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China

Outbound trips with a business motivation have traditionally accounted for the greater share of overseas travel by the Chinese. However, trips with a leisure motivation now represent more than half of this outbound market. If China follows the same pattern of evolution of business travel trends witnessed in other industrialising nations, it is highly likely that in a matter of years we shall be seeing a substantial outbound market from that country, comprising businessmen and businesswomen travelling for work related purposes.

At the same time, China is rapidly equipping itself as a 21st century conference and exhibition destination. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 EXPO in Shanghai accelerated the expansion of China’s infrastructure and facilities. The country has declared its intention to have 120 world-class convention centres by 2020. From the World EXPO 2010 Shanghai gained a new exhibition centre with 600,000 square metres of high tech display space. Until recently the Chinese government had focused on providing exhibition spaces but new convention centres are being built throughout the country, such as the design award winning centre in Dalian.

China will also be the market to watch in terms of outbound meetings and incentives. We are seeing large incentive groups from China venturing out into the region – especially to destinations such as Singapore, Thailand and even Australia.

India

India’s growing economy means that more and more Indian business people are on the move. Along with China, India is a fast growing and increasingly important outbound market. The two markets have much in common – large populations, growing economies, emerging middle classes, and liberalising travel and aviation environments. India’s exhibitions industry offers huge growth opportunities if the issue of a lack of venue capacity can be addressed.

The importance of the Indian outbound business market is already apparent in a number of destinations. Hong Kong, for example, says business visitors comprise 63% of its total traffic from India, higher among those heading on to China. China itself is projecting large increases in business travel from India, especially in the wake of closer political and trade ties. Indian business travellers also account for the largest segment of total Indian arrivals into Dubai, where, after the UK, the second largest source of arrivals comes from India. These arrivals generate 16% of Dubai’s total

income from tourism. For Dubai, India is the most valuable source market alongside Germany. Also, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are being increasingly promoted in India as attractive conference destinations, under the umbrella term ‘Indo-China’, with emphasis on the cultural links shared by these countries and India itself. Indian incentive and meetings groups are having an impact, with Thailand, Singapore and Macau proving surprising popular.

Emerging destinations

It is undeniable that the developments in conference, incentive and business travel described above will be matched by equally significant supply-side changes over the next five years as new destinations arrive onto the market, providing even greater competition for the established destinations. Widely tipped to succeed in this market are the new EU member states with coastlines on the Baltic Sea: Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where the meetings industry has emerged from nothing, which means that all venues in the region are new or newly-renovated. Also expected to make a strong impact are the emerging Mediterranean destinations of North Africa and Croatia, while even Libya, with its strong novelty value and cultural riches could be a key player as an inbound destination by the end of the decade.

As a medium-haul luxury destination for Europeans and Indians, the Middle East is attracting increasing attention from those planning events for high-level conference and incentive groups,. According to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), countries such as Dubai, Qatar, Oman and Jordan are the fastest growing destinations for conferences, incentive trips and business travel.

In terms of the destinations that are developing, both Indonesia and Vietnam are attracting business attention, and in Vietnam there is significant new investment in infrastructure and meetings facilities

Exhibition development

In the exhibitions and trade fair sectors Asian trade shows are still fragmented and there are still too many of them. This is contrasted to Europe where national shows and shows act as global hubs for the industry. In Asia many of the shows suffer from trying to be local, regional and global shows all at the same time, which means they lack a clear positioning. Unlike in Europe there are no clear leading shows in particular industries. There are too many shows, and too many small shows and no one show has yet reached the sport of critical mass needed to make it the central focus for the region, so there is a lack of budget to pull together a global hosted buyer programmes. However, as Asian markets become more important for Western buyers and suppliers, Asia is currently learning how to market itself to the world, and it is learning fast. And nowhere is this more apparent than in Korea.

Korea is the only country in the world where the national Government has made the meetings industry one of its top eight economic priorities. The Koreans are making significant investment in infrastructure and marketing, and are sponsoring key opinion leaders in any sector to get active in their global associations. They are very strategically minded in this market. Not only does the country have some of the world’s biggest corporations based there – including Hyundai, Samsung and LG – it has a significant scientific community. Some business leaders contend that Korea has now dethroned Singapore as the most powerful global hub for Asia.

Of course, there are other centres of excellence across the region, and China is one of the biggest of these. China now accounts for over 50% of the exhibitions market in Asia and has close to 100 exhibition venues. Compare that to the second largest market, Japan, with just 12. Currently, the key to penetrating the Chinese market for Business Events is via the exhibition sector, according to CIM magazine (September 2005). Until recently exhibitions in China were primarily domestic affairs; but today organisers from around the world are currently exporting their leading exhibitions to China.

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