AS THE sixth CIBTM drew to a close in China, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development (BTD) revealed that it had not only signed another three year MoU with Reed Travel Exhibitions, organiser of the event, but is also providing additional resources to encourage inbound Mice visitors.
Lu Yong general director of BDT said: “To help continue to build Beijing as a high level Mice destination we will be supporting our key meeting and incentive travel enterprises, associations and intermediary organisations to help integrate all our resources to promote the city and, at the same time, we will step up our support for CIBTM with the aim of making it the premier event across China and Asia Pacific within the next five years.”
With interest in the meetings industry at an all time high in China, this year’s CIBTM closed once again with numbers up over the three days. Some 4,400 hosted buyers and trade visitors took part and more than 7,500 pre-scheduled appointments were made prior to the event opening.
Exposing the industry to a wider audience, the key Chinese media also reflected on the economic impact of the Mice industry inbound and the importance of CIBTM as an event to lead the sector into the future.
The event’s largest number of international exhibitors mixed with suppliers from China and Asia Pacific, with 391 main stand holders and exhibiting partners in total. And views from the floor revealed that CIBTM has clearly helped in delivering business specific to the Mice sector.
CIBTM’s education programme included a mix of international and Chinese sessions and following on the success of last year, additional new subjects and topics were introduced.
One of the key highlights was the first industry panel debate session – which had standing room only. Entitled ‘How to Improve the core competence as a service provider’ more than 100 Chinese and Asian visitors and hosted buyers packed the conference room for the event.
“Every year we have added to the speakers and sessions as it is clear that the China market wants education, knowledge and facts about the industry. We have had a real variety of topics and features including CMP exams – the first ever in mainland China – the annual China Meetings Industry Report and a seminar on how to understand the local Mice market from a Chinese perspective,” said Erica Keogan, associations and education manager for the IBTM global meetings and events portfolio.
Summing up CIBTM 2011, project manager Jeffrey Xu said: “The response from the local, regional and international meetings industry to CIBTM this year has driven this event to yet another important stage in its strategic development. There is no doubt that China’s meetings industry, led by CIBTM, will help to support the predictions by HelmsBriscoe (April 2011) that its value of $150 billion will also have annual growth of 20 per cent.
“This week we have had very interesting feedback from buyers and suppliers who feel that there is significant business being discussed. Plus the competition on the show floor from destinations, products and services really does give our hosted buyers and trade visitors a huge choice for their future plans.”