SL Convention Bureau organises Sri Lanka Pavilion at AIME 2020

Sri Lanka delegation with Kapila Fonseka, Consul General of Sri Lanka Consulate in Melbourne, Australia

Business meetings in progress

Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Consulate General in Melbourne, Australia organised a Sri Lanka Pavilion at Asia Pacific Meetings and Incentive Event (AIME) which was held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Australia from 17-19 February.

AIME is the leading trade event for the meetings and event industry in the Asia Pacific Region.

The main objective of the event was to capitalise the MICE opportunities available in the Asia Pacific Region and thereby to promote Sri Lanka as a venue for international and regional conventions, meetings, exhibitions, and incentive travel destination.

There were 10 exhibitors registered for the event with SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka participated at the event. As per the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) statistics published in 2019, Australia is the fifth largest market for Sri Lanka and accounted for 92,674 tourist arrivals. The commencement of direct flights to Melbourne has positively contributed to increase the importance of the market.

Bureau has identified Australia as a potential market for promoting Sri Lanka MICE industry in line with set target of $ 10 billion industry with seven million tourist arrivals by 2025.

In the year 2020, AIME brought 360 hosted buyers from different parts of the world. AIME 2020 provided an opportunity for the Sri Lankan Industry participants to have pre scheduled business meetings with the hosted buyers.

The day 1 of the Exhibition dedicated for personal and professional development at the Knowledge Exchange, where participants had the opportunity to listen and participate in a number of sessions across the day from PCMA, ICCA, SITE and MEA. The content was relevant to the meeting and incentives industry. The day two and day three were allocated for the Business Meetings. Kapila Fonseka, Consul General of Sri Lanka Consulate General in Melbourne, Australia visited the Sri Lanka Pavilion and grace the participants.

The event generated 150 inquires for the participants through pre-scheduled meetings.