Source: Tourism New Zealand
AIME is the leading trade event for the meetings and event industry in the Asia Pacific region.
New Zealand had 17 partners attend with over 500 pre-scheduled appointments including the major regional convention bureau, hotels, and venues, plus all three new convention centres – Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre and the New Zealand International Convention Centre in Auckland. Delegates were also able to meet virtually in another five appointment streams.
Tourism New Zealand work with industry to attract Business Events to New Zealand. Business Events are high value visitors, spending approximately double that of other visitors and tend to add on to their visit by spending longer, or through coming back as a leisure visitor.
Tourism New Zealand General Manager New Zealand and Business Events Bjoern Spreitzer says “Business Events attract high value visitors: international experts in their field and can profoundly change communities through the information shared and decisions taken at conferences and events.”
“With new venues and activities coming online, plus flexible, competitive and business-specific funding and support on offer, event organisers from Asia Pacific and around the world are able to reconnect and learn about all the exciting new developments from New Zealand”.
New Zealand had a strong visual presence at AIME too, with new imagery and on-stand activations that provided an immersive, welcoming New Zealand experience for attendees. Visitors to the stand also had the opportunity to create a pepeha with more than 400 taking up the challenge.
Despite COVID-19, Tourism New Zealand maintained its win rate ahead of target with a bid value of $93 million (also ahead of target) including:
- The International Coral Reef Society’s Symposium in Auckland in 2025
- The International Congress of History of Science and Technology in Dunedin 2025
- The International Sedimentological Congress (ISC) in Wellington in 2026.
