SUNAINA CHATTERJEE

Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) Incentives and Conference Planners

MICE OUTBOUND TRENDS 2016

The year 2016 has witnessed a sensible shift in the MICE movements. This year people have travelled far and wide and even did offbeat destinations for MICE. Apart from the regular movement to South East Asia and Middle East, MICE has travelled to destinations that has never seen Indian MICE groups in such big numbers. From iCON Planners we did groups to Mexico with extension to Cancun( very few people actually know about this wonderful beach destination and about the awesome history of Mayan Civilisation), did big movements to South Africa and instead of visit to routine Krugger National park, other private luxurious games reserves were experienced. We also ventured into destinations like Malta, Baku, Bratislava, Trondem and Curacao.

FAVOURITE MICE DESTINATION

My all favourite destination has always been Switzerland. Switzerland Tourism Board has always gone out of the way in helping with MICE groups in Switzerland be it small or large groups. The unique and novel ideas provided by them like hiring the entire train for bigger MICE movements, special interest groups, organising the meetings/ seminars at the top of the mountain peaks with all infrastructure and impeccable finesse including options for cuisines. Another USP for the Swiss people is their perfect time management and also honesty and transparency while dealing in any project.

MICE DOMESTIC TRENDS 2016

Domestic MICE have seen entry of lot of new players in the MICE segment, but it also has a negative effect in the sense of pricing and standardisation, new entrants are underquoting and hence sometimes the service levels goes down. We even see MICE group emerging out of even Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities and towns, whose yield as per revenues are good, plus they become your repeat customers. Growth has been steady and increase is noticed in banking and financial institutions organising the training seminars and sales meets. This year because of the great MICE movements hotels did not have much of those gloomy summer or rainy seasons as the average occupancy was around 75- 80 per cent even during these months.

STRATEGY TO GROW MICE IN 2017

Our marketing strategy would be to bring Chapters of European Congresses in India to do their workshops and seminars. We would also tap the untapped markets in Tier- 2 and 3 cities. Our focus would still remain in servicing the regular and repeat customers but we are open to new ideas and new markets. We have a strong NPD ( New Product Development) Team who brings us the newer destinations. We would also put emphasis on the networking seminars so that our presence is helpful even for our fellow agency.

Hotels did not have much of those gloomy summer or rainy seasons as the average occupancy was around 75- 80 per cent even during these months