Singapore – AIME has budgeted to fly Asian hosted buyers in business class next year and is increasing the number from 56 to 65, according to exhibition manager, Ms Rosemarie Sama.

Describing the Asian hosted buyer programme, introduced this year, as "extremely successful", Ms Sama said some finetuning would be carried out.

"An Asian-specific seminar was not required as the key topics were covered in our Business Events Forum and other sessions featuring Asian speakers. We also found language assistance was not required and the majority of the Asian buyers were interested in choosing post-tours from our normal selection, rather than going on a specific tour tailored to their needs."

AIME is working closely with advisory panels in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, the UK, the US and Canada to help qualify buyers. Some 425 buyers, up from 376 this year, are being targeted.

It is also embarking on a new advertising campaign to entice "time-poor" local trade buyers, and extending the campaign into more publications, including marketing and franchising magazines.

"We will also continue our broadcast email campaign and our direct mail campaign, both of which worked well for us for AIME 2004," Ms Sama said. "We target different hosted buyers each year to ensure we are attracting new buyers to AIME every year. Also, because many conferences are organised on a rotational basis, the same buyers are not looking for venues in our region every year."

AIME takes place in Melbourne between February 22 and 23, 2005.