ETW STAFF – Mumbai
With more than 200 leading Indian corporates, travel agencies, wedding planners, film production houses, DMCs, global luxury hotels and tourism boards confirming their attendance to the high level congress, MICE India and Luxury Travel (MILT) congress being held in Mumbai on July 25 and 26, 2013, is all set to reveal the latest trends and strategic insights in the MICE and luxury travel segment in India on.
According to Karthik Ramamurthy, head, AIM (Africa, India, Middle East), IPSOS Business Consulting, “There are not many places on earth where an Indian does not travel. There is a new found enthusiasm amongst Indians in the last decade to explore offshore destinations. This enthusiasm at a consumer level along with the emergence of Indian corporate with transnational operations has gradually spilled over to the MICE market where overseas events are becoming more acceptable. But, very key to growing the market is understanding the drivers and catalysts to motivate the Indian mind. We at Ipsos Business Consulting estimate the current market at around USD 750 mn growing at 15 per cent annually. Our analysis also indicate that one of the key catalysts to emergence of new destinations has been Bollywood. In the short term we anticipate a negative impact of the weakening economy and the Rupee, but given the large headroom of the Indian market, this can made up by innovative marketing and packaging.”
A very substantial part of the business tourism industry in India is composed of MICE activities. Indian corporates have begun to realize the importance of MICE and its impact on Motivating, Informing, Communicating or Educating the internal as well as external stakeholders.
