Northstar

35 JUL-AUG 2019 MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS MCMAG-ASIA.COM This will involve expanding the current level of usable space for exhibitions by almost 30% by 2030. The aim is to recapture the heady days of the 1980s when the Philippines was among Asia's top MICE destination. Since then it has lost ground to heavyweights such as Singapore and Hong Kong. According to Monette Iturralde- Hamlin, founder of TeamAsia, a communications and marketing company, the Philippines MICE strategy is to target di"erent markets. "MICE in the Philippines is growing but it can't grow as fast as the other countries because of the infrastructure limitations that we have," she told M&C Asia. "We cannot compete with the likes of Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, in the size of their convention centres," she With six international airports feeding into these regional convention centres they're growing in prominence, not least because they give MICE attendees access to the Philippines World Heritage Listed sites. When in Bohol that means the famed "Chocolate Hills", in Baguio the Asian Hot Springs, and in Vigan a perfectly preserved Spanish mission town. One city expected to see a MICE boom is Iloilo on the island of Panay, which lies between Luzon and Mindanao. Over the past two decades, it has built new roads, multiple spaces for commerce and a modern airport. The new Iloilo Convention Center (ICC), completed in 2015, was established in anticipation of a MICE boom. MICE is now a bigger draw than its famous Dinagyang Festival every January. Of the city's 1.2 million visitor arrivals last year, up to 70% were MICE participants. "We cannot compete with the likes of Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, in the size of their convention centres. We can't really attract the mega-events – what we are attracting are niche events." — MONETTE ITURRALDE- HAMLIN, FOUNDER OF TEAMASIA, A COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING COMPANY said. "We can't really attract the mega- events – what we are attracting are niche events". According to the latest !gures, Philippine MICE placed 48th in 116 countries worldwide and 14th among 35 countries in the Asia Paci!c and the Middle East region in terms of the largest number of meetings. Where it plans to tap growth, however, is interesting. The Tourism Promotions Board says it is now eyeing India as a fertile growth market for MICE in the Philippines. Having this year won several awards from the Business and Luxury Travel Mart (BLTM) in Delhi as the most promising MICE destination, the board is now focusing its e"orts on South Asia. In !ve years, tourist arrivals from India increased by an average of 18.2% and the board wants to capitalise on the reintroduction of direct #ights between New Delhi and Manila this year. India is among the top 12 source markets of the Philippines, with a total of 121,124 Indians visiting the country in 2018. Regional push In terms of venues, exhibitors are spoilt for choice. Manila has the key convention centres of the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) and SMX Convention Center in Pasay and both can hold as many as 5,000 attendees. Cebu, meanwhile, has more than 30 convention centres; its Waterfront Cebu City Casino Hotel has a maximum capacity of 3,500. Davao, the convention city of the south, has 25 convention venues of which the SMX Davao Convention Center – which has hosted ASEAN meets – holds 5,000 delegates. However, it's the smaller centres such as Bohol, Boracay, Palawan, Baguio and Vigan that are beginning to attract attention. PICC'S Reception Hall can accommodate up to 2,500 people for a sit-down dinner. "Statistics show that before we were festival-driven, but now we are MICE- driven because most of the tourists that come here are attendees of the regional conventions in the city," the tourism development o$ce told local media. "By October, we will be launching MICE packages and after that we are expecting two to four large conventions every month in Iloilo".

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