SINGAPORE - initiatives to spur growth in ME business travel

Times of Oman, September 26, 2006

MUSCAT — Singapore is widely acknowledged as a leading destination for business travel, meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions.

Ranked the world’s second top convention city, as well as Asia’s top convention city by the International Convention and Congress Association, Singapore has also retained the position of Asia’s top convention city in the Union of International Associations’ 2005 rankings — a position it has held for the last 23 years.

And for the first time, Singapore has moved up to fourth position globally. To encourage Middle Eastern and other business travellers to stage or expand their business events in Singapore, the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau — a group of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), has launched a new set of initiatives to help drive the growth and volume of business events staged in the country.

The initiatives aim to rally the MICE (meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions) industry to meet the targets envisioned for the business travel and MICE sector in the Tourism 2015 strategic blueprint and to establish Singapore as the ideas exchange capital of the world.

With the MICE landscape expected to transform due to new developments such as the Marina Bay Sands and the re-development of the Marina Bay area into an integrated, compact and vibrant MICE location offering 200,000sqm of convention and exhibition space as well as appealing leisure options, the stage is set for the STB to partner the industry to aggressively attract, create and grow business events.

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