KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – THE Kuala Lumpur Convention Center (KLCC) in Malaysia has exceeded its 2022 target by 40%, hosting nearly 1,350 events with over 750,000 delegates, and is on track to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, with 50% of its 2023 event target already confirmed.
““Our target for 2022 was to achieve 60% of our 2019 results,” said Alan Pryor, KLCC’s Managing Director. “The projection was determined by taking into account the ongoing effects of the pandemic in Malaysia and around the world: travel and movement restrictions as well as bans on in-person meetings and events. The reopening of Malaysia’s international borders in April certainly played a significant role in our successes this year, allowing us to resume site visits for international clients and ensuring that postponed exhibitions and conventions ran smoothly and to the satisfaction of our clients.”
“Our involvement in leading the industry and helping the government develop safe business event guides and materials for organisers and clients has strengthened our expertise and built trust in our team and the Centre. The focus has always been on ethical business practices and sustainability, and this year we have actively pushed this agenda forward. In 2022 alone, we have implemented more than 10 initiatives in KLCC and across the precinct.”
The economic impact of the 2022 events is approximately $64.4 million, and the number of business events was 90% lower than in 2019, which was a record year for the convention centre. KLCC said 50% of the events were corporate meetings and banquets, 26% were conventions and 24% were exhibitions.
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“During the recovery phase, to attract events to the convention center, we approached every business opportunity and event with a collaborative and flexible mindset. We focused everything we could on meeting the needs of clients and organizers, from our fluid pricing model to taking a joint partnership approach to share and mitigate risk together. One of the highlights of this period was being able to retain our full-time team members, who were the critical resource in our successful recovery,” said Pryor.
According to Pryor, the convention centre’s new offerings, including culinary expertise, are attracting businesses. With Malaysia’s largest commercial kitchen and more than 50 chefs, KLCC offers catering and catering services as a standalone service for events held off-site. KLCC also offers event planning and management services, with a team that conceptualises the event design and follows it through from production to delivery. New sustainability initiatives and efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions are also attractive to organisers.
The convention center is adding six new tenders to its calendar between 2024 and 2026 and is hosting more international meetings and events in 2023, including IEEE International Conference on Image Processing 2023, IEEE International Conference on Instrumentation and Measurement Technologies and the brand new E-Mobility Asia 2023.
““We had effectively met and exceeded our 2022 target by the end of Q3 and are now closing the year with approximately 1,350 events, we are forecasting a 10% growth in activity to approximately 1,500 events for 2023,” Pryor said. “Our 2022 results are a positive sign for the recovery of business events, not only in Malaysia but also in Southeast Asia. While the recovery has been positively strong, some sectors are still lacking confidence, and it has certainly not been an easy journey. The right combination of cost, value and skills/experience to offer clients is necessary for a successful recovery.”
Contact Alan Pryor at +6 03 2333 2888