The 2013 China (Beijing) Incentives, Business Travel & Meetings Expo Success

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On the morning of September 2,2013, hosted by the China National Tourism Bureau and the Beijing Municipal People's Government, and undertaken by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and the Reed Travel Exhibitions, the 2013 China (Beijing) Incentives, Business Travel & Meetings Expo (hereinafter referred to as CIBTM 2013) successfully debuted at the China National Convention Center. Cheng Hong, the Deputy Mayor of the Beijing Municipal People's Government, Zhu Shangzhong, the Deputy Secretary of the China National Tourism Administration, Lu Yong, the Director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Song Yu, the Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Cao Pengcheng, the Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, and Mr. Craig Moyes, the General Manager of the MICE Department of the Reed Travel Exhibitions together opened the CIBTM. The Deputy Mayor Cheng Hong delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. Guests from the international MICE tourism industry, specially invited buyers, and Chinese, foreign media and others appeared on site.

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Deputy Mayor Cheng Hong said in her speech that high-end tourism is the product when the tourism industry has entered a certain development period, and an important direction which changes the way of growth, adjusts the industrial structure, and promotes industrial growth in China’s tourism industry. The Beijing Incentives, Business Travel & Meetings Expo has become an international exhibition which is the largest and most distinguished in Asia, and focuses on the meeting, exhibition and incentive tourism industry, since it was founded in 2005 to today. It has built a concrete platform for expanding communication with the outside world, strengthening cooperation, promoting development and achieving reciprocal benefits for Beijing’s and even China’s tourism industry.

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Beijing has a wealth of meeting and MICE tourism resources. For a long time, the Beijing Municipality and Government have highly been emphasizing the development of the MICE tourism, increasingly promoting exhibition facilities, fostering industrial clusters and enhancing the MICE tourism industry’s developing environment, which has extremely boosted the fast development of the exhibition industry.

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So far, Beijing has entered a new period in which it is fully developing into a modern global city. Tourism has become an important strategic pillar industry and a new feature for growth for Beijing, and has shown a benign situation for growth. With the scientific developing theme and the thought of increasingly changing the development methods, Beijing will further establish tourism development coordination and promotion mechanics to boost the transformation of the government’s functions, and further energize the tourism industry to realize the leapfrog development for Beijing’s tourism industry.

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Highlights of This Expo:

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1. Prominent International Exhibition Positioning.

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In recent years, the CIBTM has increased year-over-year on its exhibition scales, its exhibitors’ qualities, the transactions of its specially invited buyers, exhibitor satisfaction and other aspects, so that the influence of its brand and its position of being the biggest international MICE tourism industry’s exhibitions has been more consolidated.

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Firstly, the strength of the specially invited buyers has become stronger. This year 410 buyers have been invited, and this figure has increased by 12% compared with last year. Among the buyers are 100 international buyers and 310 domestic buyers. The quality has obviously increased compared with that of last year. The enterprise buyers and association buyers will consistently and largely increase and they are expected to reach 150 people, with over 30% growth compared with last year.

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Secondly, International exhibitors have obviously increased. This year over 400 exhibitors from nearly 30 countries and regions participated in the exhibition. Among them, the international exhibitors, especially the European and American exhibitors, have obviously increased, including Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, Airbus, GE, Amazon and other famous international companies.

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Thirdly, the exhibition area increases yearly. The entire area of the CIBTM 2013 is 8,250 square meters, with 18% growth compared with last year. Among them, 55% are international exhibitors and 45% domestic exhibitors.

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2. Professional Exhibition Organization

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As part of the highly acclaimed IBTM global meetings and events portfolio, the organization of the CIBTM has maintained an advanced international level. The CIBTM is committed to promoting global travel series exhibitions, and attracting all kinds of international and professional exhibitors. To fulfill its ambition, the CIBTM initialized the “specially invited buyers” program, according to which all buyers must undergo verification and assessment in terms of purchasing intent, power, mode, and channel, and each of them is required to meet their counterpart through an online system.

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The CIBTM has won international recognition. This year it becomes the first MICE in China to obtain the Trade Fair Certification by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Compared with the last exhibition, the number of American exhibitors has increased from two to nine; therefore, an independent section for American exhibitors was set up.

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3. Market-Oriented Operation

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Firstly, for many years, guided by the government, the CIBTM has coordinated the supply and demand conforming market mechanism for a win-win situation. Through this move, it aimed to evoke the initiatives of enterprises and promote the internationalization and continuous development of the MICE in Beijing.

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Secondly, the CIBTM has provided more businesses for exhibitors from home and abroad. The past three years has witnessed over 300 foreign exhibitors purchasing goods through the platform of the CIBTM. Each year, the goods with an average worth of 13.8 billion Yuan are purchased by foreign exhibitors such as Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, Airbus, General Electric, and Amazon. In the coming year, about 8,000 deals worth of about 32.6 billion Yuan will be made.

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Thirdly, the CIBTM has set up a platform for information exchanges. For the CIBTM 2013, we will invite famous professionals in the tourism industry to host 19 sessions. Among them, David DuBois, President and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), will present the findings from “The Digital + Exhibitions/Events Playbook” research; Rob Davidson, Professor of the University of Greenwich in London, will for the first time present the findings of the “Chinese Meeting Planners' Site Selection Survey”. These sessions have become a platform for information exchanges and businesses.

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4. Beijing Resources Highlighted at CIBTM 2013

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The CIBTM has greatly promoted the image of Beijing as an international high-end MICE destination city. During the CIBTM, a 208-square-meter platform is established to display various tourism resources of Beijing to buyers from both home and abroad. Meanwhile, top MICE resources will be specially introduced to international hosted buyers and some media. Three tour investigation routes with different styles as well as some special promotional itineraries will be launched to promote Beijing’s top tourism resources and Beijing culture. This CIBTM will fully show the charm of Beijing as an international MICE city to domestic and overseas buyers, the media, and international exhibitors.

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5. International Media PRESENT during the Propaganda of the CIBTM

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Media from both home and abroad are much concerned about CIBTM 2013 and about 10 international media from the Europe, America and Australia come to investigate Beijing’s top MICE resources during the CIBTM, carry out exclusive interviews to Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and continue reporting about the CIBTM. Through the Reed Exhibitions’ global promotion system, there are a total of over 400 media outlets reporting about the CIBTM, which covers more than 1 billion viewers.

Under the circumstance of the downwards international economic environment and a sluggish domestic inbound tourism market, CIBTM makes full use of the operation mechanism of the market and establishes an international communication platform for companies to realize self-expansion and international acknowledgment in the internationalism and expertise.

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In addition, CIBTM helps enhance confidence of the market, prompt international consuming and promote the vitality of inbound tourism. It is also a turning point of further marketable operations of Beijing Tourism.

As one of the sponsors of the CIBTM, Reed Exhibitions signs a five-year strategic cooperation agreement with the CNCC, saying that the CIBTM will still be held at the National Convention Center. The strategic cooperation fully indicates that the international market is confident about the development of Beijing’s MICE industry. Meanwhile, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development carries out a further discussion with Reed Exhibitions about the future 3-5 years’ cooperation. The marketability of the CIBTM will be future developed to highlight CIBTM’s prominent international exhibitions, as well as the expertise of companies that participate in the exhibitions, and push the development of Beijing Tourism and the establishment of international MICE.