Girdhar: Taking the Indian MICE industry to the next level
Gajesh Girdhar, Chairman – Governing Body, Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA) is a veteran name of the industry. In an interaction with Travel Trade Insider, he shared his outlook for the Indian MICE business.
Q. How has been the last year for India’s MICE market, domestic as well as inbound? What are your expectations from the new year in terms of demand?
A. As far as the MICE business is concerned, I can say that the last year has been good for the industry in spite of challenges like the economic slowdown. I expect a growth of 10 percent for the Indian MICE business in 2020.
Q. Outbound MICE demand from India has been growing over the years. How client budgets and event plans are like for 2020 compared against 2019?
A. 2020 is going to be a year of new destinations. MICE agents are continuously exploring new places as per the demands of corporate clients. Even corporates have increased their budget for this year and most of the well-established business establishments are now looking for long haul destinations to conduct their business events.
Q. Do you expect that the current economic slowdown in the country will impact the outbound MICE demand?
A. Corporate entities should visit international travel events to know a destination better. MICE groups are incentive oriented programs and corporate offer various schemes to promote and to meet sales targets of their products. So, I don’t feel there would be any slowdown in the demand for outbound MICE events in 2020.
Q. Delhi smog in the recent past generated a lot of negative publicity internationally, has it affected the inbound tourism industry?
A. It was a temporary phase and I don’t think such things matter much while a tourist selects a destination.
Q. What role in NIMA playing to promote the MICE segment in the country especially helping India to emerge as a preferred MICE destination globally?
A. NIMA was first to visit Vishakhapatnam (Vizag) and Raipur with member MICE agents to explore the possibilities of MICE events in these cities. We plan to arrange similar trips to Indian destinations this year too. We also intend to invite our global partners to explore India for their MICE events. We at NIMA intend to train members in delivering quality services to their clients. We are committed to educating our members on the opportunities vested in the MICE business in 2020.
Q. What are your upcoming plans for NIMA?
A. NIMA actively participated at SATTE 2020 and is looking forward to participating in ITB India 2020. Further, we plan to take a delegation to international MICE events too.