How to Develop MICE Tourism

At present, the development of China's convention and exhibition industry is far less mature than tourism. The promotion of exhibition to tourism is more objective, but not as positive as that of tourism. However, with the development of convention and exhibition industry, convention and exhibition tourism needs more government departments in charge of convention and exhibition industry to find a suitable starting point and actively carry out tourism promotion activities. Therefore, in order to develop China's MICE tourism, the key is how to find the breakthrough point of mutual promotion between tourism and MICE, deeply understand the interactive mode between tourism and MICE, and then adopt a set of effective methods suitable for China's national conditions to create MICE tourism with China characteristics.

Let's look at a case of mice tourism development in Beijing. In the reply to the proposal of the members of the Third Session of the Ninth CPPCC Beijing (report on the handling of the proposal No.0705), it was pointed out that "Beijing, as the capital of China, has convenient transportation and many information channels, and its software and hardware conditions such as foreign language talents and airport facilities are more prominent than China's, and it has obvious advantages in developing mice tourism, but if it is not grasped, it will give up this advantage. The conclusion of foreign experts' unannounced visit to Beijing mice tourism is that Beijing has the conditions to receive large-scale international conferences. It is precisely because of the very important position and role of MICE tourism that Beijing Tourism Bureau has seriously promoted MICE tourism as a new growth point of tourism in the future ... "... The reply to this proposal clearly shows that Beijing Tourism Bureau has a relatively early and clear understanding that MICE will be a new growth point of tourism development.

With the open policy, beijing tourism administration has built a smooth bridge between exhibition and tourism. In addition to providing training services for organizations bidding for international conferences, as well as all kinds of tourism promotional discs, books and other in-kind support, the Tourism Bureau will also provide various information consultation services free of charge after each successful bid for international exhibitions. For example, we can provide information on accommodation, catering, entertainment, tourism and other aspects according to the requirements of the organizers, and even coordinate the prices of various consumption places in exhibition activities to provide good services for the organizers of exhibition activities.

In the process of developing MICE tourism in China, beijing tourism administration's ideas and practices deserve high evaluation. However, in most cities in China, there is a disconnect between convention and exhibition industry and tourism, and the relationship between them can be summarized by the word "extrapolation". The so-called extrapolation, literally speaking, is that exhibition activities push exhibitors, participants and visitors to the tourism field, and tourism enterprises lag behind and passively benefit; The tourism sector has not played its due role in the overall promotion and supporting services, and the supporting role of tourism in exhibition activities is not obvious. In extrapolation mode, the following disadvantages will occur:

1. In terms of management system, there is neither centralized management and planning of tourism department nor special exhibition management organization to provide guidance. Most conference or exhibition organizers are busy with application for approval and specific reception affairs, and rarely consider cooperation with tourism departments;

2. In marketing promotion, due to the limitation of multi-head management in the industry and pure profit orientation of enterprises, it is difficult for the government to organize exhibition companies and tourism enterprises to jointly promote, not to mention the lack of professional exhibition management institutions to take the lead;

3. In terms of activities, due to the lack of effective guidance and related services, the main purpose of exhibitors, participants and visitors is limited to attending or watching exhibitions, and only a few people will participate in sightseeing, shopping or entertainment activities, even if there are such activities, they are small-scale and spontaneous;

4. In terms of supporting services, the services provided by the tourism department for exhibitors and visitors are mainly accommodation and catering, and the services such as cultural performances, shopping guides and sightseeing activities are obviously insufficient;

5. In terms of exhibition benefits, the comprehensive benefits brought by exhibition activities to tourism enterprises are not large enough, and the benefits of various industries within the tourism industry are unbalanced. Accommodation, catering and transportation have more profits, while sightseeing, shopping and entertainment have less profits. The existing tourism resources, especially the scenic spots in the city and its surrounding areas, have not been fully utilized.

However, it should be noted that some cities in China, where the exhibition industry started earlier, are actively exploring ways to effectively connect exhibition activities with tourism, and have successfully held a series of large-scale conferences or exhibitions, such as 1999 Fortune Forum held in Shanghai, 99 Kunming World Horticultural Exposition, the 6th Beijing International Auto Show, Shenzhen International Hi-tech Fair and the annual Canton Fair.

Whether MICE tourism can develop in depth depends on whether MICE industry and tourism can maintain a good docking relationship, and its ultimate criterion is whether tourism can participate in MICE activities in the whole process. The optimization of the relationship between convention and exhibition industry and tourism industry in China must work towards this goal, and it is suggested that we can start construction from the following five aspects:

1) In view of the development level of China's tourism industry and the obvious tourism attributes of the convention and exhibition industry, the convention and exhibition industry can be brought into the unified management and unified promotion of the tourism department in terms of management system;

2) In marketing, the exhibition department should cooperate with the tourism department for joint promotion. Even if exhibition enterprises carry out promotional activities alone, they should combine exhibitions with tourism resources and tourist reception facilities in and around the city, which is consistent with the first aspect;

3) In terms of tourist source forecast, the exhibition department and the tourism department should jointly carry out research and forecast to enhance the trust of the exhibition to the exhibitors, but the focus of the two departments is different. The former is mainly professional tourists, while the latter is mainly ordinary tourists;

4) In terms of supporting services, tourism enterprises should actively provide a series of services such as "eating, living, traveling, shopping and entertainment" for exhibitors, participants and spectators, and try to combine colorful tourism festivals with large-scale conferences or exhibitions;

5) In terms of the follow-up utilization of venues, in addition to exhibition enterprises continuing to hold large-scale exhibitions to attract tourists, the tourism department may consider taking modern venues with local characteristics as important destinations for city sightseeing to improve the utilization rate of venues.