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Anjali Prayag

BANGALORE, May 30

SITA World Travel (Incoming Services) is looking at a sales turnover of Rs 35 crore this year from its MICE division. Worldover, the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) industry is estimated to be in the range of $300 billion and India is just about realising the potential of this market.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Ayappa Somaiah, Branch Manager, Sita World Travel (Incoming Services), Bangalore, said, "We have always had a conference division but now we have consolidated various businesses into one strategic business unit."

Explaining Sita's role in the MICE sector, he said it helped the organisers in bidding for conferences, identify venues, tying up with airlines and hotels, designing tour packages, etc. "Though the volume may not be very high in the MICE category, the value is quite high because of international travellers," he said.

Talking of favourite destinations for meetings, he said Delhi and Mumbai still top the list in the country and added that Kochi was also picking up. "It's the infrastructure that decides the venue. Bangalore sadly lacks the facilities for international conventions."

Sita has also replaced the words "conferences and exhibitions' with charters and eco-tourism because these concepts are gaining popularity in the country, he said.

In the incentives category, North Indian destinations are preferred over those in the South. The reason is better awareness of the concepts, according to him. Explaining that hotels and travel agents in the North are responsive to the fact that incentives packages have to be `special' because they are a kind of reward for performance. "In the South, people in the industry are yet to realise this," he felt.

Among India's competitors in the South Asian region for the MICE pie are Lanka, Thailand and Singapore. He said Sri Lanka is getting aggressive in its tourism initiatives, MICE included.

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