Singapore strengthens MICE status

Singapore - According to the Union of International Associations' (UIA), Singapore is now the third best city for meetings, a result which will please the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau (SECB) which have been trying to capture a bigger slice of the Business Travel and Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) market.

Singapore ranked behind Vienna and then Paris which is considered by the UIA to be the top city in the world for meetings, but in Asia, Singapore was considered the top country for Meetings as well as Top City. Last year Singapore hosted 62% more meetings than in 2005, including the 2006 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank - tourism receipts of the BITMICE sector from 2006 was $4 billion while the SECB aims to increase this figure to $10.5 billion by 2015.

"This robust performance and the dynamic MICE landscape in Singapore is a resounding testament of the strong cooperation and close partnership between the public and private sector, including government agencies and the MICE industry players, and I'm confident that the buoyant outlook of the industry will continue," Aloysius Arlando, assistant chief executive of Business Travel and MICE group for Singapore Tourism Board said.