The Concept of MICE Tourism

Nowadays, people often talk about MICE tourism, but there is no clear concept about what MICE tourism is. This paper mainly discusses how to link conference, exhibition and tourism.

Three common misunderstandings

(A) in the convention and exhibition industry, the emphasis on exhibitions, light meetings.

Although people often mention the convention and exhibition industry, in practical work, they all attach importance to exhibitions and ignore meetings. Statistically speaking, there are too many exhibition data and too few conference data, which shows that the domestic attention to the conference industry is not as high as that of the exhibition industry. The outstanding performance is that professional conference planning and service companies are out of fashion and lack of professional conference organizers (PCO).

(b) Confuse exhibitions with tourism.

MICE tourism is only a kind of tourism product form after the organic combination of MICE industry and tourism industry, or it is one of the important ways for tourism enterprises to realize business diversification, and it cannot be called industry.

In convention and exhibition developed countries, convention and exhibition industry and tourism are generally managed by convention and exhibition bureau or tourism bureau, while convention and exhibition industry is regarded as an independent industry.

(3) The convention and exhibition industry is part of the tourism industry.

Some experts also believe that "exhibition industry is an important part of urban tourism in the world today", which has obvious loopholes, because no matter whether the tourism authorities start to study the role of exhibition activities in tourism or the major tourism enterprises expand exhibition tourism business one after another, they cannot change the nature of information exchange or product display of exhibition activities, which is essentially different from tourism activities. On the contrary, these phenomena only show the great promotion of convention and exhibition activities to tourism, but China's participation in convention and exhibition activities is far from enough, and its direct performance is the obvious lag of convention and exhibition tourism development.

Definition of several basic concepts

The so-called meeting refers to the activities that people exchange information, get together and discuss around a common theme with the same or different purposes. The main stakeholders of the conference are organizers, contractors and participants (sometimes speakers). Their main content is to exchange ideas or information among participants.

The exhibition is an organized gathering of businessmen from different regions, which has a certain scale and is held regularly in a fixed place. According to different exhibition contents, UFI divides exhibitions into three categories, namely comprehensive exhibitions, professional exhibitions and consumer exhibitions. The stakeholders of the exhibition mainly include organizers, contractors, exhibitors and professional visitors, whose main contents are physical display, information exchange and business negotiation between exhibitors and professional visitors.

The so-called tourism refers to the sum of all phenomena and relationships caused by people's travel and stay for peaceful purposes. These people will not settle and work in tourist destinations. The successful completion of a tourism activity mainly depends on three elements, namely, tourists, tourist destinations (tourism resources) and tourism. Its fundamental feature is the off-site mobility of tourists (including off-site consumption), which is very similar to conferences and exhibitions.

From the above analysis, we can draw three conclusions: First, although the term "convention and exhibition industry" is widely used in China at present, there are essential differences between conferences and exhibitions in their main contents and modes of operation; Secondly, conferences, exhibitions and tourism activities are closely related and penetrate each other, but they are by no means simply equal or inclusive; Thirdly, exhibition activities and tourism have a common feature, that is, the mobility of customers in different places, which provides basic conditions for their cooperation in specific operations. Therefore, convention and exhibition industry and tourism can talk about docking or interaction, but they must not be equated.

How to connect exhibition activities with tourism?

With the continuous expansion of the convention and exhibition industry, a number of tourism enterprises began to set foot in the convention and exhibition business and achieved good economic benefits. Exhibition activities and tourism can and must achieve effective docking, which has become the knowledge of exhibition and tourism.

(1) docking foundation

The interactive development of convention and exhibition industry and tourism has its inherent conditions. First of all, you can organize a certain scale of personnel flow and meetings (exhibitions), sightseeing, shopping, entertainment and other activities during or after the meeting. Secondly, holding conferences or exhibitions and developing urban tourism all need some basic conditions, such as a distinctive urban image, perfect infrastructure and convenient urban services. From the perspective of urban social and economic development, exhibition activities and tourism activities have the same basic conditions.

(B) the docking status of domestic convention and exhibition industry and tourism

At present, there is a disconnect between convention and exhibition industry and tourism in most cities in China, and the relationship between them can be summarized by the word "extrapolation". The so-called extrapolation method, literally, means that a conference or exhibition pushes exhibitors, participants and visitors to tourism enterprises such as hotels, scenic spots and travel agencies, and the reception of tourism enterprises lags behind and passively benefits; The tourism sector is far from playing its due role in overall promotion and supporting services, and the supporting role of tourism in exhibition activities is not obvious.

The disconnect between domestic convention and exhibition industry and tourism industry is mainly manifested in four aspects:

(1) In terms of marketing, there are great obstacles for the government to organize exhibition companies and tourism enterprises to jointly promote, not to mention that there is no professional exhibition management organization similar to the French Professional Exhibition Promotion Committee (Promo Salons) to take the lead.

(2) In terms of personnel flow, due to the lack of effective guidance and related services, the main activities of exhibitors, participants and foreign audiences are limited to attending or watching exhibitions (conferences), and only a few people will participate in sightseeing, shopping or entertainment activities, even if there are, they are small-scale and spontaneous.

(3) In terms of supporting services, many exhibition organizers are distracted and have low service efficiency; Correspondingly, the services provided by the tourism department for exhibitors, exhibitors and visitors are mainly accommodation and catering, and the services such as transportation arrangement, cultural entertainment, shopping guide and tour guide organization are obviously insufficient.

(4) From the perspective of comprehensive benefits, the economic benefits brought by exhibition activities to tourism enterprises are not great enough, and the benefits obtained by various industries within the tourism industry from exhibition activities are extremely unbalanced. Accommodation, catering and transportation are more profitable, while sightseeing, shopping and entertainment are less. The existing tourism resources, especially the scenic spots in the city and its surrounding areas, have not been fully utilized.

(3) Docking strategy

The interaction between exhibition industry and tourism industry needs the effective guidance of the government, but in the final analysis, it depends on the degree of cooperation between exhibition companies and tourism enterprises. The former brings a considerable number of tourists to the latter and creates more market opportunities. The latter provides supporting services for the former to enhance the attraction of conferences or exhibitions.

1, role orientation

Conference or exhibition companies should play the role of "creators of tourist attractions" when carrying out exhibition tourism activities, which can be their own venues or large-scale conferences or exhibitions; The hotel should take the initiative to cooperate with the exhibition company, welcome exhibitors and participants with reasonable prices and high-quality services, and actively strive for various summit forums to be held in the hotel during the exhibition; Travel agencies should change the traditional business model and pay attention to the organization of professional tourists and the connection between exhibition activities and other sightseeing activities.

2. Management system

In the management system, China can set up a conference tourism bureau to bring the conference industry into the unified management of the tourism department; Establish a convention and exhibition industry association in the convention and exhibition industry to plan, manage and promote the exhibition in a unified way.

3. Overall marketing+support services

When the city promotes the overall destination, the exhibition department can cooperate with the tourism department; Even if exhibition enterprises carry out marketing promotion activities independently, they should also combine conferences/exhibitions with tourist attractions and tourist reception facilities in and around the city. Hotels, travel agencies and other tourism enterprises should actively provide a series of services such as "food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment" for exhibitors, participants and audiences, and try to combine colorful tourism festivals with large-scale conferences or exhibitions.

4. Forecast of tourist sources

The exhibition department and the tourism department should jointly carry out research and forecast to enhance the trust of exhibitors (participants) in exhibitions (conferences), but the focus of their work is different. The former focuses on professional tourists, while the latter focuses on ordinary tourists.

5. Subsequent use of venues

From the perspective of tourism development, after the completion of the venue, in addition to conference service companies, exhibition companies and so on. To continue to hold large-scale exhibitions to attract visitors, the tourism department can consider modern venues with urban characteristics as important tourist attractions to improve the utilization rate of venues.