Kuala Lumpur Fifth Best Asia-Pacific Convention City

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (Bernama) -- Kuala Lumpur has moved up three places to the fifth place in the Asia-Pacific ranking of top convention cities for 2011. It also jumped two places to the 21st place in the world ranking of convention cities based on the International Congress and Convention Association's (ICCA) survey. Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) chief executive officer Zulkefli Sharif said Kuala Lumpur was gauged from 78 international association meetings it hosted last year. He said, however, Malaysia dropped one spot to the 29th place while maintaining its position among top 10 Asia-Pacific's convention cities. "Despite dropping one spot, the number of international association meetings hosted in the country grew from 119 to 126 last year," he said in a statement. Zulkefli said this proved the growing interest and confidence from global associations in Malaysia as a premier meeting destination. He cited the hosting of the Institute of Internal Auditors International Conference 2011 in Kuala Lumpur as an example. "Held for the first time in Asia, it was touted as the world's largest gathering of internal auditors ever recorded outside the United States," he added. He attributed the growing number of meetings held in Malaysia to close cooperation and commitment among the Tourism Ministry, MyCEB and various industry partners. Apart from Kuala Lumpur, other Malaysian cities, namely Penang was ranked 32nd, Kota Kinabalu (38th) and Melaka (68th) in Asia-Pasific by ICCA, he said. Zulkefli said last year MyCEB supported 29 bids and 20 corporate incentive groups representing 35,750 representatives and an economic value of US$121.36 million (RM382 million). He said it also assisted 130 meetings and conventions, six exhibitions and 62 corporate incentive groups, which contributed an economic impact of US$317.54 million (RM1 billion) to the country. (US$1 = RM3.14) -- BERNAMA