Corporates still thrifty but Asian outbound MICE has the money

COMPANIES are still keeping a firm hold on purse strings, report buyers at the Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo (AIME) 2011, which opened today.

Satka Immelback, managing director of Sweden’s IM Specialresor, said bookings for revenue-generating meetings were “bouncing back faster than incentives”, with clients now hiring analysts to study the return on investments of MICE spend before determining the type of events to hold.

“The crisis has made corporates wiser in spending,” added Immelback.

Malaysia’s MEP Meetings & Exhibition Planners owner Karen Soo said clients were still cautiously planning their event budgets, and the financial crisis had “brought the industry back down to earth”, causing suppliers to “price their products more realistically”.

There are, however, encouraging signs in the Asian outbound MICE market: Indonesia’s Panorama Tours will execute its biggest-ever incentive movement this April – a 2,000-pax group of Prudential employees that will head to Paris – while MEP has also snagged a high-end incentive group to Paris this year.

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