The third ITB Asia closed in Singapore with 6,605 attendees, a 7.4% increase on last year.

“We are seeing organic growth. It’s better than the growth we saw over year one, we survived year two which was the year of the financial crisis, so this growth is a positive development,” Dr Buck said.

“Originally, we believed that the Asian market was booming and this was exactly the time when the business was going to take off but now we see that the growth rates are not as high year on year as we had expected.

“But the growth is there and we are participating in the growth. As a trade show and conference, the best you can do is reflect the market.”

What was more important, he said, was the acceptance by the market and the appreciation of customers for what ITB Asia was doing – which is to create the premium B2B marketplace for buyers and sellers of travel in the region.

“The most exciting is that we have established a plan for the MICE industry with Association Day. It took a while for us to understand that this was a different component with different needs.”

Some 580 buyers attended the three-day ITB Asia, many of them joining the inaugural Association Day interactive forum which aimed to expand the quality and quantity of large association events in Asia.

Featured image credit (Business Graph): Ockra/iStock