ITB Asia to reel in bigger pool of buyers in milestone year

Katrina Leung

Messe Berlin (Singapore) is anticipating the buyer programme to scale up at ITB Asia 2017, with 90 per cent of recommended buyers targeted to attend the 10th anniversary edition of the show this year.

There is an increase in the number of hotel groups participating in the programme this year, including names like Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Best Western Hotel Group, Meliá Hotels International, Resorts World Sentosa, WorldHotels and Pan Pacific Hotels Group.

 

Katrina Leung

The event is also seeing closer collaboration with key associations – including Malaysian Association for Tour & Travel Agents, Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India and National Association of Independent Travel Agents – which helps to bring a fresh pool of buyers to the event.

“We want to continue this momentum by working with our partners to bring a fresh pool of influential buyers from across the region” said Katrina Leung, executive director of Messe Berlin (Singapore). “Working closely with our exhibitors this year has allowed us to increase the number of buyer programme partnerships and deep dive into each local market to identify key areas of growth and demand.”

In 2016, 895 buyers attended the show, leading to a 1:1 ratio between exhibitors and buyers whilst over 50 per cent of buyers signed deals with exhibitors post event. Some 43 per cent of attending buyers had purchasing power of US$500,000 to US$1 million while 85.7 per cent of attending buyers were direct decision makers.

For more information on ITB Asia 2017, visit www.itb-asia.com

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