Travel sector eyes the MICE market

Updated February 02, 2009 12:00 AM

Despite the anticipated slowdown of the international travel industry this year brought about by the looming recession of most major economies in the world, Cebu’s travel industry continues to look at silver linings especially in attracting the so called meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibits (MICE) market.

DOT Undersecretary Phineas Alburo expressed that the MICE market of most surviving economies around the globe such as China, continues to post a strong growth potential for the country’s tourism industry especially Cebu which is starting to be known as a conventions hub in Asia.

He said that China in particular has several multinational companies that can be tapped for their meetings and events especially for their incentives taking into consideration that the country is only within the Asia Pacific region, hence cost will be lesser compared to sending their employees further West.

In another interview, Parklane general manager Cenelyn Manguilimotan said that although they are starting to prepare for the anticipated slowdown in the global tourism industry, they are still focusing their attention to growing their MICE market as there are still many guests from different sectors who continue to come in thus far sustaining their business’ growth.

“We are doing a marketing plan for the anticipated decline of tourism and we are taking one step at a time. Right now in reality we are facing a slowdown for the traditional markets but the MICE market is still showing positive signs so we are focusing our attention to attracting this segment some more,” said Manguilimotan.

At this point of global crisis, leisure travel is foreseen to decline tremendously as most travellers in this segment are affected with the slowdown so most are now banking on the MICE market especially in the domestic scene.

Another hotelier, Carlo B. Suarez, assistant manager of the Cebu Grand Hotel said that as a way to survive the foreseen crisis, they have planned to diversify and expand their business looking forward to attracting more clientele especially from the MICE market.

Also Mango Park operator Sergio Lim said that although they expect to do more belt tightening efforts this year as impacts of forecasted effects of the global crisis, they still continue to be optimistic because of the growth of their MICE market.

He said that the MICE market is an important market segment that can sustain the growth of the sector especially at this point of economic uncertainty and volatility.

However, there are other players that are seeing a possible decline of this market segment in line with the foreseen slowdown of consumer spending.

Cebu Travel and Tours Association former president Cecil Sa-a said in a previous interview that corporate travels might go down this year as most companies abroad and domestically are experiencing the effects of the financial crunch brought by the global recession.

However, there are still emerging markets such as China, India and Russia which economies are still thriving amidst the on-going recession and whose tourists continue to come to Cebu.

“The Philippine travel market is getting stronger compared to other markets as we continue to attract throngs of Chinese, Russians and Indian tourists. This year, along with the anticipated slowdown, the corporate market will still be there but it will possibly decline but we should continue with our marketing efforts,” she said. — Rhia de Pablo