Sydney has launched its first Asian incentive meeting planner following a surge in bookings from the Asian market during the past two years.

Releasing the new “Imagine Sydney” incentive guide, Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau Managing Director Jon Hutchison said incentives were expected to be the fastest growing source of business for the Sydney meetings industry over the next few years.

Mr Hutchison said the Asian edition of the planner was designed to capitalise on strong interest in Sydney amongst Asian corporations and travel agents planning incentive meetings.

SCVB will distribute 2500 copies of the Asian edition of the 28-page “Imagine Sydney”, with another 2500 copies of the booklet to be issued in the UK, Europe and the US.

The release of the Asian planner follows the Bureau’s recent opening of a joint Hong Kong office with the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre to target Asian meetings business.

Mr Hutchison said 11 Asian incentive meetings won by the SCVB had been held in Sydney during 2003/04. The meetings were worth a record $27.7 million in economic value to the city, a 270 per cent increase on the previous year.

“This year we expect the value of meetings from Asia to be far greater again.  We already hold bookings for 4 incentive events in 2004/05 worth an estimated $70.2 million and we expect this number to increase during the months ahead as more business is won.”

He said Sydney was attracting large incentive groups from Asia as the city offered a cosmopolitan environment and a range of unique experiences alongside a superb meetings infrastructure.

“Incentive groups from Europe and the US are generally between 50 to 300 people, whilst groups from Asia more commonly range between 500 and 4000. So not only are we seeing more bookings from Asia than other markets, we’re also seeing far larger groups.”

Mr Hutchison said Sydney was amongst a handful of cities that targeted the incentive market with tailored marketing activity such as the planner.

“By creating two versions of the brochure we can more easily highlight the most relevant features of our city to different marketplaces and build our business worldwide.”