FOLLOWING the release of official figures, it has become clear that the worldwide recession had little impact on the city of Kyoto’s event figures in 2010.
Kyoto Convention Bureau (KCB) recorded a 66 per cent increase in total attendees and an increase of 35.8 per cent in overseas attendees despite the rest of the world seeing a slowdown of business due to the global economic recession.
KCB’s international marketing manager James Kent said: “The increase in number of attendees is very encouraging. In fact the average attendance at events has risen dramatically from 381 to 691 per event. Most exciting though for our team is the 36 per cent increase in international business, which clearly demonstrates the impact our global marketing and promotional campaigns are having.”
Year 2008 2010
Total Attendees 65,200 108,619
O/S Attendees 11,966 16,246
Kent continued: “We expect the number of meetings to remain low in Japan through 2011, due to the tragic tsunami and earthquake disaster. However, we are extremely delighted that the ISTH Council has unanimously decided that the society's XXIII Congress and 57th annual SSC meeting will proceed as planned in Kyoto, from July 23 to 28, 2011.
“Japan has been going through a tough time recently but we want to send out the message to the world that not all of Japan has been affected by the disaster and that the country is still open for business. We hope that ISTH’s conference will be able to carry that message and attendees will help us retain positive growth figures for the future.”