Tourism Is A Part Of Life, It Is Not A Luxury: Naveen Rizvi

“MICE needs to be branded. It is high time that India should become a MICE brand. We can have a Meet in India’ on the same lines as Make In India", Girish Kwatra

AT BW Businessworld’s MICE Conclave and Awards 2018 powered by BW Hotelier held in New Delhi, various industry veterans and experts came together to discuss the ongoing challenges and struggles in the market right now. Various panels and discussions were organized to shine some light on various topics at the day-long conference and awards.

One such panel that was organized talked about ‘New Business Opportunities: Learning From Other Markets.’ The panel saw moderator Bikramjit Ray, Executive Editor, BW Hotelier along with panelists like Girish Kwatra, CIS-Office bearer ICPB and CEO- Meetings and More, Tristan Beau de Lomenie, Director of Operation, Luxe Hotels India and General Manager Delegate, Pullmanand Novotel, New Delhi Aerocity, Nitin Sachdeva, Venture Marketing, ICEB and Naveen Rizvi, Regional Director India and Indian Ocean- Pacific World and Executive Director- ICE- Integrated Conference and Event Management, P.W.

Kwatra while talking about the country’s position on MICE said, “MICE needs to be branded. It is high time that India should become a MICE brand. We can have a Meet in India’ on the same lines as ‘Make In India’. We also need to hire a conference company for all our conferences and events, so that India as a country is able to follow all the best practices like other markets.”

Nitin Sachdeva commented that there are three things that India needs to look at. First being ‘policy and framework’ followed by ‘marketing’ and the last factor that needs to be taken into account would be ‘support’.

“We need to understand that in India, MICE is not a part of tourism but comes under our Ministry of Economy and Investment. Several South East Asian countries have considered it an investment like Thailand, Singapore or Dubai. We need to do the same”, Sachdeva further added.

Talking about Aerocity, Tristan pointed out that what they have managed to do is put resources together. “The idea behind creating such an association was to promote Aerocity as a MICE destination. In India, there is a lack of understanding and belief, we need to be bolder in this aspect.”

Addressing the discussion, Naveen Rizvi talked about how in India, tourism is a part of life, it is not a luxury. He also talked about how in the United States, the focus of things is on respective cities and India probably needs to do the same, answering the moderator’s question on whether it would be better to break up the Indian hotelier market into states.

The panel discussion concluded with Nitin Sachdeva pointing out that “we need solutions to these challenges, these are not problems.”


Tags assigned to this article:

Advertisement

Around The World

Advertisement