Travel companies have made a great deal of contracts to organise MICE tours in recent months, particularly since Vietnam’s accession to the WTO. The country has great prospect to develop MICE but a joint marketing strategy is needed and co-operation should be boosted.

Busy with new contracts

Saigontourist predicted a rising trend for the number of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) tourists as Vietnam had its membership to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) approved.

The leading national travel company said it has received reservations for MICE services from 6,420 customers in November and December, of whom 1,500 are foreigners while domestic MICE customers make up two thirds of inbound contracts and 520 others have booked outbound MICE services.

About 4,400 domestic MICE tourists of Saigontourist will join MICE tours in Long Hai, Phan Thiet, Da Lat and Vung Tau. The most number from Neisei Company with 2,500 tourists to Phan Thiet, Vung Tau and Madagui and a delegation of 400 tourists from Toyota to Phan Thiet, said Saigontourist.

The Saigontourist company reported a total of 36,664 MICE customers it served in the first ten months of the year, attributing the boom to the progress made in Vietnam's WTO negotiations.

A group of 140 Ho Chi Minh City supermarket managers booked tours to Thailand with the Sai Gon Petroleum Service Company tour department (SPSC Tour) in October.

Earlier, SPSC Tour signed a contract to organise tours to learn about models of upstream markets in Bangkok of 40 tourists who are from the management board of upstream markets in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Vietnamese accession to WTO has raised the number of outbound tourists to learn experience and do market research, said Cao Pham Hang, director of SPSC Tour.

Three ending months of each year often see a lower number of tourists travelling but this year is different. It seems that almost all big travel companies of Vietnam are busy with MICE contracts. In October and November, Fiditour is expected to welcome about 5,000 MICE tourists and Vietravel is preparing for 3,000 MICE tourists to attend conferences at resorts.

The number of MICE tourists to Vietnam has increased in a stable way for the past time, an increase of about 20% in the first ten months of 2006 against the same period last year, said the Vietnam MICE Club.

Prospects

Vietnam has begun to be capable of organising MICE. Before, Vietnam could not do this but now the country is an “emerging star” of the regional tourism and a new and attractive destination. Two many seminars and conferences have been held in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, so it has become boring. They have a trend to move to new destinations such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

“We have infrastructure and ability of organising MICE events. We have organised successfully Francophone (French-speaking nations) Summit in 1997, ASEAN’s conferences, the 22nd Southeast Asian Games, ASEM, and the recent APEC summit. These events require tight security, absolute safety and organising ability. The world has acknowledged Vietnam’s ability to organise big events,” said Pham Huu Minh, director of the Tourism Promotion Department of the National Administration of Tourism.

Vietnam has centres that can meet the needs of MICE tourists include the newly-built National Convention Centre that can seat over 3,000 people, five-star hotels and resorts mainly located in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Quang Nam province; and some other event organising centres.

Vietnam has convenient systems of air routes, telecommunications, banking and customs. Travelling in the country is more favourable, for example we have provided APEC businessmen travelling cards, so businessmen in the APEC region can enter and exit Vietnam more easily. In addition, tourists to Vietnam can join MICE and combine with sightseeing and convalescence.

To turn the prospect into reality, the Vietnam Meetings and Incentives Club, or the Vietnam MICE Club, is planning to spend around US $100,000 next year to promote MICE tourism in Vietnam.

The club (founded in 2002 as a partnership between Vietnam Airlines, Saigontourist Travel Service Co, Hanoitourism and more than 20 leading hotels and resorts in the country) said the planned expenditure, 20% higher than this year's spending, will be used for presentations promoting Vietnam in Singapore, China's Hong Kong and England.

The funds will also be used for MICE Club members to attend trade shows in Australia, China, Thailand and Spain.

Strategy needed

MICE requires good infrastructure and, more importantly, organising ability, controlling capability and close co-operation among the airlines, travel firms, hotels, resorts, convention centres and the relevant bodies. If infrastructure is good but organising ability is poor, it will be impossible to attract MICE tourists.

Vietnam lacks five-star hotels and big resorts. There have been total 22 five-star hotels in Vietnam so far, 10 in Ho Chi Minh City and 8 in Hanoi. The scales of these five-star hotels are small. The largest hotel in Ho Chi Minh City – New World – has 542 rooms and the largest hotel in Hanoi – Daewoo Hotel – has more than 400 rooms. While in other countries, there are five-star hotels with more than 3,000 rooms.

“We face difficulties when our clients order an event for from 1,000 participants upwards or when they require over four function rooms at one hotel. We have to organise big events with a large number of participants at the Reunification Palace or hire several hotels at the same time to organise one event,” said Ms Hoang Loc, manager of Inbound Department of the Saigontourist.

“To develop MICE in Vietnam, a ‘convention bureau’ – representing Vietnam to join bidding the right to host big international events in Vietnam – is needed. Procedures for MICE tourists should be simplified at airports. The image of the National Convention Centre should be promoted,” suggested Nguyen Thuy Phuong from the Passenger Marketing Department of Vietnam Airlines.

“The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has not had any marketing strategy for MICE development. The administration is still negative to co-ordinate with travel companies to make a specific strategy to attract MICE tourists. Travel businesses have not had strategies to focus on specific markets or tourists,” said Mr Pham Huu Minh.

In the time to come, he said, the Tourism Promotion Department would employ consultants and co-ordinate with travel companies to make a marketing strategy and the State would work out orientation to develop this kind of tourism.

(Source: Nhan Dan)