Business events are the catalyst for socio-economic growth of a country, emphasised Malaysia’s tourism and culture minister, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz at yesterday’s launch of the Malaysia Business Events Week 2017.
He stressed: “The impact from hosting international business events not only stretches beyond direct spending and job creation, but also amplifies the benefits beyond tourism. The legacy impact of hosting business events in Malaysia will help power Malaysia’s continued development as a knowledge and creative society.”
And Malaysia is making strong progress towards this end, with the first eight months of 2017 seeing 73 business events being secured for the country. These translate to approximately 60,665 delegates and RM555.5 million (US$132.1 million) in estimated economic impact.
Topping the list is the medical and pharmaceutical sector with 22 events, 20,900 delegates and RM166.5 million in estimated economic impact; followed by the education sector with nine events, 12,850 delegates and RM146.8 million; and the science and technology sector with 12 events, 5,663 delegates and RM57.1 million.
Upcoming international business events in 2018 include the World Urban Forum in February, WorldChefs Congress in July, World Library and Information Congress in August and World Cancer Congress in October.
Business events, Malaysia,According to Mohamed Nazri, China, a key source market for business events and leisure travel to Malaysia, received a boost through the government’s decision to enable eVisa applications from China last year, which resulted in a 26.7 per cent increase in Chinese tourist arrivals last year to 2.1 million.
This year, the government is targeting three million Chinese tourists. On the business events front, from 2011 to 2017, Malaysia received a total of 359 business events from China, which translate to more than 97,840 Chinese delegates who travelled to Malaysia for business events, bringing about an economic impact of RM1.339 billion.
