Europe has always been the place where MICE professionals, representatives of destinations and nations worldwide converge to actively compete for a share of the global MICE business market.
Germany occupies an undisputedly leading position in this sphere.
Hence representatives from the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), the Ministry of Economic Affairs R.O.C., which is in charge of the Taiwan MICE Advancement Program (MeetTaiwan), will attend for the third time the Worldwide Exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings and Events (IMEX Europe) from May 24th to 26th, 2011 in Frankfurt, Germany.
BOFT’s objective is to maintain visibility and fly the flag of the MEET TAIWAN campaign in Europe.
As part of its promotional and marketing campaign, the BOFT delegation also plans a visit to Brussels, Belgium, a hub of various international associations in Europe, to hold a press conference together with the Tourism Bureau in an effort to attract more association business to Taiwan.
The stop at Brussels will precede IMEX in order to target the promotional efforts at relevant international organizations more effectively. The press conference there will highlight Taiwan’s excellent MICE resources, the government’s reward schemes, and success stories of various major events already held in Taiwan.
The delegation’s European visit fully demonstrates the Taiwan government’s determination to promote the MICE industry.
Now in its 9th year, IMEX is a global professional industry show for conference and incentive travel industry. Held annually, it is the only benchmark rival of the "European Conference & Incentive Travel Exhibition" (EIBTM), which is held at the end of each year in Barcelona, Spain.
National tourism bureaus around the world, convention and visitors bureaus, hoteliers, convention centers, technology providers, car rental centers, golf courses, airlines, vacation-type trains, exhibition centers, SPA leisure centers, and associations, destination management companies, PCOs and PR companies, transport travel industry, industry publications, and many other exhibitors all eagerly flock to IMEX.
The Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, launched a new tourism brand this year titled "Taiwan - The Heart of Asia". It will replace “Taiwan, Touch Your Heart” which has been a marketing slogan for the past 10 years.
The Heart of Asia catch-cry concentrates the focus more on MICE marketing and is put out to attract more business tourism to Taiwan. To optimize the promotional and marketing potential, continue the past achievements, BOFT and the Tourism Bureau will again jointly participate in the IMEX Trade Show this year.
As in previous years, invitations have also been extended to various domestic industry stakeholders. At IMEX they will join forces in promoting Taiwan as a superior MICE environment with state-of-the-art facilities and abundant business tourism resources, and they will highlight Taiwan’s points of difference from Asia’s other MICE destinations.
The promise of Taiwan as a land of dazzling surprises and unique wonders will pique the interest and arouse the curiosity of international buyers, which in turn may lead to more events being held in Taiwan.
With Taiwan MICE focusing on the association sector this year, the delegation will also seek for the first time the assistance of the German PR firms, in order to sift through the large and extensive customer databases and find quality buyers.
