Singapore still ranked as Asia’s Top Convention City in 2011

Singapore has retained its spot as the only Asian city in the Top Five Convention Cities in the world alongside Vienna, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin, since 2006.

In a news release, the Singapore Tourism Board announced that Singapore has once again maintained its position as Asia’s Top Convention City for 10 years running, according to the latest Global Rankings by the International Congress and Convention Association. In addition, Singapore has retained its spot as the only Asian city in the Top Five Convention Cities in the World alongside Vienna, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin, since 2006.

The accolade comes after a stellar year for Singapore tourism as the country welcomed a record high 13.2 million visitors, exceeding its forecast range of 12 – 13 million. The number of business visitors rose to 3.2 million, an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2010, and forming 24 per cent of total visitorship to Singapore. Expenditure by these business visitors also rose by 4.1 per cent to an estimated SGD 5.6 billion1, contributing approximately 25 per cent of total tourism receipts.

There was also robust performance in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions industry, which saw a 46 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of conventions, conferences and tradeshows in 2011. Key events also demonstrated strong growth with increased attendance and participation.

Ms Neeta Lachmandas, Assistant Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, commented, “We are proud that we have maintained our appeal to global businesses as a premier hub in the Asia Pacific region. Our success can be attributed to several factors: a vibrant eco-system that nurtures business events of exceptional quality, the dynamic growth in Asia, and most importantly, the dedication of our MICE industry partners.”

“Looking ahead, Singapore aims to continue leveraging the growing opportunities in Asia and our strong knowledge network to further strengthen our position as a preferred MICE destination. Singapore strives to differentiate itself by co-creating and developing a strong network of business events within Singapore’s key priority industries. Through close collaboration with professional industry partners and sustained efforts to develop the capabilities of Singapore’s key industry clusters such as biomedical and healthcare; infocomm technologies; environment and energy; and banking and finance, STB serves to attract and develop flagship MICE events of international standing that reinforce Singapore’s attractiveness as a leading MICE city.”

Inaugural events that made Singapore their preferred launch-pad to tap onto Asia’s growth include Cruise Shipping Asia 2011, International Air Transport Association Global Aviation Human Capital Summit, and ScreenSingapore. Other key conferences such as Music Matters and Digital Matters and Asia Smart Grid gathered business and opinion leaders in their respective industries.

The year also saw the securing of 17 new world congresses for Singapore’s line up of events from 2012 to 2016. These include the 52nd ACI World Congress in 2013, the World Federation of Engineering Organisations Congress 2013 and the 36th World Diamond Congress in 2013 and the International Congress of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy 2015.

At the same time, Singapore continued to welcome high-level assemblies and C-suite level events such as the IATA Annual General Meeting, Million Dollar Round Table Experience meeting, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asian Stars Conference 2011, Deutsche Bank-DB Access Conference 2011, Currency Conference and the Russia Singapore Business Forum. This is testament to Singapore’s growing thought-leadership and unique strengths in key industries like transport and security, and banking and finance.