Sarawak Convention Bureau making big efforts to extend regioal appeal

The bureau's free services for meeting planners are being promoted as part of a US$73,000 public relations campaign to encourage more Malaysian organisations to bid for national or international meetings to be held in Sarawak. The bureau will prepare bid documents, personal letters of support from dignitaries, promotional literature, in-kind donations and funds for the marketing and promotion of conferences, and site-inspection visits for qualified national or international decision-makers as part of the bid process. Sarawak has currently secured 11 international events for this year, attracting about 2,000 delegates and generating an estimated 10,000 room nights. This equates to US$1.9 million in delegate expenditure. The international conferences include: The Orangutan Convention and the Asia Pacific Marketing Conference (APMC), both in October, and the third BIMP-EAGA Travel Exchange in November. The bureau's CEO, Jill Henry, said: "We spend a lot of our time convincing local organisations of the potential benefits of hosting a conference. This is not an easy task as associations are often run by an elected board or volunteers and running the association is not their primary role. She added: "This is why the bureau will provide Malaysian non-profit associations 'in kind' support to assist them in presenting a bid to market a new conference in Sarawak."