Melbourne, Australia, has improved its position as a business events destination from 26th in the world in 2003 to 11^th in 2004, according to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).

This year, Melbourne more than doubled the number of future business events it has scheduled, to help push Australia’s 2004 ranking to 2^nd in the world.

“This is a significant achievement for Melbourne. The competition for major international conferences and meetings is fierce, with countries actively competing for the world’s largest events, in much the same way as they compete to hold the Olympic or Commonwealth Games,” said Garry Kingshott, CEO of Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB).

The news follows this week’s announcement by the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, that Melbourne has won the first major international event – a 4,000 delegate medical congress – for the new Melbourne Convention Centre.

“The four-day International Congress of Internal Medicine in March 2010 will bring 4000 scientists and their partners to Melbourne. This event is a good example of what is required to successfully bid for and win international events. To win this event, MCVB and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians collaborated over a number of years with the support of the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. We competed firstly against Sydney, Cairns and Brisbane to win the right to represent Australia’s bid and then faced strong competition from Santiago and Istanbul,” Mr Kingshott said.