This is the view of Jon Hutchison, managing director of the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau in his annual assessment of the conference and incentive sector.
In terms of meetings per country in 2003, Australia is ranked number one in Asia Pacific according to the international conference association ICCA.
Japan dropped to second place, followed by Singapore, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.
However Singapore is ranked number one for number of meetings per city, muscling Sydney into second place.
The report warns that the Asian market is fickle in destination choice and can change quickly.
Strategies to keep Sydney fresh and interesting in Asia are essential.
The report identified mainland China, and Shanghai in particular, as becoming popular and highly competitive, commenting that corporates are often attracted by booming business activity, alliances, trade and associated opportunities.
China is tracking to be Sydney's, and Australia's, strongest competitor.
"Clearly China is the major catalyst — it is a massive, well-controlled, low-cost economy capable of out-competing almost every other economy," said Hutchison.
"This, coupled with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese, makes it an ideal source of incentive program growth."
The report quotes the CEI Annual Industry Survey ranking Thailand as the most favoured CEI destination in the region, with the negative effect of the December 26, 2004 tsunami having only a short-term effect on the business events sector.
With growing economic and political stability and five international-standard convention centres, Thailand is also a significant player in Asia Pacific.
Another significant emerging country is India, where airlines and meetings infrastructure is improving on the back of strong economic growth, a trigger for increased business event activity.
Further afield, Hutchison said the volume of business drawn from Europe was likely to dip slightly, due to new competition within Europe as well as the natural cycle of association meetings.
"There are only so many large global associations in a position to cycle the world and Sydney has had most of them in the past 20 years," he said.
Growing competition for meeting business
ASIA PACIFIC The Asia Pacific region can expect good activity from the meetings and business events area such as incentive travel, but also increasing competition.
