CHICAGO - In March, the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives (SITE) held its fifth annual SITE Executive Summit at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This event has continued to be the place where global trends are brought to the forefront and discussed by the industry leaders serving on the SITE International Board of Directors. Following similar events in Beijing, Cancun, Dubai and Johannesburg the content of this event was focused on supporting Malaysia to achieve its full potential as a world class destination for incentives and motivational events. More than 143 professionals attended the event to hear informative sessions on destination marketing, sustainable tourism, successful partnerships and global trends. "The speed at which our industry is changing is more rapid than before," said SITE President Padraic Gilligan. "Just when you figure out a new trend another comes along. CSR is like the ROI of 2008 - everyone is focused on it. While it has been a growing item of discussion for the past few years it has moved to a point where you can't be willing to take a risk and not have a company position on it." Other topics on the minds of buyers and service providers were voluntourism, lifestyle travel with a health and wellness component, the buyer decision process shifting up a level, and the continued trend of clients wanting to get ultimate value out of their budgets and ways that affects destination selection, programming and the overall experience of the incentive. "One of the exciting elements of the Executive Summit is bringing the information to a group of people who may not have the opportunity to travel to the SITE International Conference or regional educational events. Yet these are the individuals who build the foundation of incentive travel in the performance improvement industry," said SITE CEO Brenda Anderson. "Through this event we learned that Malaysia Tourism has a growth goal of 10% from 2007 to 2008 and we experienced first hand that this is a destination that can deliver a high level of incentive quality service. The commitment of the industry leaders in Malaysia to provide education for their local professionals with the desire to support integrated messaging to the world on their market strengths is commendable." SITE graciously acknowledges the support of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Tourism Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia Airlines and Asian Overland Services for making the Malaysia Executive Summit possible. ###
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