Malaysia participated in IMEX, a worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events, IMEX from 22 to 24 April 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Headed by Tourism Malaysia, the mission seeks to establish potential business ventures with foreign operators of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) as well as to promote Malaysia’s MICE products and services to buyers.

Tourism Malaysia’s IMEX partners comprise Malaysia Airlines, Sarawak Convention Bureau, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Matrade Exhibition & Convention Centre, Nexus Resort
Karambunai (Kota Kinabalu), Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa, Shangri-la Hotels & Resorts, YTL Hotels & Properties, Asian Overland Conventions & Events, Asia Experience, Mayflower Acme Tours, Discovery Overland Holidays, Borneo Adventure, Borneo Passages and Kalao Voyages.

In conjunction with IMEX, Tourism Malaysia organised a "Meet & Experience Malaysia Truly Asia" dinner on a cruise ship on the Main river. It was attended by more than 60 guests comprising
event organisers, incentive houses and media who took the opportunity to network with the Malaysian partners.

Tourism Malaysia’s Advertising and Publicity Division director and head of the delegation, Mr Amiruddin Abu said that Malaysia’s tourism industry had performed well and received a steady growth in tourist arrivals over the last four years. According to him, Malaysia had attracted some 78,600 tourists from Germany 2007, an increase of 18.8% compared to the same period in 2006.

"In terms of MICE, the total conference arrivals for 2007 were 1,000,000 or 4.8% of the tourist arrivals compared to 820,000 in 2006," he said. Amiruddin also mentioned that the German market showed a steady growth of 20.3% conference arrivals with a total of 14,823 tourist arrivals in 2006. "Malaysia is now set to capture a greater share of the international MICE market to represent at least 10% market share of the arrivals to Malaysia," he added.

Christina Wendt, Director Sales and Marketing of the Sarawak Convention Bureau, is very satisfied with this year's IMEX: "IMEX was excellent for us and the best fair to do business. We
have received several promising enquiries for conferences and incentives in 2009 and 2010. With our new Convention Center in Kuching, we will be able to cater for up to 5,000 delegates as from 2009". Ms. Wendt also underlines the importance of Green Tourism and CSR for the MICE market: "The new Convention Center strongly incorporates the green philosophy. For example, the roof is shaped like a tea leaf to collect the rain water for use in the Center. And the Sarawak Convention Bureau works together with the PERKATA Organisation for Mentally Handicapped Children in Sarawak in terms of CSR."

Paulo Santos, Corporate and MICE Representative of Malaysia Airlines Germany, comments: "MICE is an important part of our international service. We have a prosperous exchange with our Head Office in Kuala Lumpur giving us the opportunity to showcase Malaysia. This support is very important for the German market which is very strong in terms of MICE."

Premmy Michael, Senior Manager of Mayflower Acme Tours stresses the importance of coming well-prepared to the fair: "IMEX is very important for us as 20% of Mayflower's business is MICE. Within one year after the fair you can have a very good return. The German market is particularly strong in exhibitions and conferences."

Background
IMEX 2008 welcomed more than 8,500 buyers to Messe Frankfurt. Over 3,600 were hosted buyers and a large proportion of them are from the long-haul markets. The buyers achieved over 40,000 pre-organised appointments during the three fair days. IMEX 2009 will take place from May 26-29.