‘42% of tourism coming to India is M CE’
In an interview, Amaresh Tiwari, Vice Chairman, India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) tells us about the association's plans and past year's achievements
Elaborating on the plans for ICPB in 2020, Tiwari said, “We are planning on conducting international roadshows in 2020 along with IMEX Frankfurt to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. We will also focus on domestic seminars, regional conferences, knowledge hubs and monthly meetings for the members. We will be starting our research and development wings where we are going to have the publications as well as research studies. We will also be engaging with the academy and institutions.”
He added, “My agenda is to make the bureau more efficient and give more value proposition to the members, to market India as a M!CE destination at the right platform, to engage the various stakeholders, create a positive image about India, and dispel the notion that we are not capable of holding large conferences and events.”
On the M!CE market, he added, “The GST getting reduced from 28 per cent to 18 per cent has also given a boost to the M!CE industry. As per International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) data, 42 per cent of tourism coming into the country is because of M!CE. The M!CE travellers spend three times more than the other travellers. This is because when the M!CE travellers come they are hosted by the
associations, corporates, or their companies, so they have a lot of money at their disposal and hence spend more. M!CE is the key for growth to any country and India being the sixth largest economy, as well as a knowledge hub with more than 400 universities, technical universities, large number of doctors, engineers, the future for M!CE in the country is huge. ICPB has a key role to play for the same. The way the membership is coming up, it bodes well for the association. As per ICCA report, more than 80 per cent conferences are held for less than 500 people. For 80 per cent people in India we already have the infrastructure and resources available. For the
bigger conferences we are building the infrastructure.” On achievements of ICPB in 2019, he said, “In 2019 we successfully concluded the Conventions India Conclave which we did at the Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty in Kerala. We had about 39 international buyers and nearly 150 domestic buyers.
Among the buyers we had a mixed lot of association members, medical, nonmedical, corporates. We had around 75 exhibitors that participated there as well. In all we had around 300 participants and Senthil Gopinath, CEO, ICCA came in as a keynote speaker.
We had the domestic buyer roadshow for Odisha and Goa as well as other parts. Along with ICCA we had also organised project management and bidding training programme which went off really well. We also held international roadshows to promote India as a M!CE destination.”
“Last year we worked quite hard to get the e-Visa for the conferences. Earlier it was only allowed for the government conferences, now it is also allowed for the private conferences. We have been trying to get across to the Ministry to give us more of bidding support for big inbound conferences. The Ministry of Tourism also commissioned a study on the size of the M!CE market. We want to work to help it grow further,” he concluded.
QUICK BYTE As per ICCA report, more than 80 per cent conferences are held for less than 500 people