Doing business the world over Places to go, people to meet

Much like reits, MPF and other acronyms that have penetrated our collective consciousness in recent years, MICE is here to stay.

It stands for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions - a growing segment of the global tourism market with a focus on the business traveller.

While Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand have dominated the MICE segment in Asia over the years, China is gaining on those mature markets as more executives travel north to experience a dynamic economy that the World Bank forecasts will expand 9.6 per cent this year and 8.7 per cent in 2008.

Moreover, MICE travellers are the highest-spending travellers per capita among different market segments, and these elite and moneyed visitors can become excellent ambassadors for spreading the message about the quality of hotels, airlines, restaurants and a destination's other attractions when they return home.

The Pearl River Delta aside, for decades the Peace Hotel, Shanghai's grand old lady on The Bund, was the key nexus of business dealings between the mainland, suppliers and far flung markets. Now the choice of MICE venues in the mainland provides endless variety, such has been the explosive growth in the sector in recent years. The China National Statistic Bureau in 2005 put the average annual expenditure on MICE travel at more than US$4.2billion in the country and growing at a yearly rate of 20 per cent. An American Express survey forecast China would attract more than 137million business travellers, 8.6 per cent of the global business tourism market, by 2020.

China attracted 5.54million foreign business travellers last year, according to Ministry of Public Security statistics. One hotelier said while the numbers might still be a long way off what had been forecast, the growth potential for MICE was clearly there.