Singapore will play host to a sizeable number of business events from 2019 and beyond, with several of these events secured being inaugural editions.
This comes on the back of a strong performance of the BTMICE industry in 2018. From January to September 2018 (year-to-date 3Q2018), tourism receipts from the BTMICE sector rose by 10 per cent to hit S$3.4 billion (US$2.5 billion), compared to the same period in 2017. This was driven by growth in BTMICE visitor arrivals, which also rose 14 per cent year-on-year for the same period, to hit two million arrivals.
Melissa Ow, deputy chief executive, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), said: “High-profile events in 2018 that garnered strong global interest, such as the DPRK-USA Singapore Summit and the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, have helped increase awareness of Singapore’s business events industry.”
In particular, there were more business events from the Professional Services, Technology and F&B clusters, “clusters are aligned to Singapore’s key economic sectors”, said Ow.
On the Professional services front, Singapore is set to host, for the first time, the Baker Tilly International Global Tax Conference 2019 & Baker Tilly International World Conference 2019, as well as the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit 2019. In addition, Singapore has also secured the KPMG Asia Pacific Tax Summit 2019, INSOL 2019, Understanding Risk 2020, 18th Asia Pacific Life Insurance Congress 2021 and Asian Patent Attorneys Association General Assembly and Council Meetings 2022. Collectively, these events are expected to draw close to 10,500 foreign delegates to Singapore.
In the technology sector, American technology heavyweight Oracle will be bringing the Oracle OpenWorld Asia 2019 to Asia for the first time, with Singapore being chosen as the convention’s host city. And for the second year running, Ingram Micro will hold its Ingram Micro One APAC 2019 regional conference in Singapore in 2019.
The Lion City has also secured SAP Field Kick-Off Meeting 2020 and 2021, SAP’s annual premier regional field sales event. Close to 6,000 international delegates are expected to arrive into Singapore through these business events secured in the Technology sector.
Besides existing F&B business events such as Speciality and Fine Food Asia, Food Japan and Vitafoods Asia, Singapore will also be hosting debut editions of the Southeast Asia Café Expo and Equip&Dine Asia 2019 (a collaboration with EquipHotel Paris). The Global Restaurant Leadership Conference 2019, which has re-located from Dubai, will also hold their highly successful C-suite level, thought leadership event for the first time in Singapore this year. These two events combined are expected to attract more than 3,500 international visitors.
In the F&B cluster, an event of particular note taking place is the Food&HotelAsia – HoReCa and F&B 2020, billed as Asia’s largest international trade and networking event for the food and hospitality industry. For the first time, Food&Hotel Asia (FHA) will expand their show into two dedicated events: FHA-HoReCa and FHA-F&B – in 2020. With the expansion, these two events are expected to bring in over 45,000 international delegates to the island nation
