By BW Hotelier

THE-THIRD edition of MICE India and Luxury Travel-Congress 2015-(MILT Congress) concluded-in Mumbai last week. The event witnessed over 3150 meetings in total between buyers representing the leading corporates, agencies, wedding planners and film production houses from across India and suppliers from leading tourism boards, hotel chains, venues, sports hospitality and MICE specialists from around the world. The congress welcomed over 250 attendees-(decision makers of incentive, meetings, events and corporate travel planning) over the two days, from-the-country’s-leading corporate organizations.

Experts-from the MICE segment in India-from companies such as-Ashok Leyland,-Abbott Healthcare,-Kurlon, Tata Motors, HDFC Standard Life Insurance,-Tata Steel,-Larsen & Toubro, Sanofi,-Vedanta-amongst others,-came together to provide-some much-needed perspective into the workings of this powerful sector to help broaden the understanding-on MICE travel-for planners and suppliers alike.

Industry stalwarts from the-MICE planning industry-spoke on the need for travel partners to get more creative with their offerings and to move away from the vanilla packaging that has been the norm until now. Adding their views on the monetary aspect, these MICE professionals agreed-that although there would be a cap with the budget that could be allocated towards the spending, these decision makers would not shy away from increasing their-spend on certain creative-proposals and new destinations that could re-invent the way we look at incentives and events.

There were also some interesting takeaways with these experts-sharing their insight on what works best for the Indian market. Majority of buyers-emphasized the-importance-of-inclusion of the employee’s or distributor’s family in the activity-to provide an enriched incentive-travel-experience. Another MICE buyer from a top tier pharmaceutical company enlisted the key factors responsible for a successful incentive activity,-with-value for money, proximity to India, accessibility, a proactive tourism board-and-creating a wow factor-being the most important.-During the highly anticipated visa panel discussion, the topic of ensuring-a-smooth visa issuance process for MICE rather than only focusing budgets on tourism marketing was highlighted.-Bringing it all together, it was observed that corporates make their MICE decisions based on-the 3S’s ’ Spend, Service and Satisfaction.

The congress provided a niche industry focused platform for hotel chains such as-Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, FRHI Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Hilton, Address Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Hotels,-along with DMCs, EMCs, Sports tourism players, tourism boards and convention bureaus from-Spain, South Africa, Thailand, Fiji, Toronto, Switzerland, Geneva, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Korea, Oman, Zurich, New Zealand, Monaco, and Mauritius-to-meet C-level-executives-from the top corporation in the region.

’Our objective has always been to bring the world under one roof-to meet-senior decision makers-from India, who can make decisions on all aspects related to procurement for MICE, business and luxury travel activities. We have been successful in providing a platform for doing business and surpassing participants’ expectations over the past three years,’ said Sidh N C, Director ’ Projects, QnA International (see photo).

’Based on the feedback-we have-received, the-MILT Congress has raised-the bar this time around for all MICE-events in India and-is currently recognized as the strongest MICE platform in the region and we intend on raising the standard of the event with each-forthcoming-edition,’ he added.