Singapore's Exhibitions Industry clinches Two Major Shows

The future prospects for Singapore’s exhibitions industry has received a significant boost with the staging of two major tradeshows in 2007 and 2008.

Come May 2008, Singapore will host the Japan International Apparel Machinery (JIAM) exhibition, one of the three largest apparel machinery trade fairs in the world. Held every three years, the Singapore edition of the show marks the first time that JIAM will be staged outside of Japan. JIAM 2005 in Osaka took up 25,000 sqm of nett exhibition space and attracted a total of 40,000 visitors, out of which 6,000 were foreign visitors from over 60 countries.

In addition, Singapore has won the bid to once again host the Tax Free World Association (TFWA) Asia Pacific exhibition in 2007 and 2008, with an option for 2009 as well. The return of this prestigious exhibition to Singapore for at least two more years is expected to bring in an estimated 4,000 delegates and some S$24 million in tourism receipts over a two-year period.

TFWA Asia Pacific is a leading exhibition for the region’s duty free and travel retail industry. It is organised by TFWA, the world's largest duty free and travel retail association, representing more than 350 key international brand companies supplying duty free and travel retail outlets worldwide. The association counts brand names such as Hermès, Cartier, Hugo Boss, Christian Dior, Estée Lauder, Georg Jensen, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Pernod Ricard and Philip Morris among its members.

TFWA Asia Pacific has been anchored in Singapore annually since 1995 (with a two-year break in 1998-99 when the show shifted to Hong Kong). Its last showing in Singapore earlier this year attracted over 200 exhibitors and approximately 2,000 trade visitors. Next year, TFWA Asia Pacific will be held once again at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre, together with its Gate One Conference in May.

Mr Shaun Goh, Director, Strategic Clusters II, Business Travel & MICE Group at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), said, “Staging JIAM here and anchoring TFWA Asia Pacific for another two or possibly three years in Singapore is certainly a big boost for Singapore’s exhibitions industry. By their business potential, prestige, and the numbers and the quality of buyers and sellers they attract, these tradeshows greatly strengthen our exhibitions calendar for the next few years, and shows that Singapore continues to be a strong destination for exhibitions.”

The exhibitions industry is a key segment in the Business Travel & MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions) sector, which will be an important driver of STB’s Tourism 2015 vision to double Singapore’s visitor arrivals to 17 million and triple tourism receipts to S$30 billion. Some 30 exhibitions are already in Singapore’s calendar of business events for next year, including the following events:

- Asian Aerospace 2006 – Feb 2006, 5,000 foreign delegates
- The International Furniture Fair Singapore 2006 – March 2006, 6,000 foreign delegates
- IDEM 2006 – April 2006, 3,000 foreign delegates
- Food & Hotel Asia 2006 – April 2006, 14,000 foreign delegates
- CommunicAsia2006 – June 2006, 16,000 foreign delegates
- BroadcastAsia2006 – June 2006, 5,000 foreign delegates
- PSA 2006 – July 2006, 4,000 foreign delegates
- GlobalTronics 2006 – Oct 2006, 3,000 foreign delegates
- Hospimedica Asia 2006 – Oct 2006, 3,000 foreign delegates
- OSEA2006 – Dec 2006, 3,000 foreign delegates

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