Tourism Promotions Board Gearing Up Clark for MICECON 2014
With the support of the Clark Development Corporation, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) is gearing up the various sectors of the tourism industry in Clark Freeport, Pampanga for the influx of hundreds of local and foreign participants in the forthcoming Philippine Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions/Events (MICE) Conference 2014, the biggest gathering of its industry players in the country.
TPB chief operating officer Domingo Ramon C. Enerio III cited Clark as an emerging showcase of the country’s growing and improving facilities for MICE, now reportedly a trillion-dollar global industry.
Enerio said MICE in the Philippines, like in most parts of the world, accounted for a
large chunk of both local and foreign visitor volume and tourism revenues. “Yet, the market continues to surge and evolve with constant changes in client preferences, forcing the industry to adapt accordingly to cash in on this tourism phenomenon,” Enerio explained.
Online reports placed the number of conferences and exhibitions held worldwide annually at some 400,000 valued at $280 billion as shown by statistics from the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA), a MICE organization with almost 1,000 member-firms in 90 countries.
Another industry organization — the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) was reported placing the annual MICE industry output value at $1.16 trillion consisting of $400 billion from conferences and $760 billion from exhibitions.
“The huge income from MICE indicates the enormous economic benefits it can bring to the host CBDs (central business districts) like Clark,” Enerio pointed out.
Other CBDs where MICE Conferences (MICECON) have been held were Subic, Cebu and Davao, hinting at the strategic marketing plan of the TPB to position the Philippines as a preferred MICE destination in Southeast Asia.
Slated at the Fontana Convention Center in Clark on June 4 to 7, MICECON 2014 will have experts sharing their trade secrets and providing strategies in marketing, business and technology, association management, communication, organizational development and other opportunities, including the impact on the regional economy under the ASEAN Integration which will happen in 2015.
Expected to participate in MICECON 2014 are industry practitioners, airline firms, hotels, resorts, convention centers, destination management companies, incentive travel and event planners, professional congress/exhibit organizers, local government units and media.
MICECON 2014 will also bring in around 40 select MICE buyers from Australia, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Russia and ten other local corporate buyers for a one day business-to-business event called the MICE Mart.
With the theme MICE in 4D (Driving Passions, Developing Minds, Defying Limits, Designing the Future), MICECON 2014 is aimed at bringing the country’s MICE industry to another dimension of development.
MICECON 2014 is being organized by the TPB in partnership with two major Philippine M.I.C.E. organizations – the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Exhibitions/Events Philippines Inc. (MITE Philippines) and the Philippine Association of Convention and Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers (PACEOS).
Official participating hotels of MICECON 2014 include Fontana Hot Spring Leisure Parks, Widus Hotel and Casino, Holiday Inn Clark and Montevista Villas – Mimosa Golf & Country Club.
Inquiries on registration can be directed to the MICECON Secretariat (c/o TPB, MICE and Business Development Unit, tel. no.: +632 5256635, 5259318 to 27 loc.256; fax no.: +632 5216165; or email: miceregn2014@yahoo.com / tpb.specialevents@yahoo.com).
