The past 20 months have been extremely tough as Global tourism has been one of the worst hit during the pandemic. Just like every dark cloud has a silver lining, India’s successful vaccination drive achieving 1 million vaccination resulted in a significant drop in the number of Covid cases and WHO has hinted that India might reach the endemic state by March 2022, which is a very good sign. If the Omicron scare does not turn into the third wave, it would be safe to say that the worst of Covid is over.
In the light of same, many countries have announced dates for physical or hybrid MICE events over a period of next few months, such as IMEX, IBTM, AIME Melbourne and more. The recently concluded IATO Convention in Gujarat has also given confidence to the people in MICE that physical events will soon be starting again. The resilience of the industry with government support will trigger the momentum required for MICE in India to gradually move from virtual to physical events.
“These last few years, ICPB has been undertaking a membership drive as a result of which it has received 8 – 10 fresh applications from the industry. Additionally, ICPB Madhya Pradesh State Chapter has now become fully live and a person has been permanently employed on ICPB payrolls in Bhopal. Under the ongoing Global Expo in Dubai, January 12, 2022 has been declared as the MICE Day and ICPB has been assigned the task to handle the MICE day activities at the Dubai Expo. There are a plethora of activities being planned for that day and I invite stakeholders from the MICE industry to be present on the occasion in solidarity. In addition to this, ICPB is also pursuing with the Ministry of Tourism to declare 2023 as the year of MICE with launch of the national MICE policy. With JIO Convention Centre in Mumbai, Chhatrasal Convention Centre in Khajuraho, Rudraksh Convention Centre in Varanasi, refurbishment of Pragati Maidan and soon to open IICC at Dwarka, New Delhi, going forward, India is definitely going to be positioned strongly in the global MICE map,” shared Mr. Tiwari.
Meanwhile, the Association is also in the process of finalising its next CIC (Conventions India Conclave) sometime in the first quarter of 2022. The destination and other details regarding the same will be informed soon. ICPB has been engaged from the start in the process of building the Incredible India Digital Marketplace. The Government of India is creating an incredible India digital marketplace, which is going to be live for 2 years and tender is going to open for the same soon. The Incredible India Digital Marketplace, every fortnight, will focus on one country, such as the USA, France, Germany, Italy etc. It will identify top 20 countries for MICE vis-à-vis leisure tourism and will focus on buyer-seller interaction. All ICPB members will be able to make judicious use of this platform that will help in growth of their business.
“MICE is back. Most of the members are doing events. People are making bookings for the future and business is slowing reviving. What the agent’s community has realised in this pandemic is that while the travel tourism bookings can be done online, for MICE, the skilled manpower of someone handling meetings and events is crucial. Thus, MICE dealers will never go out of business if they learn to innovate and specialise in their offerings,” concluded Mr. Tiwari.
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