KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) in Malaysia exceeded its 2022 target by 40%, hosting close to 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 events target already being confirmed.
“Our target for 2022 was achieving 60% of our 2019 results,” KLCC General Manager Alan Pryor said. “The projection was determined keeping in consideration the continuing effects of the pandemic in Malaysia and globally – travel and movement restrictions as well as bans on in-person meetings and events. The re-opening of Malaysia’s international borders in April certainly played a big role in our successes this year, allowing us to resume site visits for international clients and ensure postponed exhibitions and conventions are delivered seamlessly and to our clients’ satisfaction.
“Our participation in leading the industry and assisting the government to develop Safe Business Events guides and collaterals for organizers and clients has reinforced our expertise and strengthened confidence in our team and the Centre. A core focus has always been placed on ethical business practices and sustainability, and this year we have been actively pushing this agenda forward. In 2022 alone, we have implemented over 10 initiatives in the KLCC and precinct wide.”
The economic impact from the events of 2022 is around $64.4 million, and the number of business events were 90% that of 2019, which was a record-breaking year for the convention center. The KLCC reported that 50% of events were corporate meetings and banqueting events, 26% were conventions and 24% were exhibitions.
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“In the recovery phase, to attract events to the convention center, we approached every business opportunity and event with a collaborative mindset and flexible attitude. We directed all our focus to accommodating clients and organizers’ needs, from our fluid pricing model to taking a joint-partnership approach to share and mitigate risks together. A significant strength for us during this period was that we were able to maintain our full-time team members who have been the core resource in our successful business recovery,” Pryor said.
Pryor said that attracting business is the new offerings the convention center has added, including leveraging culinary expertise, and with the largest commercial kitchen in Malaysia and more than 50 chefs, the KLCC offers F&B and catering as a stand-alone service to events that are held out of the center. The KLCC is also offering event planning and management, with a team that conceptualizes the event design and sees it all the way through production and delivery. The new sustainability initiatives and push to reach the net-zero carbon pledge is also appealing to organizers.
The convention center is adding six new bid wins 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 Instrumentation & Measurement Technology Conference and the brand new E-Mobility Asia 2023.
“We had effectively reached and surpassed our 2022 target by the end of the third quarter and now closing the year with about 1,350 events, we are projecting a 10% growth in business or approximately 1500 events for 2023,” Pryor said. “Our 2022 performance is a positive sign towards business events recovery, not only in Malaysia but in Southeast Asia as well. While the recovery has been positively strong, some sectors are still lacking in confidence, and it certainly has not been an easy journey. The right combination of cost, value and skill/experience to offer clients is necessary for a successful recovery.”
Reach Alan Pryor at +6 03 2333 2888
