOs, DMCs, and hoteliers, and our aim is to diversify the profiles of our members toward year-end to include other sectors within the industry.
Q: Have you had any initial gatherings, virtually or in-person, as a chapter yet? What opportunities overall will members have to connect with SITE Arabia this year?
A: We conducted our first Chapter Board Member Virtual Meeting in mid-January 2024 and plan to keep holding that on a monthly basis.
We are also looking forward to having the first Annual Chapter Gathering in Q4, 2024 as we are working on having more industry peer colleagues join SITE Arabia Chapter this year.
Q: Are there specific industry topics or issues that you personally as an industry leader are most interested in or find most engaging right now?
A: Since the Chapter has just started, we are yet to discover widespread topics of interest. Personally though, I am interested in:
- Knowledge/experience exchange between different destinations to grow incentive travel best practices
- Building legacy in destinations
- Incorporating traditional cultures in incentive travel
- Indulging local communities in tourism
- How unique experiences, unique ideas, and creativity enhance incentive travel
Q: Why should SITE members and friends consider your region for incentive programs right now? Is there anything new or special you'd like to highlight about the destinations that make up SITE Arabia?
A: There are many factors to highlight when it comes to choosing our region for incentive programs, but the main reasons would be safety; accessibility (especially with more than 10 major airlines, that fly to more than 500 destinations combined); infrastructure (hotel inventories, venues, etc.); variety of world class attractions and offerings; Arabian hospitality; and last but not least, the major mega events that have been hosted recently in the region such as the World Cup and COP 28.
The destinations that make up SITE Arabia Chapter are UAE, Oman, Qatar — and we are in talks to add Bahrain, KSA & Jordan. All of these destinations have different USPs and unique experiences, that yet complete each other.
