Business tourism on the agenda in Melbourne this week

MELBOURNE – Business tourism and the expected growth of business events in Australia and the region will be the key focus for more than 6,000 people when they gather in Melbourne for the 16th Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) on February 19 and 20 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.

AIME 2008 will be officially opened by Geoff Donaghy, chairman of Australia’s peak convention and exhibition industry organisation, the Business Events Council of Australia, at 9.45am tomorrow.

“AIME is the most important event on the industry calendar and the launch pad for many new developments and industry initiatives. The event includes 850 exhibitors from 50 countries, a local audience of around 2,300 people plus 480 of the world’s most important buyers of business events and incentives, who are hosted from Australia and 27 other countries,” event director, Rosemarie Sama said.

“If there is any uncertainty in the economic future of the business events industry we are not seeing it at AIME 2008. Countries such as Dubai, Canada, Tahiti, Hawaii, the Philippines, Singapore, Korea, Brunei, Macau and China have taken larger spaces and Australia exhibitors representing Sydney, Brisbane, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have all expanded their displays,” she added.

Tourism Australia is also actively involved and will launch its Business Events Australia brand for the country on Tuesday at 5pm.

AIME is organised by Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE). AIME forms part of the RTE portfolio of Global Meetings and Incentives Events along with EIBTM (www.eibtm.com.au), GIBTM (www.gibtm.travel), CIBTM (www.cibtm.travel) and the ICCA Exhibition in association with the ICCA Congress (www.iccaworld.com).