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338179
Mon, 08/18/2014 - 05:56
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MyCEB To Contribute Eight PCT In Business Tourists By 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) aims to contribute eight per cent in business tourists to the country from the current five per cent (80,000 delegates) by 2020. This will be achieved by increasing the awareness of Malaysia as a top destination for business events, says its General Manager for Business Events, Ho Yoke Ping. She said the bureau, established by the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism, is working towards making Malaysia the premier location for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions internationally. This, she added, will also help generate bigger revenue for the country. Established in 2010, MyCEB's role is to assist local and international meetings and event planners to bid for, secure and stage their international events successfully in Malaysia. "As the bureau was established only four years ago, we have a lot of catching up to do. "Right now, we want to focus more on bringing international and regional companies to Malaysia, to increase the spending by business visitors, and at the same time improve job opportunities for locals," she told Bernama. Ho said as the business visitors to Malaysia are mostly professionals, their spending power is three times higher than that of normal visitors. "Business visitors who attend any event held here, spent about US$$2,219 (RM7,000) in contrast to US$634 (RM2,000) by the normal tourists," she added. Having said that, Ho said MyCEB's has also a long term goal of making Malaysia the fifth ranked destination in the Asia Pacific for conferences from ninth currently. "Last year, we secured about 135 business activities worth around US$253.67 million (RM800 million) and in 2014, we were hoping to achieve about 150," she added. MyCEB from January to June this year has already won 92 bids. When asked about the challenges faced by the Bureau, Ho said it sometimes did not have sufficient manpower to assist with the bidding process. She also urged more investments in the events industry in Malaysia as the country can only host 8,000 conferences at present. "But the number of major conferences involves a much bigger number," she added. -- BERNAMA

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