Is it time for the MICE industry to ‘move with the cheese’?

The meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) industry has not been spared the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic where both the supply (event organisers and exhibitors) and demand (corporate attendees and tourists) have literally evaporated. Borrowing on Spencer Johnson’s best-selling change management fable, it is time for the MICE industry to ‘move with the cheese’.

According to GlobalData, MICE tourism may never recover completely and will be the last to fully recover as many conferences and meetings are taking place online and as businesses seek to reduce costs in these difficult economic times. Furthermore, business travel has been made more challenging due to travel restrictions, pre- and post-travel COVID testing requirements, and quarantine measures imposed by countries.

As more and more travellers realise the convenience, value, and safety of conducting meetings and conferences virtually in the comfort of their homes and offices, the demand to physically attend may be further dampened. Video conferencing and live streaming platforms coupled with augmented and virtual reality technologies are enabling MICE participants to have the immersive and interactive experiences remotely.

However, there may be some upside after the pandemic as participants are motivated by the benefits of learning and experiencing products, technologies and solutions on display, as well as personally engage and negotiate with exhibitors and vendors.

According to Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the MICE industry which contributed nearly 1 percent of Singapore’s GDP in 2019 supporting more than 34,000 jobs with an economic value-add of $3.8 billion, is among the most affected tourism sectors. It also highlighted that MICE business travellers spent close to double that of leisure travellers.

Recently, Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre (Suntec Singapore) announced that it retrenched almost half of its staff in various functions – sales and events, human resources, finance and food production – due to the pandemic-led decimation of the MICE industry.

If the threat of Covid-19 lingers, the MICE industry’s prospects both globally and locally look bleak for the next few years. Singapore, which positions itself as a leading MICE hub is especially vulnerable due to its dependence on overseas business travellers and the high operational costs of hosting these events. This despite its state-of-the-art infrastructure in terms of large meeting facilities, hotels and digital booking platforms, established tourist attractions, and a vibrant F&B, cultural and entertainment scene.

However, the future of the MICE industry may be hybrid and there are some mitigating factors to ensure its long-term sustainability such as government support and incentives, safety management measures, health insurance, travel bubbles and technology.

Mitigating Factors

The Singapore government has recognised the strategic importance of the MICE sector and is helping to maintain Singapore’s leading status as a hub, retain critical capabilities, safeguard jobs, and create multiplier benefits for the economy. To this extent, STB recently announced that it is allowing exhibitions and conferences with up to 250 attendees to return to Singapore from October. This after a successful pilot in August for an event with up to 50 participants.

Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing recently announced that Singapore is also learning from the experience of other countries and working with overseas partners and event organisers to scale up MICE events in a safe and sustainable manner.

Recent industry surveys indicate that people are still afraid to attend MICE events due to the risk of contracting COVID-19, and the personal and business disruption it creates. The pandemic has fundamentally changed how the industry works and there is an urgent need to design and implement stringent end-to-end safe management measures and hygiene protocols.

Singapore could also take a leaf from Dubai, United Arab Emirates which in July announced that it was opening its economy to tourism including MICE visitors. Working closely with its airline Emirates and the immigration services, it will offer end-to-end safety management measures including free Covid-19 testing to every visitor who does not have a recent negative test result. However, travellers will need to have health insurance and will risk bearing the costs of quarantine if they test positive upon arrival.

Even as travel bubbles with countries such China, Malaysia, Japan, and New Zealand permit business travel, the MICE industry has to embrace hybrid events as the new reality to ensure long-term sustainability.

In preparation for the new normal, STB has recommended that the industry move away from touch screens and adopt more face and voice recognition interfaces that enable contactless interaction with the participants; leverage on augmented and virtual reality solutions supported by artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver personalised and rich content on-demand; and IoT cloud platforms that enable the capture, tracking and analysis of visitor data in real time.

The pandemic notwithstanding, the MICE industry also needs to build immunity to disruptions brought about by technology, geopolitics, and climate change. As such, the need for digital transformation has never been more urgent for MICE players and its eco-system.

While we remain cautiously optimistic, the MICE players need to start experimenting and futureproofing through hybridisation and digitalisation. This can reap the benefits of costs, productivity, security, scalability, transparency, and personalisation. For the MICE players, the cheese has moved, and the pandemic has merely exacerbated it!