Making India the New MICE Destination

INFRASTRUCTURE AND Services being the major loophole for the MICE market in India, several eminent panellist gathered together at the BW BusinessWorld MICE Conclave and Awards 2018, powered by BW Hotelier at The Grand New Delhi to discuss the issues for making India the new MICE destination.

Pranab Sarkar, President, IATO, one of the panellists at the event expressed the need of private sector to invest in the MICE market. He also laid emphasis on the Government to reconsider the taxes to make MICE more accessible within the country.

Naveen Rizvi, Regional Director India & Indian Ocean-Pacific World & Executive Director- ICE Integrated Conference and Event Management, TUI agreed to the fact of tax problem to capture more MICE market in India. By giving some examples of Turkey and Dubai, he also mentioned that driving MICE outside India is more comfortable in terms of services and approach.

After being asked about the hurdles faced from the client’s perspective, Saswati Sinha, Head- Human Resources, Chiel India feels that India is still not ready for both Domestic as well as International MICE.

During the event, Rajat Sethi, General Manager, The Grand New Delhi, spoke about the issues being faced from the hotels perspective. Bringing down the major issues, he spoke about the talent crunch and lack of MICE education in the hospitality and travel schools which ultimately creates the problem.