The story appears on

Page B10

June 15, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Feature » Mice

Hotels confident about future MICE business

Q: How would you assess Shanghai’s current MICE market?

Neeraj Govil: As Shanghai continues to invest in infrastructure and meeting centric facilities, it has become increasingly attractive as a meeting destination. The city also has plenty on offer for incentive and leisure groups. The MICE market in Shanghai tends to be cyclical, influenced by major events every two years or so as they alternate with other destinations. For instance, 2015 is a robust year for MICE as the city plays host to several large events.

Jeff Chang: Shanghai is a city with mature infrastructure and wide range of segmentations for the MICE market. With the slowdown of the economy, the MICE market in Shanghai has had some obvious changes.

Maximilian Pleyer: Shanghai, being one of the top leading and growing cities globally, has recently opened the world’s largest exhibition center, which is located in Hongqiao. This has naturally put a lot of pressure on other exhibition sites in town, increasing competition significantly. However, I see this as a big opportunity in the long run for this city if all exhibition operators make full use of Shanghai’s unique location and global appeal to attract additional international events into the city rather than cannibalizing each other’s business, which would be a big loss for Shanghai and its citizens. Therefore, I believe that Shanghai’s MICE market holds an abundance of future opportunities if it is being supported by the right strategy and makes full use of its excellent facilities, global connections and vast resources.

Gottfried Bogensperger: The Shanghai MICE market is most likely one of the most competitive markets in China, if not in the whole of Asia. The choices are plentiful and it seems that there is no end to new players entering the market. Such a highly competitive environment will certainly separate the good from the not so good. Having a clear brand vision, understanding the client, their purpose, needs and catering with passion, making available a creative selection of offerings and services are essential to being a successful operator in such a challenging environment. At Hyatt on the Bund, we are fortunate to be able to cater to our clients’ requirements, and we always seek to deliver a flawless and memorable experience. It means a lot to us to build trust with our clients. Clients who have worked with us before want to work with us again because they know they can trust us to deliver.

David Travers: Shanghai’s MICE market is very buoyant, with some industry segments performing especially well. Many international hotels see MICE as an important part of their business strategy.

There are a lot of good products and services available throughout the city and surrounds to cater for this market. New infrastructure and attractions will only increase the appeal.

Q: Shanghai is a hot MICE battlefield, so what are the competitive advantages of your hotel that make it stand out from others? What challenges are you encountering at the moment to maintain long-term solid growth here?

Neeraj Govil: Shanghai certainly is a very competitive market for MICE with opportunities galore for hotels. Our hotel has been quite successful in establishing itself in this space within the market since our opening in 2011 and we look forward to building on this reputation. There are a number of factors to this success; from a great location at the heart of downtown by People’s Square, large, well-designed meeting spaces across a dedicated level of the hotel, and overall, well-appointed guest rooms and general facilities. Of course, our food and beverage offerings are also diverse and authentic — we have our Man Ho Chinese Restaurant, Inagiku Japanese Restaurant, Shanghai City Bistro for all day dining and a very popular and busy Lounge located off the lobby. Combined with our meeting space, this really gives meeting planners everything they need and everything they could want in a venue. Beyond the venue itself, we have the benefits of our professional event management team at the hotel and the continual innovations that Marriott is making in the MICE industry.

The ongoing challenge is a lot of price-based competition. This won’t be sustainable for the market in the long term and is one of the reasons that Marriott as a company is continually innovating in terms of our product offering. This continual innovation is what keeps us one step ahead of the competition.

Jeff Chang: Fairmont Yangcheng Lake has a great location in Kunshan along the shore of Yangcheng Lake. There are no factories within 20 kilometers of the hotel, making for a peaceful retreat away from cities. We are also close to new shopping venues and a water park. The local version of Warner Brother’s Movie World is still in its development. When it comes to food, which to Chinese clientele is always important, the Fairmont is near Bacheng Fishermen’s Village, which features dozens of hairy crab restaurants.

The hotel itself and the outdoor facilities include a chipping and putting green for golfers, tennis and basketball courts and rock climbing. There’s also Yue Feng Organic Farm, which is proving to be rather popular. Wugu restaurant is surrounded by farmland and ponds and is another drawing card.

Add to this Fairmont Yangcheng’s high-end meeting facilities and you have something that is different from most hotels in Shanghai.

Although the new National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) in Hongqiao is just a 45-minute drive away, our challenge is to ensure exhibitors understand we offer almost as much convenience along with the aforementioned benefits.

Maximilian Pleyer: The Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, Shanghai is located right next to Shanghai New International Expo Center, a Chinese-German exhibition project being operated very successfully by a group of leading global German exhibition operators, which is a big advantage for our hotel.

Nevertheless, MICE, although as an important business, is only one of the many business segments for our hotel as any experienced operator would ensure the diversification of their markets to ensure long-term successful business sustainability.

SNIEC has been the most successful exhibition operator in China over the last decade mainly due to the fact that it is managed by one of the largest and most successful global MICE operators based out of Germany. Their global expertise combined with their long-term commitment and strategy (having a site lease till 2051) has shown their business growing continuously.

Most recently they were able to bring the world famous Consumer Electronics Show to Shanghai, the first time it was ever held in Asia. Usually this famous mega event is held annually in Las Vegas to showcase the world’s most innovative products.

Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, Shanghai has been operating now for over four years. Next to our landmark building we are providing a very unique and different product and facilities which have been continuously perfected to provide highly customized quality services for the many demanding companies exhibiting their products at SNIEC as well as in our two ballrooms and large meeting venues. At Jumeirah we are known to be able to satisfy the most distinguished guests guided by Jumeirah’s hallmark of “stay different.” Jumeirah’s expanding footprint in Asia and China will also be of great future benefit for our hotel.

Gottfried Bogensperger: Shanghai seems to have an endless supply of new venues and options. Such an enviroment can be daunting and challenging but it will also bring out the best in every player. At Hyatt on the Bund, we are confident that our creativity, expertise and the passion of our people can deliver above and beyond what is expected from us. Hyatt on the Bund has truly some of Shanghai’s most unique event facilities with an abundance of natural daylight everywhere. Our lobby is basically a huge skylight where the outdoors is brought indoors basically 365 days a year. We also offer free high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and the hotel has some of Shanghai’s finest and best known restaurants and entertainment venues such as Xindalu and VUE. In addition, we have associates who truly care and want to ensure that everything goes smoothly and is a great success. The feedback and stories that I receive on a daily basis from our guests and customers are inspiring and make me feel very good about what we do.

David Travers: Flexible and innovative inside and outside spaces — gardens, historic styled villas, riverside location with spectacular views and easy access to all the (former World) Expo facilities are our advantages. There is no special challenge that most other Shanghai hotels are not experiencing.

For major MICE events, the main priority is for the destination (i.e. Shanghai) to be selected from other national and international alternatives. If other destinations are offering a more attractive proposition and potential business is lured away, everyone loses.

Shanghai remains a very attractive and popular MICE destination.

Q: Are there any new projects your hotel will launch this year to attract business travelers and enlarge your share in Shanghai’s MICE market?

Neeraj Govil: Out hotel has already launched a couple of great innovations which really put us ahead of the trend in MICE. One of these is Meetings Imagined, a philosophy and framework around how we plan events for our clients. It’s all centered on helping our clients achieve their goals for every meeting.

Through extensive research and experience, Marriott has identified seven purposes for meetings: celebrate, decide, educate, ideate, network, produce and promote. As part of this, the meetingsimagined.com website is a tool that allows anyone planning a meeting or event to infuse creativity and purpose into their gathering down to the smallest detail. It offers tips for successful meetings from ice breakers, to foods and music to set the mood. Meetingsimagined.com features images of some of the best experiences Marriott Hotels have hosted around the world. Planners can tailor food and beverage, setup, technology and experiences based on the ultimate goals of each meeting, to design more inspiring and engaging experience for attendees.

Yet another innovation that we offer at our hotel is Marriott’s Red Coat Direct app. The app allows meeting organizers to adjust and edit their meeting requests and preferences with a touch of a button and without ever leaving the meeting room. Red Coat Direct is the first branded hotel app to grant any meeting wish (within reason … although we have gone the extra mile on many an occasion) from room temperature adjustments to coffee refills and one more great benefit to organizers holding meetings at Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre.

Jeff Chang: With the changing market, the hotel is investing in WiFi coverage, more bandwidth lines for both guests and internal usage. Meanwhile instead of hiring traditional IT staff to handle the audio-visual and Internet requirements for meetings, we are looking at more savvy AV technicians with knowledge of deign so that we can offer more assistance to our clientele.

The Recreation Team also updated the content of our team building activities and to make it more challenging and interesting for the clientele from Shanghai market.

With the addition of Wugu Restaurant and Culinary Studio, the hotel has come up with different packages and ways to conduct the activities in these two unique venues.

Maximilian Pleyer: Yes we do have various plans to improve and enlarge our facilities partly this year and in 2016 to take full opportunity of the expected and continued growth and to delight our guests.

Gottfried Bogensperger: Yes, the hotel is working on several new concepts and offerings. We are developing several new catering concepts based on the idea that there is a story to tell. More will be revealed shortly. For example, we are working on a concept which we have termed “365 Days Garden Meetings” and an off-premise concept called, “Dinner Story.” These will definitely be unique and something to share with friends and family members.

David Travers: InterContinental Shanghai Expo launched IHG Business Rewards in April 2015 — IHG’s new global loyalty program offering points for business accommodation and meetings and social events, for those booking on behalf of others.

IHG Business Rewards is an extension of the IHG Rewards Club and its main benefits are: no minimum booking size; same points currency as IHG Rewards; points can be redeemed globally at any IHG brand; points can be redeemed for personal or company use.

Q: Do you consider MICE business an important engine for your future revenue/profit growth? How do you expect the overall MICE market in Shanghai to expand over the next couple of years and how do you anticipate it will impact your own business?

Neeraj Govil: MICE business is and always will be an important engine for this hotel’s growth and revenue. Our strategies are definitely centered on MICE and we rely on MICE to support our food and beverage operations. That said, from the guest rooms to the expansive dining and meeting space options, everything at this hotel was designed with meeting planners in mind and that’s reflected in the strong demand experience currently and expected to continue experiencing in the future. Shanghai is going to continue to develop in terms of infrastructure and facilities to become increasingly attractive as a meeting destination. The opening of the new National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) in Hongqiao will also have an effect. Whenever a city makes major infrastructure developments, there is an inevitable ripple effect to complimentary businesses such as the hotel industry. We’re looking forward to the NECC bringing more large scale conventions to the city, which will benefit MICE business.

Jeff Chang: The MICE business still remains the bread and butter of the hotel’s revenue and profit growth. The Shanghai market is the main feeder market for our leisure market segmentation and definitely for MICE as well.

With the new National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) in Hongqiao, the desire to gain market share is stronger than ever. This will help us continue to focus on the MICE market. We have a good sales team in Shanghai that gives us strong feedback on what’s occurring in the MICE market there.

Maximilian Pleyer: As mentioned above, MICE is and will be an important market for the Jumeirah Himalayas, Shanghai. I personally believe that with the right global strategy and positioning of Shanghai, which will be critical when competing with the leading Asian MICE cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, Shanghai’s future will be promising and bright.

However, in my opinion, the key to achieve this ambitious goal will be very close cooperation and coordination among all concerned key stakeholders and not by trying to divert and cannibalizing each other’s existing business, potentially at a lower price resulting in lower quality.

The Jumeirah Himalayas, Shanghai and its experienced team will work closely together with all key players to fully support and facilitate this growth. The hotel is confident and has a clear strategy in place on how to maximize its future opportunities in this promising environment.

Gottfried Bogensperger: MICE business is definitely an important potential source of revenue/profit growth. This business can only get progressively more competitive as new players and more venues come into the market. Having said this, I believe that we have developed a good relationship and reputation with our MICE clients and organizers, and they know that they can trust us to deliver a successful event/experience for them. This will make them come back to us year after year and as our reputation grows, more people and organizations will also give us a chance to impress them.

David Travers: MICE has been an important segment of business for InterContinental Shanghai Expo since the hotel opened in 2010 and we see it continuing to grow in the short/medium term. Shanghai is an established and successful MICE destination and there is no reason why it should not continue to be so.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend