TRADE players are stressing the need for Shanghai’s MICE sector to adopt standards and norms that will support the burgeoning business events industry.

The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration had sought to address the issue of service standards last October with the launch of the Management & Service Standards of the Conference Industry, Part 1: Conference Organizers, a set of standards jointly developed by the tourism bureau and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.

The document details the basic requirements for conference organisers as well as for conference services, conference management, continuous service improvement and compliance assessment.

The introduction of standards in the MICE industry would have a positive branding effect, akin to how international branded hotels were expected to have similar standards at different properties, noted Gui Wenhua, operation director of SEMI China, an international industry association with a membership of more than 2,000 semiconductor and material companies.

Maria Zheng, general manager, Shanghai China Travel International, said: “MICE service standards and levels vary across the sector. The authorities must hence promote industrial standards – a certain certification is also needed, like the AAA-rated tourist attractions in China.

“This way, overseas event owners will be able to discern and recognise professional MICE players in Shanghai, which will in turn spur more trade members to adopt such standards too.”

Zheng added that China’s fast-growing MICE industry, particularly in Shanghai and Beijing, was still teeming with challenges.

She said: “Although Shanghai is rising in popularity as a MICE destination, it is at the same time not receiving a lot of high-quality meetings yet, especially those of international associations. This could be partly due to China’s visa issues and infrastructure.

“China’s meetings industry is also facing software issues, such as a lack of professional manpower.”

– Read more in TTG Show Daily – IT&CM China

THE intense government crackdown against extravagant functions, lengthy meetings and unnecessary overseas travel in the public sector that began late last year has dampened MICE business, say the trade.

In his welcome remarks at the China (Shanghai) International Meetings & Conferences Forum 2013, Dao Shuming, chairman of Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, said: “Austerity measures have brought new challenges and issues…Hence, there’s a need for the industry to re-evaluate their business models in order to move forward.”

Julia Zhu, global sales manager, Jin Jiang International Hotel Management Company, told TTG Asia e-Daily that the new rules had resulted in cancellations of several government events during the January-February peak period.

However, Liu Ping, CEO of Beijing-based China Star, said: “The austerity drive hasn’t had a big impact on us as the majority of our business is focused on international meetings and associations.”

Liu recognised that there had been an impact, as many trade players were now strategising on how to deal with the measures, but observed that it was mostly hotels and suppliers on the government’s procurement list that had been especially affected.

Likewise, Michael Hong, deputy general manager, Shanghai Airlines Event Management, said his company was “not so much affected” as it draws more corporate than government business.

“In the near future, we plan to woo corporate business more aggressively, as well as pursue new opportunities in association meetings,” Hong said.

Jean Qian, director of sales & marketing, Radisson Blu Plaza Xing Guo Hotel Shanghai, said her hotel’s balanced mix of international and national-level meetings had helped to minimise any negative impact from the government’s austerity campaign.

Zhu added: “Even without F&B business (from the government), we have been doing well in attracting people to come to our hotels for meetings, trainings and seminars.”

On a positive note, Liu remarked: “As an industry player, I am certainly concerned about the economic fallout of this policy. However, I support the government’s anti-corruption drive.”

SINCE its release in December 2012, the unexpected Chinese biggest box-office hit, Lost in Thailand, has sent a ripple across the entire tourism industry in Thailand.

The number of Chinese visitors to Thailand posted a dramatic 93.5 per cent year-on-year increase in the first quarter of 2013, or 1,122,691 Chinese footfalls between January and March this year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Thailand.

Meanwhile, trade members are now bracing for the impact on the MICE segment.

Vichaya Soonthornsaratoon, director of meetings industry department, Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), said: “The movie has currently created more impact on the leisure market rather than MICE. However, it has also made Chiang Mai an emerging destination that (Chinese) MICE planners have to look into.”

Grace Chen Ren, manager, China market, Asian Trails Thailand, said: “We have been receiving more Chinese MICE enquiries for Chiang Mai since early this year, as well as some teambuilding requests in the (capital) city. Some Chinese groups that come to Bangkok for meetings or conferences also include an inspection or sightseeing trip to Chiang Mai now.”

Although Bangkok-based CCT MICE has not received any bookings from China to Chiang Mai this year, MICE director Davidstone Sek expects “interest to pick up later this year as Chinese MICE movement to Thailand is usually at the start of the year or year-end”.

Hotels are already seeing the effect on Chinese FITs. Furama Chiang Mai’s hotel manager, Wirachart Watthaphanich, has witnessed “a big jump in the number of leisure tourists from China since end-2012” and is optimistic that Chinese MICE business will grow.

He said: “Both Lost In Thailand and the new (Chiang Mai International Convention and Exhibition Centre) will (boost) Chinese MICE business to our hotel – I’m expecting a softer growth of 10-15 per cent this year and perhaps 20 per cent or more for 2014. But we need a strong marketing push from the authorities, especially in the meeting and conference sector.”

– Read more in TTG Show Daily – IT&CM China

A MARKETING representative in China for the Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) and the Sarawak Tourism Board may be established towards the end of 2013 as part of the Malaysian state’s move to focus on developing MICE business out of the massive market.

According to SCB’s managing director, Mike Cannon, the role of the marketing representative will be to educate Chinese outbound travel consultants, association buyers and incentive players on what Sarawak can offer for business events.

Cannon said: “We are conducting a study to see if it is more appropriate to appoint a company or an individual as a marketing representative, where the representative should be located and how it should operate.”

SCB regards Greater China as its second most important international market after Singapore. Cannon said: “Singapore remains our top overseas target due to its proximity and direct flight access to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, (but) we realise that Greater China has a fast growing economy and organisations, associations and corporations based in China want to explore the world for opportunities. We would be remiss if we don’t capitalise on this. And if we don’t act now, we will be forgotten in the stampede.”

The bureau is also in the midst of planning two-year programmes for the corporate meeting and association segments, and activities will include a greater frequency of sales missions to first-tier Chinese cities and familiarisation trips to Sarawak.

Cannon foresees the corporate meeting segment as having greater growth potential than the association segment, noting that “the latter tends to have their events within the country”.

“But this trend is slowly changing,” he said.

SCB welcomed five Chinese events in 2012, the largest being the 9^th World Congress of Chinese Medicine in Kuching, which saw more than 1,000 attendees.