CONVENTION and exhibition specialists in Asia have continued to note a growing presence of western tradeshows making landfall in the region.
Executive vice president of Taiwan External Trade Development Council, Walter Yeh, said more exhibition firms from Europe and the US are branching out into Taiwan, China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, encouraged by a growing number of event venues and an attractive market potential.
Rosalind Ng, managing director of Globe International Events Consultancy, told TTGmice e-Weekly that Asia is attractive as “its size is as big as the other side of the world” and its “economy is certainly more positive than Europe’s or the US’ at the moment”.
Ng said: “We have seen major international firms cloning their large-scale events in Asia. For example, international food exhibition SIAL (based in Paris) by COMEXPOSIUM Group has gone into China and the Philippines. The world’s largest building construction show in Munich BAUMA has also cloned a version in Shanghai.”
Besides cloned shows in Asia, newly launched events are coming to town too, added Ng.
China is a natural magnet for Western show owners, thanks to its massive population and strong purchasing power.
Sungoal Exhibition and Convention Co’s former executive president, Daben Mao, said western tradeshows had started to enter China since 2001, soon after the establishment of Shanghai New International Expo Center.
Mao said: “Some German organisers have been aggressively transplanting their brands into China over the past 15 years, and now run many trade fairs in the country.”
UFI’s managing director/CEO, Kai Hattendorf pointed out that Asia’s market appeal is also attracting delegates keen on making contact with partners in this part of the world. He shared that UFI’s events in Asia-Pacific draw people from all over the world.
Indonesia, which witnessed the budding of the trend two years ago, is expected to catch up with China in the next decade, remarked International Energy Credit Association’s chair, Effi Setiabudi.
“And in another 20 years, foreign show organisers may move to Vietnam,” Effi added.
