The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (Ufi) has chosen to hold its 77th meeting at Marina Bay Sands - the first confirmed event at the premiere integrated resort.

The congress, not held here since 1994, attracts Meetings, incentives, convention and exhibition (Mice) organisers, and trade industry associations, from more than 50 countries.

Some of its members include German company Messe Berlin, which organises one of the largest travel trade shows in the world, ITB Berlin. Plus American companies E.J. Krause and Reed Exhibitions who are behind ExpoComm, an international series of telecommunications shows.

Mr Edward Liu, president of the Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers said when the congress was last held here it attracted major German companies such as Koelnmesse and Messe Dusseldorf to set up regional operations in Singapore.

This time round, both tourism officials and local exhibition organisers are hoping to woo more international players to either shift their events to Singapore or hold Asian spinoffs here.

'It is important that we have the right packages to attract visitors from the region: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, so forth,' said Mr Liu.

The event also presents a golden opportunity for tourism officials and local industry players to attract much-needed business tourism.

In recent years Singapore has scored other high profile conventions such as the annual gaming conference Games Convention Asia, a sister of the original Games Convention held in Leipzig, Germany. Also ITB Asia, the Asian edition of ITB Berlin.

Such opportunities will hopefully offset what is likely to be a rocky few years for many Mice industry players. Mr Liu said that 20 per cent of Mice events here this year will be either cancelled, postponed or downsized.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.