Taiwan is confident that its business events sector will rebound beyond 2019 this year, as recent business events activities in the destination reveal pent-up demands materialising into business.
Speaking to visiting media on the recent Meet Taiwan Open Arms’ Taiwan Pulse fam trip, Jerchin Lee, managing director of Meet Taiwan, said: “Taking the Computex Taipei exhibition – which took place from May 30 to June 2 – as an example, we see that although the (size of the show) is 70 per cent of that in 2019, this year’s total visitor count has grown by 60 per cent compared to 2019.”
Computex organisers revealed that the four-day event attracted 47,594 professional attendees from 150 countries, where the top 10 countries visitors hailed from were Japan, the US, South Korea, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
With more large-scale events such as Semicon Taiwan 2023, World News Media Congress 2023, and the 35th Conference of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology scheduled to take place this year, this will bode well for the industry’s swift recovery.
As such, Lee indicated that the outlook for the business events industry was promising, and could even surpass 2019 figures.
In 2019, the number of foreign participants in business events activities in Taiwan was 314,446 people, where economic benefits generated by foreign participants in exhibition activities amounted to NT$35.6 billion (US$1,160 million).
As for target market segments, Lee revealed: “In the (meeting segment), many of the associations are based in Europe and the US. Therefore, Taiwan will strive to attract these international conferences to be held here.”
Meanwhile, to attract more international conferences, Taiwan will also be leveraging its technology, science, and medical advancement industries.
Lee added that Taiwan will also be focused on attracting more events and participants from north-east and south-east Asia due to the short flight times of under six hours.
“These countries possess high-potential markets with large populations, making them crucial focus areas for Taiwan.”
In 2021, Taiwan also founded the Asia Convention Alliance along with Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea. The alliance aims to strengthen relations, and facilitate the exchange of knowledge between member countries through collaborative ventures. There is also a goal of hosting and bidding for more conventions, as well as organising joint conventions in member countries on a rotational basis.
