Business events worth $192 million have been secured for Melbourne following a strong performance by the Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB) during the 2004/05 financial year.

“The value of the business events we have won for Victoria is up by 25 per cent on the previous financial year. Even more significant is the increase in economic impact of the international events we have secured, up by 55 per cent on last year,” said Garry Kingshott, CEO, MCVB.

MCVB also increased the number of room nights delegates spend in Victorian hotels by 25 per cent and delegate numbers by 12 per cent.

“At MCVB we continue to improve our ability to identify, bid for and convert new business for Melbourne and Victoria. These events will bring close to 48,000 delegates to Melbourne who will spend collectively 133,830 nights in our hotels,” he said.

According to Kingshott the MCVB has heightened its focus on the competitive international meetings and convention market since the Victoria Government announced it would construct a new 5,000-seat convention centre by the end of 2008.

“The new convention centre will give Melbourne the capacity to hold larger, international events. At MCVB our core objective is to win the largest and most valuable events for Melbourne and Victoria,” Kingshott said.

Major events won during the year include The World Psychiatric Association International Congress and the World Congress of Neuroscience both being held in 2007, the 30th International Congress of Internal Medicine in 2010 and the International Botanical Congress in 2011. These four events have a combined economic impact of more than $77 million.