PCEC says the figures add up

THE Perth Convention Exhibition Centre will mark two years of operations next week. Amid controversy over its role and financial success as a venue, the centre claims that more than one million people have visited the facility since it opened. The PCEC has released statistics indicating that, in its first 24 months of operation, the venue attracted almost 1.2 million people to 1,018 events. Almost 70 of those events were exhibitions and trade shows, while about 390 conferences and meetings had more than 68,755 delegates in attendance. The venue claims it has a strong outlook for the future. Delegates to events at the centre spend, on average, $600 per day, according to the PCEC. In the first two years of operations there have been 43 national conventions attracting about 21,000 delegates, who generated more than $29 million in direct delegate expenditure across the states economy and more than 68,000 room nights for Perth’s hotels, according to the PCEC. To date, the centre has attracted 7,110 delegates to international conferences and congresses, generating more than $8.5 million into the state’s economy and 22,000 room nights for Perth’s hotels.