THE TOURISM and meetings industry in Medan, North Sumatra is planning to form the Medan Convention Bureau to boost the domestic and regional MICE market to the destination.
Sumatra Tourism Promotion Board executive director, Artur Batubara, said: “Medan has all the facilities to be a MICE destination. Many developers have invested in (three- to five-star) hotels in Medan, and most of them have meeting facilities. We have about 10 PCOs here, and even have two convention and exhibition halls, each about 3,000m2, opening this year.
“We feel that Medan needs to have a convention bureau to maximise all these facilities.”
He added: “The stakeholders know there is the potential, but there is a lack of confidence among the stakeholders to come forward to bid for an event.”
One of the major business cities in Indonesia, Medan is listed as one of Indonesia’s 10 MICE destinations by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Medan has extensive domestic flight connections. Regionally, it has direct flights to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Batubara said the city’s MICE business was currently dominated by government meetings, and only recently, health-related conferences have started to appear, thanks to the presence of JW Marriott Medan. The city has previously hosted several sub-regional ASEAN meetings and travel marts.
At the moment, the board for the new CVB is being established, while a discussion with the Medan Municipal Government is underway on how the bureau will be run, its funding and programme.
