Vancouver Tops For American Medical Related Association Business

Vancouver, BC (November 1, 2007) – The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS), and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) have all selected Vancouver as the host city for their respective conferences in 2010 and 2011.

Tourism Vancouver’s Washington, DC-based office, working together with Vancouver hotels and the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, re-booked ARRS for April 2010 following their successful conference here in 2005. The organization is the oldest radiology society in the U.S. Some 3,500 delegates are expected to attend with a total economic impact of $2.5 million.

In October 2010, IDSA will see 5,000 delegates attend their first-ever Vancouver convention. The organization represents physicians, scientists and other health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. In total, the group will occupy over 10,600 room-nights in Greater Vancouver hotels.

In July 2011, AAPM’s 3,000 delegates will descend on Vancouver at the height of the tourist season to attend their conference and spend time enjoying the city and other areas of the British Columbia on pre and post-conference tours. AAPM promotes the application of physics to medicine and biology, as well as encouraging interest and training in medical physics and related fields.

“Each time Vancouver bids for a convention like one of these, we have to put our best foot forward, coordinating hotels, transportation, facilities like the VCEC, and ensuring every aspect of the meeting planners needs are met,” said Smith Munro, chair of Tourism Vancouver.

“Hosting these important associations and delegates is both an honour and privilege,” noted Hon. Stan Hagen, minister of Tourism, Sport & the Arts. “And it is a huge responsibility, he added. “Now, we’ll have the chance to showcase our expanded convention centre and our incredible province to some of the top medical professionals in the world. There is a strong tie between convention business and leisure travel business – and we know this will benefit all of British Columbia with pre and post conference travel.”

“The expanded centre finally enables Vancouver to accommodate a greater range of clients and larger sized conferences, and meet the diverse needs of different types of delegates,” said
David Podmore, chair of PAVCO. “Our expanded centre will be up to the task and subsequently encourage our clients to bring business back to the city for years to come.”

Tourism Vancouver, along with partners such as the VCEC and the hotel community, spearheads the Be A Host program which encourages local British Columbians to work with the tourism industry to bring their colleagues to Vancouver for a national or international conference. For more information on the Be A Host program, visit www.tourismvancouver.com/beahost.

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