Sydney's pre-eminence as a location for global businesses and the State’s extensive overseas trade and investment relationships draw large numbers of international business visitors. Almost 52% of international business visitors to Australia in 2006-07 arrived at Sydney Airport.
In 2006-07, 51% of the 683,700 international business visitors to Australia stopped over in New South Wales. Of these visitors to the State, 38% were from Asia, particularly China, Singapore, Japan and Korea, emphasising the State's close links to the major economies of Asia. There were close to 67,000 business visitors from North America, while 49,000 came from Europe.
The number of business visitors to New South Wales is boosted by Sydney's attractiveness as a location for international business events. In September 2007, Sydney hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. This is one of the most important annual meetings of world leaders, bringing together leaders of all major Asia Pacific economies as well as thousands of delegates, support personnel and the international media. In 2008, the State hosted the Young Presidents’ Organization Global Leadership Conference (February 2008), and will host the 9th World Congress of Metropolis and the FIFA Congress, the latter involving more than 2,500 delegates and media from FIFA’s 205 member nations.