The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Statistics Report for city and country rankings in 2019 has been released on 12 May 2020. The country rankings show strong regional competition with China-PR move to 7th place (539 meetings), Japan 8th (527 meetings) and Republic of Korea 13th (248 meetings). Australia has moved up from 13th to 12th position with a total of 272 international association meetings held in 2019. For the city ranking, the total number of international association meetings held in Taipei City reached 101, raising Taipei from 6th to 5th place among Asian international meeting cities, after Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Seoul. The city’s international ranking improved from 20th to 19th. The report ICCA examines the global association meetings market. It recorded a total of 13,254 rotating international association meetings taking place in 2019 – an increase of 2.5 per cent compared against the same time in 2018. “This is a fantastic result for Australia against strong regional competition and is reflective of the progressive work that convention bureaux are undertaking across the country in partnership with their State and Territory Governments and the industry operators they represent. It also recognises the strong support offered nationally by the Australian Government through initiatives such as Tourism Australia’s Business Events Bid Fund Program. TCEB has developed the MICE Venue Hygiene Guidelines in collaboration with its stakeholders, which include Thailand Incentive and Convention Association (TICA), Thai Exhibition Association (TEA), Event Management Association (EMA) and Thai Hotels Association (THA). The Guidelines aims to help MICE entrepreneurs be well-prepared for the resumption of businesses under the new normal environment, where hygiene and health safety will be key concerns and when more relaxation of lockdown measures is on the way. This follows positive signs of COVID-19 pandemic situation and the gradual easing of lockdown by the government.
The Business Events Council of Australia (BECA) has delivered a set of strategic principles to Government that instills confidence in Australia’s business events industry so that COVID-19 restrictions can be safely lifted and the industry can rapidly restart.
The news coincides with the unveiling of the three-step plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions by the Government last Friday. While welcomed by BECA, the peak industry body and its Safety and Hygiene Subcommittee are now seeking to work closely with officials to ensure a robust and sustainable distinction can be made between highly organised and managed business events in controlled settings from mass gatherings – to further expedite the industry’s recovery. Following the suspension of operations in Terminal 2 (T2), Singapore Changi Airport’s terminal operations will be consolidated further to optimise resources in tandem with the sharp decline in flight movements because of the global Covid-19 pandemic. This move will enable Changi Airport Group (CAG) and its airport partners to continue to save on running costs such as utilities and cleaning.
From 16 May 2020, Terminal 4 (T4) operations will be temporarily suspended in view of the small number of flights still operating in the terminal. Airlines currently based in T4 will operate out of Terminals 1 (T1) or 3 (T3) instead. With this, the stores and restaurants in T4 will close and the shuttle bus service connecting to T3 will be suspended until operations in T4 resume. The timing of this will depend on when air travel demand picks up and on the requirements of airlines seeking to relaunch flights at Changi Airport. |
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