AFTER the first upsurge in China’s leisure outbound, the country’s MICE business is being touted as “the next wave”, and the trade is homing in to court a market with deeper pockets and more discerning tastes.

Sol Melia Hotel & Resorts recently set up a dedicated sales team for Chinese outbound and now has an office in Lujiazui to “be closer to” corporate clients in the central business district.

“We’re trying to push outbound MICE to our properties around the world. All of my hotels from Bali to Madrid are asking us for more clients,” said area vice president sales, Asia-Pacific, Sharon Lee.

Shanghai CS Innovation Consulting director/GM, Joseph Sze, representative for tour operators such as Tour East and Lac Hong Voyages, observed a sharp increase in incentive groups, with no longer just China-based MNCs driving the growth, but also state-owned enterprises and local private companies. “There’s a change in mindset now. With the economy improving, companies realise the need to reward their staff,” he said.

Sze said instead of the usual incentive holiday combining Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, clients were now exploring destinations such as Vietnam, requesting for special themes, and getting savvier in negotiating for better prices.

Sze’s incentive business grew by 10 to 15 per cent last year and he expects it to climb by another 20 per cent this year. Budgets have also risen by 15 to 25 per cent compared to 2010.

China International Travel Service Shenzhen sales supervisor Angela Cheuk, who noted a 30 per cent rise in incentives from September to March, said: “Local companies are now hiring travel arrangers to plan their incentive trips rather than doing it themselves. They have also started to specially set aside budgets for incentives.”

Companies are also asking for a training component as part of the programme, she added.

Grand China Express International Travel Service vice president Ni Hui said local companies were starting to learn from China-based MNCs, which have started to take a second look at longhaul destinations from end-2010 due to the return of business. Thus far, automobile clients such as Michelin, Hyundai and Kia were sending groups to France, Spain and Hawaii respectively, he said.

Ni said overseas meetings were the fastest-growing business segment. Meeting sizes are also swelling, from 1,000 pax three years ago, to 4,000-5,000 pax now.

SONGJIANG District is promoting itself as the new MICE valley of Shanghai.

One of the 18 districts of Shanghai located about 30 minutes by train from the city centre, it is home to three five-star MICE-friendly hotels, Le Meridien She Shan Shanghai, Sofitel Shanghai Sheshan Oriental and Songjiang New Century Grand Hotel Shanghai, providing close to 1,000 rooms.

“We now have a mix of domestic and international meetings, thanks to the presence of many Fortune 500 companies with offices in Shanghai. But we want to have a more focused action plan to convert Songjiang District into a ‘meetings valley’ and attract meeting groups from the city,” said Sun Hong Jian, a senior officer with the Songjiang District Commerce and Tourism Division.

She explained that Songjiang’s close proximity to Shanghai’s city centre would allow event planners to twin both destinations or provide corporate groups a quieter alternative.

Sun’s action plan includes hosted site inspections for meeting planners, and organising table-top meetings and forums that bring together corporate clients and Songjiang’s suppliers.

However, Sun admits that Songjiang’s ambition is faced with two key challenges �?? the lack of experienced destination management companies or travel agencies with experienced meetings operations, and the district government’s limited understanding of MICE.

“The concept of MICE is still very new to us. We have realised that there’s so much more to MICE than just meetings. We have to attend seminars like this (China (Shanghai) International Meetings & Conference Forum) to learn about the business and how else to make Songjiang District more attractive to corporate clients,” she said.

THE HANGZHOU Tourism Commission has set up a new MICE division, which is rolling out a number of initiatives.

Already a rising star in leisure, with international hotel brands from Amanresorts to Four Seasons making a beeline for Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang wants to be accessible to planners. Roger Shu, manager of the division, said a dedicated website with information on event venues, MICE hotels and other suppliers would be launched in June, first in Mandarin, then English, and eventually in other languages.

The division is also organising forums, training and destination promotion in partnership with industry experts. Just last week, it ran a three-day training led by The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) president Arnaldo Nardone and experienced MICE players. It has also enlisted the help of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to promote Hangzhou as a MICE destination to overseas markets.

Intercity cooperation is also a key. Shu said: “We are breaking down barriers with the other cities in the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo and Nanjing) in bidding for major events. An event could have its meeting in, say, Shanghai, then its post-meeting leisure programme in Hangzhou. That is the arrangement we have suggested to ICCA for its congress in Shanghai in 2013.”

Li Hong, director general of the commission, said a “massive convention centre” was being built in Hangzhou and would be completed in 2015. While Li was unable to provide facility specifications of the Hangzhou International Olympic Centre, he said it would be “a very impressive venue for MICE”.

Meanwhile, a Hangzhou MICE association has also been established to facilitate networking among local players. It comprises 100 members across industry sectors including hotels, travel agencies that deal with MICE groups, and planners.

GLORIA Hotels & Resorts will open 13 new hotels across China within this year and next, bringing its pool of properties in Asia-Pacific and China to 30.

Hainan province, China’s tourism trade darling which is seeing massive tourism development, will receive the bulk of Gloria’s expansion. Three resorts will open by July or August, two of them new-builds and one a rebranding of a hotspring resort on Haitang Bay.

The group will also mark its presence in Changsha and Jishou, Hunan province; Hohhot, Inner Mongolia; Wuxi, Jiangsu province; Shanghai; Lushan, Jiangxi province; Beijing; and Duyun, Guizhou province.

Gloria will debut its economy brand, E-Inn, in Changsha and boutique brand, Merlin, in Shanghai before the year is over.

The group’s vice president sales & marketing, Clarence Wong, said most of the new properties were equipped with meeting facilities.

“The MICE segment contributed approximately 15 per cent to our hotels’ total business in 2010. The contribution is expected to be higher this year,” Wong said.

Wong added that strategies for expansion beyond China, possibly to South-east Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, were being mapped.

THE CHINESE central government has issued a warning to provincial governments about misusing government funds to host meetings with foreign delegates in their hometowns.

Local industry players at the China (Shanghai) International Meetings & Conference Forum on Tuesday told IT&CM China Daily that the warning came after some provincial government officials were found to have used government funds to conduct fancy parties on the pretext of hosting such meetings.

As understood by the Daily, officials would attend the parties, but no beneficial trade interactions were made with the foreign guests.

Patrick Chen, international deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, explained: “All government and association meetings are required to obtain approval from the central government before funds are disbursed. The central government will now pay greater attention to applications for hosting these ‘international’ meetings.”

Liu Ping, CEO of Beijing-based Star China Professional Program, added: “Such ‘international’ meetings have poor programmes and are a waste of time for the foreign delegates. They reflect badly on the provinces involved.”

But industry sources said these renegade events were not new.

Liu said: “Such problems could appear to be more prominent, as more cities in China are eager to be part of the MICE wave that has hit key cities.

“Every province is eager to hold meetings, but there are no clear standards. That’s why the government has to exert control.”

The industry welcomed the clampdown.

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Asia-Pacific regional director, Noor Ahmad Hamid, said: “Stricter controls will weed out false events and benefit China’s meetings industry.”

International hotel groups operating in China that were interviewed, such as the Millennium & Copthorne and Sol Melia, said government events held at their hotels were the real thing, with most being trade forums, so they expected little or no impact.

Two years ago, the central government also slapped stricter compliance policies on official business travel expenditure.