Now conventions to get ‘export’ status
Chander Mansharamani, Vice Chairman, India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) talks about the recent initiatives taken for boosting MICE.
This fiscal year has begun on a good note for the convention industry. “India has been ranked 25th in the best convention destinations of the world. This ranking was given by ICCA in its last AMEX meet in May. Last year, India ranked at 33rd position. Hence, this is a big gain,” Mansharamani revealed in an exclusive interview with .
Also, ICPB recently had a meeting with the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce in June. “They have agreed to give the convention industry an 'export industry' status soon. This will be a game changer for the industry,” he added.
ICPB has geared up for its 25th year of existence with a slew of initiatives that will be rolled out in the next few months. “
We have already done a research on the economic impact on a particular city when it hosts a convention.
Post this, we will do regional workshops during the 25th year of ICPB in most state capitals. The idea is to involve the state governments and private stakeholders for these workshops. Earlier, people were talking about the usefulness of conventions, but nobody really had approached the states to educate them on the economic benefits of the same,” the Vice Chairman said.
Along with the regional workshops, ICPB will host roadshows in many cities. “We will invite local buyers and enlighten them on how they should bid for international exhibitions and how ICPB can help them in preparing such bidding doc- uments,” he informed. The roadshows will be conducted in six cities starting with Mumbai in August. This will be followed by Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Jaipur in the coming months. The order in which ICPB will host the roadshows will also depend on the availability of the state governments, but the idea is to finish the roadshows by the end of March 2014. Anand Kumar, ICPB Chairman and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is in touch with the state officials for the same,” he confirmed.
Most of the foreign organisations feel there are two roadblocks to bring international conferences to India. Firstly, there are many permissions required and secondly, the visa rules need to be made less stringent. Regarding this, ICPB had a meeting with the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra and Principal Secretary-Tourism, Govt. of
Maharashtra and decided that a nodal agency for one-window clearance is needed to grant all these permissions In principle, Maharashtra Govt. has agreed they will appoint Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation ( MTDC) as a nodal agency for getting all the permissions, he elaborated. “In Delhi, we are requesting the Ministry of Home Affairs to appoint ICPB as nodal agency for visa purposes,” he added. Regarding manpower training, Mansharamani opined, “To bid for international MICE, international standards for training is imperative.”