Sarawak wins 24 convention bids

KUCHING – Malaysia’s first independent Convention Bureau has had a busy and successful first year of operation confirming 24 new meetings with an average size of 320 delegates for Sarawak over the next two years. More than 40 destination bids were presented up until December last year and of these 24 were won, 17 were lost and decisions are still pending on a further 10. The 24 confirmed meetings will bring in 7,775 delegates generating an estimated 2,000 hotel room nights and RM 16.3 million (US$5.08 million) in direct delegate expenditure.

The bureau conducted a series of site inspection visits for 113 meeting planners and association executives from the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, China, Taiwan, Scandinavia, Singapore and Hong Kong and attended major meeting trade shows to build awareness of Sarawak as a meetings destination. The bureau also assisted the organisers of 13 conventions held in Sarawak last year with marketing and promotion support for delegate boosting to maximise their delegate attendance.