The Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) has achieved a 32 per cent increase in economic contribution from secured business events in the 2013/2014 financial year from the previous year, Chief Executive Officer, Karen Bolinger, announced today.
Economic contribution reached an impressive $246 million from the 175 business events secured by MCB in the same year that saw Melbourne host three of the world’s largest and most prestigious health-related conferences won by MCB in previous years.
Ms Bolinger said the organisation’s performance for the 2013/2014 financial year was a remarkable achievement for MCB in what was a challenging, yet rewarding year.
“The competition to secure business events for Melbourne is now stronger than ever before, so to finish the financial year up on the previous year is fantastic and further demonstrates why Melbourne is Australasia’s Leading Meetings and Conference Destination,” Ms Bolinger said.
“Melbourne’s IQ strengths enabled us to secure four major international association conferences – the World Congress on Public Health, the World Congress on Intensive and Critical Care Medicine, World Engineers’ Convention and XIII International Congress of Dermatology – which will collectively contribute over $48 million to the Victorian economy from 2017 to 2021.
“By hosting the 22nd World Diabetes Congress in December and the World Congress of Cardiology and International Congress of World Federation of Hemophilia in May, an estimated $100 million was injected into the state’s economy from the the 20,000 delegates in attendance.”
Ms Bolinger continued by saying that the value of securing and hosting major international conferences in Melbourne was proven by the findings from MCB’s Melbourne Convention Delegate Study2013, released in February, another of the year’s highlights.
“The Study concluded that business events is one of the highest yielding sectors of Australia’s visitor economy and drives first-time visitation to Melbourne and Australia, but perhaps most importantly, is critical in furthering developments in scientific and medical research.”
Ms Bolinger said that in addition to the international association market, international incentives had also been strong in the last financial year.
“2013/2014 saw MCB secure and host over 1000 delegates from Shin Kong Life Insurance Company in Taiwan, which was the first time in ten years the company had decided to reward such a large incentive delegation outside of Asia.”
Other major highlights for the 2013/2014 financial year included partnering with Tourism Australia to host Dreamtime in Melbourne for the first time in December; engaging Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, as the official ambassador for Business Events Week in February; and launching MCB’s new website in May.
“I would like to thank the local and state government and our strategic partners and members for their ongoing support of MCB and the business events industry, which is crucial in the ever-increasing competitive environment we are operating in.
“I would also like to thank the team at MCB for their hard work and dedication and we look forward to another successful year ahead.”
