IBTM Asia Pacific is cancelled for 2025

RX Global, the organiser behind the Barcelona-based meetings and events trade show IBTM World, has announced that IBTM Asia Pacific 2025 will no longer be held in Hong Kong as previously planned.

The inaugural event was initially announced at IBTM World 2023 in Barcelona and was set to take place at AsiaWorld-Expo from 19-20 March 2025.

RX Global is now working to transition its exhibitors and buyers to IBTM World, scheduled for 19-21 November 2024 in Barcelona.

In a statement issued to event exhibitors, hosted buyers and stakeholders, event director Claudia Hall said: “The continued global increase in the outbound meeting and business travel market, specifically from the APAC region and the coinciding growth in international representation at IBTM World has led us to announce that IBTM APAC will no longer take place as scheduled in 2025.

“Research findings highlighted that the APAC and especially Chinese outbound business travel planners are becoming increasingly adventurous in their choice of destination, and that spread of choice is at IBTM World. So, we are encouraging all those scheduled to participate in the Hong Kong event to join us in Barcelona (19-21 November) and benefit from the global buyer and audience that makes IBTM the annual choice of the meeting and business travel industry.”

This marks the second time RX Global has attempted to bring IBTM World to the APAC region. Initial plans to launch the event in 2020 at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With IBTM Asia Pacific now off the cards, the recently launched The Meeting Show APAC, which took place in Singapore in April 2024, is expected to grow even further. According to organiser Northstar Travel Group, the show is set to be ‘bigger and better’ in the coming years.