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IMEX A SUCCESS AS TEAM GLASGOW HIGHLIGHT NEW INFRASTRUCTURE TO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MARKET
Glasgow is pursuing new conference business worth a potential £35 million following a highly successful trip to one of the world’s largest trade shows for conventions, conferences and incentive travel. The delegation from Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) and the Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre (SECC) had stands at the IMEX conference in Frankfurt, Germany, from May 26 to 28 where they met potential new business leads. GCMB and the SECC also hosted a press conference attended by almost 20 conference journalists from Europe and North America, where they stressed the city is pushing full steam ahead with major infrastructure projects such as hotels and venues in the run-up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games that will benefit the meetings industry. IMEX was attended by 3,700 buyers and 5,100 visitors from 157 countries. As a result of the show, Team Glasgow is now dealing with 12 serious enquiries about conferences, which could fill 117,000 hotel room nights and be worth £35 million to the city. Molly Doheny, Head of the Convention Bureau at GCMB said: “Team Glasgow had an extremely successful IMEX 2009, generating significant enquiries potentially worth £35 million to the city, resulting in a tremendous economic boost for Glasgow. “As well as exhibiting to thousands of potential customers, our news conference allowed us to showcase Glasgow to some of the world’s most influential meetings press. “In 2008, the city moved up six places in the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) rankings to 42nd place, and in such a competitive market it is important to ensure that Glasgow continues to thrive as a popular conference destination” Ben Goedegebuure, Director of Sales at the SECC, said: “It was good to see Glasgow so well represented at a business event where hundreds of destinations across the world are competing. Our prominence at the show, both in terms of underlining our growing profile as an international destination, and the level of business we brought in to the city in the three days, is testament to the work of both the city and the SECC.” Ends Issued by and further information from: Andrew Harrow – Public Relations Assistant Glasgow City Marketing Bureau Tel: +44 (0) 141 566 0837 Fax: +44 (0) 141 566 0855 Email: andrew.harrow@seeglasgow.com Note to editors: Glasgow City Marketing Bureau is the official destination marketing organisation for Glasgow, engaged in national and international activity comprising: development and implementation of the city branding campaign: Glasgow: Scotland with style; event creation, attraction, management and marketing; conventions, incentives, meetings and exhibition sales; conference and event accommodation bookings and optimisation of the website www.seeglasgow.com June 2009 |