AN INTERNATIONAL corporate travel and meetings show due to make its debut in Hong Kong and billed as part of the city’s business events revival has been cancelled by organisers RX Global.
IBTM Asia Pacific was originally due to be held in Singapore but was postponed more than twice due to the Covid pandemic. It was then announced in November 2023 that the inaugural show would be held in Hong Kong after a “dynamic pitch” organised by the city’s tourism board to RX Global at ibtm World in Barcelona.
RX Global event director Claudia Hall said in a statement emailed to exhibitors, hosted buyers and other stakeholders due to participate in ibtm Asia Pacific that market choices were already covered by ibtm World, which was growing.
VIEW FROM MATT PEARCE
The cancellation of IBTM APAC is a salutary reminder to all event organisers that launches are difficult and risky. Asia Pacific is already well served with events for the Business Events industry and so IBTM was entering a crowded market.
Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME), the event we organise, has had several years of strong growth and has solidified its position as the largest event in the region. Northstar, launched The Meetings Show in Singapore this year in April, and we always thought that the prospect of three international shows was simply too many for the market to sustain.
Ultimately, the market has presumably spoken and has indicated that current shows are sufficient.
Hong Kong is well positioned as an events hub and I am sure will be disappointed with this announcement. China has been slower to bounce back since Covid and I suspect that this must have been a contributing factor to the decision to cancel the event.
– Matt Pearce is Director of Talk2Media & Events, the organisers of AIME in Melbourne
Hall said Chinese outbound business travel organisers were “increasingly adventurous in their choice of destination” and these options were already covered by IBTM’s Barcelona show.
IBTM Asia Pacific was heralded as one of the marquee events symbolising Hong Kong’s return on the international business events stage following the eventual lifting of Covid restrictions in March 2023 and an image tarnished by the civil unrest rest of 2019. It was due to be held at AsiaWorld-Expo next March.
Reaction in Hong Kong to the cancellation has so far been muted with one event planner telling MIX that there was now more locally organised business events and conference activity taking place. This mattered more to Hong Kong than “polishing an international image”, said the organiser, who asked not to be named. Others in the local industry told MIX of RX Global running into bad luck with the original Singapore debut planned as Covid restrictions gripped.
Backgrounder… Trade-show rivalry set to hot up with IBTM Asia Pacific
Rival business event show organisers also told MIX that they were perplexed as to why RX Global did not appear to have recruited a team based across the Greater Bay Area in the months ahead of the Hong Kong debut.
Hall said in the statement: “The continued global increase in the outbound meeting and business travel market, specifically from the APAC region and the coinciding growth in international representation at IBTM World has led us to announce that IBTM APAC will no longer take place as scheduled in 2025.
“Research findings highlighted that the APAC and especially Chinese outbound business travel planners are becoming increasingly adventurous in their choice of destination, and that spread of choice is at IBTM World. So, we are encouraging all those scheduled to participate in the Hong Kong event to join us in Barcelona (November 19-21) and benefit from the global buyer and audience that makes IBTM the annual choice of the meeting and business travel industry.”
More to come, vows Meetings Show
Asia Pacific is already a competitive market for business event shows with annual events including AIME in Melbourne, Messe Berlin’s ITB editions in Singapore, Shanghai and India, TTG’s shows in Bangkok and Shanghai, while US-headquartered publisher Northstar debuted an Asia-Pacific edition of The Meetings Show in Singapore earlier this year.
A spokesman for HKTB told MIX: “The Hong Kong Tourism Board understands that the APAC edition of IBTM will no longer take place in 2025 due to the organiser’s commercial considerations. The HKTB will continue to assist organisers who are eyeing global expansion in the region, and make every effort to secure and bid for major international MICE events to be held in Hong Kong.”
Main image: Vasyl Zhygalo. IBTM portfolio director, shakes hands with Kenneth Wong formerly of Hong Kong Tourism Board following the announcement of IBTM Asia Pacific coming to the city.
