Malaysia hosted 393 business events in 2025, 92 of which were in Sabah (pictured). Photo Credit: AdobeStock/RUSTAM
Robust growth for Malaysia’s business events sector is projected to continue in 2026 as the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) focuses on securing high-value business meetings and international sporting events to the destination.
Malaysia hosted 393 business events in 2025, which generated an economic impact of RM4.07 billion (US$1 billion), MyCEB CEO Tan Mei Phing shared during a media engagement session.
This is part of concerted effort to increase international delegate arrivals during Visit Malaysia Year 2026 (VM2026).
The destination’s 2025 report card also reflects a sustained industry recovery and the confidence of international organisers and delegates in Malaysia.
Encouraging 2026 pipeline
While sharing updates on the latest initiatives and strategic priorities, Tan shared that, as of 23 January 2026, 92 business meetings and four international sporting events have already been secured for this year with many more to come.
Underscoring Malaysia’s growing competitiveness as a preferred destination for high-value international events, the former is expected to generate an estimated RM1.63 billion economic impact value based on an overall 230,284 local and foreign delegate attendance while the latter is projected to contribute RM76.1 million in visitor expenditure and a total of 82,190 attendees.
Visit Sabah Year in 2027
While VM2026 takes off, Sabah is also in the spotlight with 2027 marked as Visit Sabah Year, revealed Sabah Convention Bureau (SCB) CEO Noredah Othman during the media engagement.
A rising MICE destination, Sabah alone hosted 92 MICE events and 10,551 delegates in 2025. Noredah looks forward to further sustained growth in the industry after welcoming Alcon Korea as SCB's first incentive group for 2026. The programme included seminars, a gala dinner, island hopping, white-water rafting, cultural tours and a memorable firefly river cruise.
According to Noredah, the hosting of the world’s largest eye care device company event reinforces Sabah’s appeal to the North Asian incentive travel market.