Voices from the field

The MICE industry , along with the rest of most travel-related industries, has taken a downturn as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last 2 years. The Covid-19 pandemic brought to light many issues regarding tourism and how fragile related businesses are faced with life-threatening consequences. With the impending cure, many ideas were born as well such as the viability of working from home and zoom conferences.

MICE generates more revenue compared to average visitor spending, but in the absence of relevant data, the path was unclear we can handle especially with our limited convention centers, and limited number of rooms. I totally agree with devolution. This will give smaller companies a chance to participate in bids, and make us more competitive.“ until DOT launched a MICE roadmap in 2021 meant to have a more defined approach and increase revenues from 4.6 billion pesos reported in 2016.

Now, as travel and tourism is on a vengeful path, MICE has somewhat returned in the radar of stakeholders with new and bigger convention centers, MICE-centric hotels, and finally, a more focused approach by the government.

Travel Update Philippines has interviewed some of the stakeholders to get highlights, views and concerns regarding the Philippines’ state of MICE. There’s a lot of collective wisdom in the industry, and these are their views:

MARGIE MUNSAYAC VP Sales & Marketing, Bluewater Resorts

A Cebu scenario and helping SMEs

“We are all very positive. We have been getting several MICE inquiries as far as 2022 in the domestic scene, especially government MICE events, also corporate events, and more so for 2023. We have several scheduled foreign MICE delegates coming from France organized by a travel agency, Asia Venture, who bid for this. They have been sending us French incentive groups since 2018. They will come back in March , providing me with 2 groups of 41 people each. They will have an itinerary of Cebu and Bohol. They are incentive groups from the insurance and automobile companies. We are also waiting for an ocular from another incentive group who has heard about our place from the social media posts of the first groups, Maribago and Sumilon.

In a way as we transition beyond this pandemic, we are making it more targeted. Devolution would be more advantageous to smaller properties and smaller countries that cannot cater to great numbers, like us. Jaycee conventions and the like are big. To be more successful you target markets/ countries that

BENITO ‘BONG’ BENGZON Executive Director, Philippine Hotel Owners Association

Going big and creative

“On the part of the hotels, we want to use the accelerated recovery of this business (MICE). We want to fill up our banquet rooms, our meeting rooms.

The fundamental question is how do we fill up those rooms? How do we get the incentive rooms back? How do we get the meeting groups back? There are already domestic meetings, but we want the foreign groups and this is where the creativity comes in. What’s trending now is that business travel is growing coupled with leisure.

As part of the team that created the DOT MICE program, I would say that one of the things they have to review is if they still want to chase the numbers. Before the pandemic , the acreage of other countries was huge, 50,000; 100,000, 350,000. Can the Philippines go that way or are we already late again. A devolution? I am not an expert but now that we are moving out from the pandemic, I think that it is one option that the tourism professionals and academicians would have to consider. We may be stuck in the quagmire that is MICE and have not thought of restructuring the model. That model might not work for us when we think about our strengths.

There are some things that we assume as fundamental. The challenge is if you can make something different than that, well and good.” destination, but MICE events are actually complimentary to leisure travel, as the former most often than not also include free time for Individuals to explore the island. Another advantage of Boracay as a MICE destination is that participants in business events could bring their families with them. And while they attend to business, their companions can explore the island without them being too far from each other. We see Boracay as an ideal MICE destination because it’s all there in the island, everything is within reach. After your business meeting, you can just easily go to the beach which is just a few steps away. This means a push for business events and also means good news for leisure tourism.”

Boracay is not just the beach

Albiso doesn’t rest on her laurels even after winning the Gold Award at the recent Mabuhay Awards 2022. She remains a stalwart of the Boracay MICE Alliance, a group of stakeholders in the hotels, transportation, travel agencies, restaurants, domestic airlines, local chamber of commerce, local government unit and supported by the Department of Tourism and its marketing arm Tourism Promotions Board.

When asked about why does Boracay is being positioned as a ‘tropical paradise’ for business events, she divulged, “Boracay has not been known as a MICE destination because of its popularity as a leisure

MARISSA NALLANA President, PETCO

MICE needs to be learned, a need for more government support

“Coming from a recovery stage, we are all still in the recovery stage. Before the pandemic, at that time (2019) we were all voicing out our concerns about MICE—the local organizers who wanted to set up new events, new exhibitions, didn't have a place. We were presenting to then Undersecretary Benito ‘Bong’ Bengzon and DOT about our need to provide more convention centers to those who would want to use it, especially the SMEs. There were none available. That is still true up to now, plus the new ones are very expensive. We are more expensive than our Asian counterparts. The minimum budget to come up with a MICE event in the likes of the one ones being held in Malaysia and Thailand is 10 to 15 million peso. The costliest is the venue, 50-60% is the venue, and the organizers cannot afford that without government support.

But on a small scale. With the opening of China, we hope we can use that because China is a major market for exhibitions. Government provides good support to CE organizers, even the provincial ones, providing as much as 70% of the cost.

Another incentive from TPB are incentive packages for organizers here, (domestic package) called the MICE Plus, like venues, hosted dinners, etc. They do not give cash.

For the private sector, we have two associations: one, the PACEOS, the other is The Philippine MICE Academy which is the training ground and arm of PACEOS. We teach MICE to government and private sectors, even to our competitors.

The problem now is that there are no organizers in the provinces. They have convention centers but no organizers — only for social events like weddings, birthdays, small parties — but for industries, there’s none. They have to get from Manila, but not many of us can shoulder heavy transportation costs to go to the provinces. It is needed because it will have a trickle down effect of establishing other businesses like booths, transport, food, etc.

Now, we are looking for a place so we can have a classroom so we can do regular lessons. We are also eyeing the schools so as early as their college days, they will already know what to do. We also aim to teach the LGUs to professionalize organizing of events. In the provinces, the expertise is very low.”

ROBERTO ‘BUTCH’ GARCIA

Deputy General Manager, Philippine International Convention Center

2022 And 2023 Highlights

“Being the Covid-19 Chief for PICC, it goes without saying that challenges had to be overcome. Much like having the reputation of being the first Convention Center in Asia, the Forum Tent was the first Stepdown Quarantine Facility in the country under the supervision of the Philippine General Hospital. The 3 halls of the Forum were converted to house 290 beds for patients cleared from Covid but had to undergo the full isolation period.

Should the pandemic return to its vicious state, the historic PICC is ever so ready to ride and overcome such adversity.

The return of MICE business during the 2nd half of 2022 was primarily caused by the easing up and relaxation of Health Protocols and restrictions on massgatherings as well as local and international travel. The holding of Events are affected by economic conditions, and the return of economic activities caused the staging and holding of events.

Over a period of seven months in 2022, PICC played host to more than 400 events. More than 50% of these were from our most resilient market, which is the Government. December was a peak month due to the holding of numerous special events and Christmas parties, and July and August saw the holding of numerous Graduations from different educational institutions because of the shift in academic school calendars.

Health Protocols and accompanying restrictions continue to ease up in 2023. As a result, we continue to be chosen as a venue for the holding of meetings, conferences and special events. Our optimism is raised even more by the confirmation of 5 international Congresses which will be held in April, June, September, October and November of this year.”

IPs. We are also working on secondary destinations, Leyte, Region 10, and Siquijor island.”

JOJO CLEMENTE, III President, Rajah Tours

Infra, infra, infra

“What needs to be done first? For me, it’s the infrastructure. Tourism is an industry wherein the adage ‘Build it and they will come’ is true. If you can build a mega structure for MICE wherever in Manila, Cebu or Clark your ROI will be attained quickly. SMX is not enough, but when we build, does it have to guarantee that we can fulfill the movements we are looking for?

What is our target? Are we looking at a Singapore scale, or Thailand type of activities?

Let’s build a reputation of being a reliable, dependable MICE destination.The enhancements can come later, the impetus to be creative.

We can really do MICE, how serious are we because we are still talking about the same problems. We even do not have a hotel that has a thousand rooms. How do we move 10,000-15,000 people at one time? DOT should only do policies, not marketing executions, and there should be a clear direction.”

“On the other hand, we at Rajah are doing our share. We opened its golf department because we are reviving golf tours, now we are looking at heritage tours. I hope I can establish this year a Tourism Heritage Foundation, to raise the level of heritage tourism in the country. Beneficiaries would be the smaller tourism communities, indigenous people. We will align it to Angat Buhay, community based, train

MICHAEL ALBAÑA VP General Manager, SMX Convention Centers

Winning bids and counting

As the new VP and GM of SMX Convention Centers, Albaña has old and new conquests to banner:

“The Rotary International Convention has been confirmed for 2028 and that will be held in two venues simultaneously— SMX and SM Arena to host around 13,000 delegates, for 4 days with pre- and post-tours,” he stated.

“This was our second bid as we lost out on the first. This time we are fortunate to have succeeded after their committee went to visit us and looked at our facilities,” he added.

Still in the works but staying positively on track is a bid to host World Vespa Day, a bid that DOT and TPB fully upholds to promote Motorcycle Tourism in the Philippines.”

Traditionally held in Europe as Vespa is manufactured in Italy, the event enables delegates to bring their own Vespas and go on tours wherever in Europe. Its first venture in Asia was in Bali, but as Covid-19 prevented many foreign delegates from participating, it created an idea that it can be held in Asia, so the Philippines made a bid for 2025.

“We can expect around 3,000 visitors besides local Vespa aficionados. We have plenty of Vespa clubs here and thousands more who own one or more Vespas,” Albaña revealed.

Presently, SMX has 8 convention centers in the country with a total of over 42,000 sqm of leasable space. SMX Manila was recently awarded as the Philippines’ Best Convention Center for 2022 at the World MICE Awards.