WORKING FOR TOURISM. Participants of the training for meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) stakeholders in Eastern Visayas on Dec. 13, 2022 at the Oriental Leyte in Palo town. The Department of Tourism in Eastern Visayas is pushing for the enhancement of the region’s hosting of MICE through the collaboration of all stakeholders. (PNA photo by Sarwell Meniano)
PALO, Leyte – The Department of Tourism (DOT) in Eastern Visayas is pushing for the enhancement of the region’s hosting of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) through the collaboration of all stakeholders.
In a training Tuesday, DOT Eastern Visayas regional director Karina Rosa Tiopes called on MICE stakeholders to stop competing, but instead work together to fill each other’s gap.
“We need to organize our MICE stakeholders, work together, ignite that spark and keep that spark burning. We must show how hospitable we are and stop comparing our services with our competitors,” Tiopes told participants in a gathering at the Oriental Leyte here.
Marisa Nallana, Philippine Exhibition and Trade Corporation president, vowed to provide more training to local stakeholders and link them with international groups on how to organize themselves into an association.
“Organizers have been looking for venues of MICE outside Metro Manila. We have to be organized and prepared since same efforts are needed for big and small events,” Nallana said.
Attending the conference were event organizers, hotel managers, events hosts, photographers, among others. This is the first gathering of MICE stakeholders since 2019, Tiopes said.
She said now is best time for industry to improve since there are national events that will be held in the region next year by the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity, Junior Chamber International Philippines, Lion’s Club, Philippine Red Cross, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Smart Telecommunications and DOT’s Eastern Visayas Travel Fair.
Tiopes said a single MICE event could bring in hundreds of guests to an area to raise the income of several tourism-related business owners.
“Through visitors’ expenditures, it generates income to our tourism businesses like restaurants and other local business. This is the reason why we have been encouraging our three MICE corridors to enhance their hosting facilities to attract more MICE events,” she added.
The three MICE corridors in the region are Tacloban City and the nearby town of Palo, Leyte; Baybay City and Ormoc City in northwestern of Leyte province and Catbalogan City and Calbayog City in Samar. (PNA)
