BACOLOD City – About 500 travel and tourism practitioners across the Philippines gathered in this city for a three-day event promoting the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions/events (MICE) industry.
The MICE Conference (MICECON), the biggest industry gathering of its kind, is a highly anticipated educational event for stakeholders and practitioners, a Department of Tourism official said.
The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), the marketing arm of the DOT, is organizing the event from Nov. 27 to 29 at the SMX Convention Center and the Resorts Negrense. This year’s MICECON is dubbed “Sugar Bowl of the Philippines.”
Officials and workers from airlines, hotels, resorts, and event and convention organizing groups are among the participants.
The MICECON provides the host city “not just arrivals but quality arrivals,” said Roberto Alabado III, the DOT’s assistant secretary for tourism development planning.
Those visiting Bacolod today are no ordinary travelers, Alabado stressed. “Sila ay mga businessmen. They have influence in their fields.”
This year’s MICECON aims to establish the Philippines’ standing as a preferred destination for MICE, one of the major contributors to tourism growth.
Under the MICE Road Map 2030, the Philippines targets to increase revenues derived from the MICE industry to some P25 billion by growing the annual MICE arrivals to 3 percent and increasing the total usable space for exhibitions to more than 170,895 square meters.
Besides knowledge and best practices from the talks, the event provides networking opportunities during themed social functions.
Moreover the MICECON wants to showcase what Bacolod has to offer as a MICE venue while further upgrading its capabilities in targeting and handling the MICE market.
TOURISM ‘INCLUSIVE’
“Tourism is the most inclusive industry in the world today,” said Marie Venus Tan, TPB chief operating officer.
But for the industry to succeed, a local government leadership convinced that tourism can contribute to economic progress is important, Tan said.
Tan heaped praises on the city government of Bacolod for “[placing] tourism in front and center of their policies.”
“This is where Bacolod and its leadership are taking the lead,” she said. “I think Bacolod and the rest of Negros will really progress. We should convince everybody that tourism really means jobs.”
LOCAL GOV’T ACTIONS
For his part Mayor Evelio Loenardia said the local government needs to “act swiftly and adjust its strategies for tourism development” to “keep pace with the fast-changing needs of travelers and challenges faced by the tourism industry.”
“We need to map out our initiatives and resources allocation, taking into account various factors such as global economic conditions and market trends, traveling patterns and preferences, as well as Bacolod’s tourism offerings,” he said.
Bacolod was giving particular attention to developing more new tourism products that differentiate it from other destinations, said Leonardia.
He mentioned the planned P165-milion museum and auditorium as one of its efforts in “[enhancing] the quality of tourism infrastructure on various fronts.”
“We will build a coliseum that can hold an audience of 12,000,” said the mayor./PN
