Singapore wants back to top
In recent years the city-state has had to cope with serious setbacks. In a bid to recapture a leading place in the Asian event destination league, the exhibition industry is now investing more in human resources.
With its history as a commercial gateway to Asia, the city-state today hosts many of the continent's biggest exhibitions in a wide variety of sectors. Among the most important shows in the country are Asian Aerospace, CommunicAsia for the information technology and communications sector, Food & Hotel Asia for the hotel and restaurant trade, and the International Furniture Fair.
Essentially, around a dozen organisers stage fairs in Singapore. Trade shows in the city draw a large number of exhibitors and attendees from abroad and overseas. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, 50 % of exhibitors and 36 % of visitors come from abroad. Although economic growth is low at the moment, mechanical engineering, technology and tourism fairs are doing well. And as the economy gradually picks up, so they will continue to expand. The exhibition industry slowly began to bud in the mid-1970s in the city-state. Since no appropriate exhibition space was available at that time, the stadium and the Hyatt Hotel garage were simply air-conditioned and used for the first shows. The industry experienced its breakthrough in the mid-1980s when some warehouses in the World Trade Centre were converted into exhibition halls, and it was given a further boost when dedicated facilities - Suntec Singapore and the Singapore Expo - were built in the early 1990s. Today Singapore can provide 122,000 m2 of exhibition space.
The exhibition industry grew steadily, reaching its peak shortly before September 11, 2001. But the events of that day dealt the entire sector a grave blow. The next setback visited the city in 2003 in the form of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome SARS. But in spite of all this, the sector has fought back robustly in the past year and a half. It is expected to return to its former highs within the next two years. The government has given top priority to the sector's development and support. To ensure that the industry maintains its head start, Singapore’s association of exhibition and conference organisers is focusing heavily on education and training.
Stephen Tan
m+a report Nr.8 / 2005 vom 08.12.2005
m+a report vom 8. Dezember 2005