MICE Tourism - The New Era in Corporate Travel

1. International Travel House MICE Tourism - The New Era in Corporate Travel Today tourism has entered a new era with many changes taking place. Let us understand the meaning of tourism as it stands today. MICE solutions, wherein M stands for meetings, I for incentives, C for conferences and E for exhibitions, is a niche market which specializes in certain specific travel needs of group tourism. It is that vertical of the travel industry which has a huge potential to grow and provide travel companies with a strong bottom line. Components of MICE travel A thorough understanding of MICE travel is insufficient without understanding the 4 words which make up the acronym. While all the 4 terms are everyday terms, the meaning of which are well known, its relevance to the tourism industry is what defines the very foundation of MICE business. Thus it is very important to understand the meaning of these terms and the nuances that they carry with regards to the tourism industry. The 4 words which make up MICE thus are: Meetings: It refers to a collection of people who have come together for a common formal cause or purpose. Meetings can either be one-time events or something which keeps occurring at regular intervals. For the industry meetings generally consist of people from the same company, however, board meetings do comprise of people coming from different companies or walks of life. In fact meeting travel management is a separate vertical of the travel industry which caters only to the corporate need of organizing meetings. Conferences: While this is fundamentally similar to a meeting, functionally it is quite different. The Dictionary describes conferences as a formal meeting mostly of people with shared interests which takes place over a period of a few days. Thus for the travel industry this attains great importance since corporates avail of both international and domestic locations for the organization of the same. Incentives: Typically referring to motivational rewards or recognition for achieving success in the different fields of corporate management, the incentive travel has added a whole new dimension to corporate travel. Generally awarded to channel partners or even to employees this type of travel is generally without any educational or business component. This type of travel leans more towards the Customized Holiday Packages available with the travel companies. Corporate Office International Travel House Limited 1st Floor, 101, JMD Pacific Square, Sector 15, Part II, Gurugram, Haryana - 122 001 Tel : 0124 - 4786300 Customer Contact Centre: 1860 500 4545

2. International Travel House Exhibitions: A very public display of products as well as services, exhibitions are generally held to showcase things related to the corporate or the industry. Many different companies from the same industry participate in this and thus its organization is, by itself, a very grand affair. Thus only the best travel management companies with a vast experience of organizing large events are capable of handling something of this grandeur. The planning process For the organization of any event or travel or any other form of group travel, there needs to be immense co-ordination and synchronization between the different verticals. Thus the first stage of MICE planning process deals with:  Devising a concept, theme, format or strategy for the event or travel,  Checking on the practical feasibility and applicability of the same,  Venues and locations need to be finalized, accommodations checked, dates reserved and bargain deals sealed,  Travel and hotel accommodation prices and availability too need to be checked,  The timeline for the event needs to be fixed and catering and entertainment programmes need to be arranged etc. Once the planning is almost done, the budget needs to be finalized and then a presentation made communicating the same in the form of customized international or domestic travel packages. Once the same has been approved and the corporate gives the go ahead, the execution of the MICR project begins. This is followed up by setting up of a team to control and monitor the whole event which has been organized so that it can be pulled off without a hitch. Corporate Office International Travel House Limited 1st Floor, 101, JMD Pacific Square, Sector 15, Part II, Gurugram, Haryana - 122 001 Tel : 0124 - 4786300 Customer Contact Centre: 1860 500 4545