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

The congress, not held here since 1994, attracts meeting, incentive travel, convention and exhibition (Mice) organisers, as well as trade industry associations, from more than 50 countries.

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

Mr Edward Liu, president of the Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers, said that 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 move their events to Singapore or hold Asian spin-offs here.

'It is important that we have the right packages to attract visitors from the region - Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and 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 annual gaming conference Games Convention Asia, a sister of the original Games Convention held in Leipzig, Germany, and ITB Asia, the Asian edition of ITB Berlin.

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

In December, Singapore Exhibition Services called off precision engineering trade show Metal Asia because of poor response. Popular conference venue Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel has also seen reduced bookings for this year and a lower number of participants.

To spur interest, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is raising its subsidies of bidding costs for Singapore-held events to 70per cent, from 50per cent. It will also provide a 70per cent subsidy for hiring international top speakers for major conventions and exhibitions, and a 50per cent discount for organisers taking part in STB's overseas trade shows.

Mr Liu insists that the fundamentals of the exhibition industry are strong. He added that the STB's enhanced Mice industry incentives will help promote Singapore as a preferred destination for large-scale events and meetings.

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