Amid Euro crisis, Singapore luring MICE events

“After developing ITB Asia from the original ITB Berlin in Germany for five years, it now has become one of the most successful events for the Asia-Pacific travel business,” Andrew Phua, director of exhibitions and conferences at the STB, told The Nation yesterday.
Though the tourism industry might be affected by the economic downturn in Europe, this has opened more doors for the STB to offer alternatives to Europe-based event organisers and persuade them to relocate or duplicate their conferences and trade shows in the city-state to cash in on the emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Last year, the STB partnered with key event organisers to launch 78 inaugural events such
 as Music Matters, Digital Matters, Screen Singapore, Cruise Shipping Asia, the South Asian Diaspora Convention, the World Congress |of the International Academy of Oral Oncology, The Currency Conference and EMart Asia 2011.
This year continued to witness a healthy line-up of MICE events (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), both established and premier.
Established shows this year included the Singapore Airshow, Food & Hotel Asia, International Furniture Fair Singapore 2012, Broadcast Asia and CommunicAsia 2012, and Singapore International Energy Week.
New events included the National Association of Asian MBAs (NAAMBA) Global Leader-ship Conference & Exposition, the Young Presidents’ Organisation Global Leadership Conference, the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, the Congress of the International Council for Com-mercial Arbitration, the World Architecture Festival, and 100% Design Singapore.
The tourism agency’s key responsibility is to promote Singa-pore as a marketplace for the Asia-Pacific region, Phua said. It will rejuvenate the country’s tourism image with new attractions such as Garden by the Bay, which opened in June. And man-made attractions in the pipeline include River Safari Singapore, Sports Hubs, Marina Bay Cruise Centre and the final phase of Resort World Sentosa.
This year, the STB expects to see a 2-per-cent increase in international tourist arrivals to 14.5 million, generating tourism receipts of 24 billion Singapore dollars (Bt600 billion). Of that, 30 per cent will come from MICE and related business and the remainder from the leisure market.
The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), on the other hand, plans to penetrate the Asia and Oceania markets this year to offset the slowdown of MICE travellers as a result of the European debt crisis and the economic woes in the United States.
This year, the TCEB took part into 10 international trade fairs in Japan, Australia, China, Germany, the US, South Korea and Spain. It conducted roadshows in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Russia, Britain, Germany, China and Asean countries including Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar.
It also focuses on the domestic market by promoting key cities as MICE cities, such as Pattaya and Chiang Mai.