ASIA - Beijing City Government is on board with Reed Travel Exhibitions to continue the CIBTM exhibition partnership for another four years, with aims to grow the show by 10 per cent a year.
Speaking at the China National Convention Center on 13 September, the vice-chairman of Beijing’s Tourism Department, Sun Weijia, told a press conference MICE is a priority fortourism and the economy.
“Last year in Beijing MICE activity increased 30 per cent, ahead of general tourism which had advanced 15-16 per cent,” he claimed.
Sun acknowledged, however, that the internal market was driving this growth and that the goal was to step up levels of international meetings business coming to Beijing.
He also announced the creation recently of a 20m yuan (US$3m) fund to encourage the private sector to bring more international conventions to the city.
Sun emphasised Beijing’s credentials for hosting big events and pointed out the SITE 2012 conference was due to host its gala dinner in the Forbidden City next week and also use the Watercube venue in the Olympic Park for an event.
“We aim to show that the City government of Beijing is really determined to develop in full the MICE industry,” said Sun.
He revealed that meetings and exhibition revenues in Beijing had reached 21.2bn yuan renminbi in 2011, representing an increased of 21.8 per cent on 2010 figures.
Beijing hosted 286,000 meetings last year, according to the government figures.
Incentive tourists rose 40 per cent to 300,000, added Sun.
Beijing was showing 20 per cent growth in its outbound tourism market, noted Sun, although the inbound market had slowed slightly, he admitted.
EW stablemate CMW asked Sun whether China was reaping an Olympic legacy from its new venues built for the 2008 Games. “We built 30 new venues for the Olympics and many are now landmark venues and tourist attractions today. The Bird’s Nest stadium has 700 major events booked in the next three years,” Sun told CMW.
Despite ICCA choosing to hold its 2013 Congress in Shanghai, Sun said Beijing was not concerned with completion as a Chinese MICE destination.
“Beijing is unique and has a lot of advantages, including its rich culture.”
Sun noted that with some industries declining in importance, such as the car industry, tourism, MICE and the related service sector had been defined by the Government as “pillars’ of a new economic policy over the next three years.
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