Patrick Hoffnung, President of MICE Cluster; Francine Closener, secrétaire d’État à l’Économie; Credit: MECO

On Thursday 13 September 2018, Luxembourg's Secretary of State for the Economy, Francine Closener, participated in the official opening of the second edition of the "Meet Luxembourg" event organised at LuxExpo The Box.

The event, which runs from 12 to 14 September, is organised by the MICE Cluster (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) in collaboration with the national tourism promotion agency "Luxembourg for Tourism" and under the patronage of the Ministry of Economy.

The event is dedicated to meetings between a hundred international and national conference organisers with 43 Luxembourg professionals from the MICE sector. In the form of workshops, Luxembourg MICE exhibitors present their services to international and national specialised customers.
 
The importance of the MICE sector in Luxembourg is undeniable, as 13.2% of the nights spent in hotels in the Grand Duchy in 2017 are related to the holding of conferences and congresses. Given the significant growth potential of convention tourism, the Ministry of the Economy and its partners in the sector have set themselves an ambitious goal: to enter the Top 50 global destinations for the organisation of international congresses. The congress tourism development strategy called "Perspectives and ambitions of the MICE sector" traces the priority fields of action and the projects that will enable Luxembourg to meet this challenge.
 
During the presentation of the strategy, Secretary of State Closener said: "From a medium and long term perspective, the potential impact of the convention and trade show sector on the Luxembourg economy is considerable. To exploit this potential, our strategic ambition has three main objectives: to reinforce the image and visibility of the Grand Duchy at international level through flagship events, to contribute to the consolidation and development of priority economic sectors and to generate a maximum of direct and indirect benefits for the national economy".