Mixing business with pleasure

Family destinations are opening up to the corporate segment.

The world's top family tourism destinations "" Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Switzerland ""are now exploring the Indian business tourist segment and focusing aggressively on the growing meetings and exhibitions slot from India.

With India's outbound business travel sector growing at 12 per cent per annum, these countries have decided to focus on the Meeting, Incentive, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) segment from the country.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB), for instance, will invest S$170 million in the next five years to attract corporates from selected countries including India. In India, STB has identified key industries, such as bio-medical sciences and pharmaceuticals, media, engineering and automotive industries and banking and finance to start with.

In August, the board embarked on a four-city road show in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore to launch and promote its "Business events in Singapore" scheme. The board plans to introduce new locations to attract the corporates.

Similarly, Malaysia Tourism has lined up an investment of $1-1.5 million to promote the country's business tourism attractions. The board has decided to give preferential airfares, special accommodation and transportation rates and special discounted rates on various convention centres.

Switzerland tourism too plans to invest Rs 11.4 crore in India with a strong focus on the MICE segment. "India is a small player in Switzerland's MICE segment, but it has great potential," said Urs Eberhard, executive vice president markets and MICE, Switzerland Tourism.

According to Malaysian Tourism Department, conference arrivals in the country have seen a double-digit growth of over 28 per cent in 2005.

Last month, Malaysia Tourism announced a visa on arrival scheme for Indians, and with this it expects the MICE segment to grow by another 30 per cent.

The Australian Tourism Board too plans to conduct familiarisation trips for corporates and travel agencies to promote the destination.