Trade exhibition business shows 400 percent growth

Anjana Samarasinghe

The trade exhibition organizing business had shown nearly 400 percent growth since 1998 despite the security situation in the country.

Lanka Exhibition and Conference Services (Pvt) Limited (LECS) Director Imran Hassan told Daily News Business that during this period we have experienced negative impact on tourism and conference organizing. However in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) industry, trade exhibition segment had massive growth since 1998 despite the security situation in the country.

Today, there are over 30 trade exhibitions organized in Sri Lanka every year and sometimes organizers have difficulty in booking a suitable venue for the exhibitions, he said.

We have noticed high participation of SMEs in trade exhibitions. Participation in trade exhibition is an effective method of securing businesses for SME sector. Generally this segment does not allocate funds for their promotion activities just like large-scale companies and they do not have necessary funds for their promotion actives.

Sometimes, they used to participate for trade exhibitions sharing the participation cost and which is the only investment that they could make to promote their business, he said.

With the end of the war we expect high growth in the MICE sector. Sri Lanka is an attractive destination for MICE industry. Most of the Indian companies select Sri Lanka to host their corporate events such as meetings and dealer conventions.

Sri Lanka needs to focus on establishing more conference halls and exhibition facilities in Colombo. At present, the country has few places for organizing exhibitions and conferences with limited capacity.

In countries like Hong Kong and Singapore, the MICE industry is equipped with conference halls with a large amount of sitting capacity where they could accommodate large crowds at once.

It is important for Sri Lanka to have more conferences and exhibition centers in Colombo and develop road system for easy access to compete with these countries, he said.

Promoting business during recession is important for the survival of the business. Participating in trade exhibitions and fairs will help exhibitors enhance their knowledge and building contacts which will be useful for their future endeavour, Hassan said.

LECS is also working on a post war strategy to take the industry to new highs and the company is planning to have trade exhibition targeting infrastructure developers.

“There will be a huge demand for infrastructure development projects in the North East areas soon after the war”, he said. LECS have planned over ten trade exhibitions during this year in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives targeting different industries such as agriculture, construction and education.

LECS ventured overseas by establishing a firm foothold in Maldives and India by opening up the Maldives Exhibition and Conferences Services and India Exhibition and Conference Services, thereby, forming the group South Asia Exhibition Services (Pvt) Ltd. The company hopes to expand it’s regional network throughout the South Asian region.