"Giving wings" to develop MICE tourism in Hanoi

Baoquocte.vn. With great potential for developing MICE tourism, Hanoi needs to "put on a new coat" for this type of tourism...

Hanoi has great potential to develop MICE tourism. (Source: VGP)

Great potential for MICE tourism development

Tourism combined with organizing conferences, seminars, events, and exhibitions (MICE) is considered a highly profitable product line and is also a trend that many countries in the world are focusing on developing, including Vietnam.

MICE tourism has a faster growth rate than other types of tourism. According to estimates from travel agencies, MICE tourists' spending can be 3-4 times higher than that of regular tour buyers. This is the reason why many countries such as Korea, Singapore, and Thailand have plans to build infrastructure and facilities to develop MICE tourism.

According to experts, Hanoi is a land of thousands of years of civilization with many tangible and intangible cultural heritages, so it has great potential to develop many types of cultural tourism, craft villages, eco-resorts, communities, and experiences. Possessing many product lines is an ideal condition for the capital to develop MICE tourism, attracting visitors to organize events and experiences.

With its position as the political, economic and cultural center of the country, with many famous tourist attractions, relics, scenic spots and high-class resorts, Hanoi can develop MICE tourism products, becoming a strength of the capital's tourism.

Specifically, we can mention the prominent tourist attractions such as: Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Old Quarter, craft villages. In addition, Hanoi also has potential and strengths in green and sustainable community tourism such as Dong Anh, Soc Son, Ba Vi, Son Tay... However, to truly promote the potential of this type of tourism, it is necessary to pay attention as well as position the product, attracting high-end customers.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Anh, Chairman of the Vietnam MICE Tourism Club, said that MICE tourism serves high-end customers, usually businessmen and merchants, bringing in 4-6 times higher revenue than other types of customers. Therefore, attracting MICE customers will bring great benefits to the capital's tourism industry.

According to the Hanoi Department of Tourism, the city currently has about 3,425 tourist accommodation establishments with 64,800 rooms, of which 598 hotels and apartments have been ranked 1-5 stars, accounting for 17% of the total number of tourist accommodation establishments. In addition, Hanoi has 31 shopping establishments, 23 restaurants, 8 entertainment areas, and 1 sports area. Possessing many high-class accommodation establishments and quality services is a condition for Hanoi to be able to welcome large groups of guests to organize MICE.

In fact, Hanoi has hosted and welcomed many large international delegations for long-term stays. Many major international conferences and events have taken place in the capital such as: APEC Summit, US-North Korea Summit, 31st Southeast Asian Games (31st SEA Games)... The fact that the locality is continuously chosen as the venue for large-scale international conferences shows that Hanoi can develop MICE tourism products, becoming a strength of the capital's tourism.

International tourists visit Duong Lam ancient village - Son Tay. (Source: KTĐT)

“New clothes” for MICE tourism

According to managers and tourism experts, in order for MICE tourism to develop, Hanoi needs to position this type of tourism as the city's key product. Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said that Hanoi still lacks event centers with full services of accommodation, food and beverage, and large-scale meetings that can serve thousands of people. In addition, the lack of connection between destinations, event centers and travel agencies is also the reason why MICE tourism has not really developed in the capital.

In addition, Hanoi's tourism products are still monotonous, mainly historical and cultural attractions, lacking rich experiential activities, so they have not attracted MICE tourists compared to coastal provinces and cities.

Ms. Dang Huong Giang, Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism, said that even the walking spaces of Hoan Kiem Lake, Trinh Cong Son Street and Son Tay Citadel can be used to organize major events, but in the past, this advantage has not been exploited to its full potential.

Therefore, to promote MICE tourism in the coming time, Hanoi needs to have a promotion policy, a master plan, and appropriate investment for this type, linking MICE tourism with the cultural values ​​of the capital, thereby creating unique products.

Meanwhile, according to Chairman of the Vietnam MICE Tourism Club Nguyen Duc Anh, those working in MICE tourism should find solutions to add value to this type of tourism, instead of just organizing seminars and conferences. For example, after meetings and events, the organizer can design for guests to experience cultural products and explore the cuisine of the capital.

"Exploiting destinations by integrating cultural and historical values ​​into MICE tourism products will create characteristics for Hanoi's MICE tourism products," said Mr. Nguyen Duc Anh.

To remove the "bottlenecks" for MICE tourism in Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, said that Hanoi needs to plan and invest in infrastructure with many types of quality services, including locations with a large number of accommodation rooms so that tourists can both organize events and experience resort and entertainment services.

In addition, the city needs to support businesses in surveying locations that can organize MICE in the area, from which they can have a plan to communicate, promote, and build MICE tourism products in a systematic manner.

According to experts, it is necessary to create characteristics for MICE tourism products to attract visitors to Hanoi. Linking cultural values ​​with MICE tourism is essential.

In addition to focusing on combining MICE tourism with the cultural values ​​of the capital, it is necessary to pay more attention to introducing the quintessence of Hanoi cuisine in guests' meals. Or it is possible to combine for visitors to experience tourism products on the Red River, train across Long Bien Bridge, live performances...

In particular, Hanoi also needs to research the needs of each customer market, thereby building appropriate MICE tourism products.

Hanoi aims to welcome 30 million tourists (including over 7 million international visitors) by 2025. Repositioning MICE tourism and finding solutions to develop this product to attract high-end customers is one of the directions of the capital's tourism industry in the coming time.

Dr. Trinh Le Anh (Head of Event Management Department, Faculty of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi): MICE is the "fertile land" of tourism in the capital.

Dr. Trinh Le Anh.

MICE tourism can bring in a large source of revenue, which is favorable for creating a spread of influence on the destination. However, this is also a type of tourism that requires a high level of professionalism, connectivity, and selection of destinations and experience products.

Therefore, in my opinion, for MICE tourism to really accelerate in the coming time, the capital's tourism industry needs to continue to have synchronous orientations and solutions along with effective coordination of related industries and services.

MICE tourism is a type of tourism that requires professionalism, connectivity, and strict selection of destinations and products. Exploiting and developing this product line in Hanoi is facing many challenges.

Hanoi has many advantages for the development of MICE tourism. Therefore, the strategy focuses on developing MICE, sports, and health care tourism to attract both international and domestic tourist markets.

In 2020, Vietnam developed and announced the National Standards on MICE tourism - Requirements on venue for hotels. Regarding tourist accommodation facilities, in 2019, our accommodation system participated in attentively serving major events of the industry and the country, including the US-North Korea Summit in Hanoi, thereby demonstrating Hanoi's role, position and ability in hosting major international events.

It can be said that MICE tourism is considered a “fertile land” for tourism in the capital when there is still a lot of room for development. MICE is a high-quality customer stream with great potential for Hanoi tourism to focus on exploiting in the coming time.

Tourists participating in MICE tourism are typically of a higher class than regular tourist groups. Therefore, the promotion and exploitation of this form of tourism must also change.

Obviously, the demand and potential of MICE tourism is huge, but Hanoi has only exploited a small part of it. I think that businesses need to closely cooperate with each other and with local authorities to promote their strengths from tourism promotion to serving large-scale MICE guests, which requires high professionalism.

Hanoi currently has many 5-star hotels, but the number of rooms and meeting room capacity is still low, and there are not many convention and exhibition centers that can meet the requirements of organizing events for large groups of guests, with a scale of several thousand people. Meanwhile, the human resources serving MICE tourism are still limited in both quantity and quality. The promotion of this type of tourism to the international market is still weak and fragmented.

I think the biggest challenge right now is the lack of staff, even though companies are constantly recruiting new employees. Along with that, the lack of working capital also makes MICE businesses stressed because accommodation facilities, restaurants, and transportation all require advance payment guarantees.

Therefore, if MICE tourism is to truly become a “specialty” of Hanoi tourism, it is necessary to continue investing in infrastructure, implementing synchronous solutions, and having effective coordination between related industries and services. Attracting investment and promoting strongly will help this type of tourism accelerate in the coming time.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chap-canh-cho-du-lich-mice-ha-noi-phat-trien-248228.html