Ilocos Norte eyes share as MICE destination

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff Reporter

LAOAG CITY—Ilocos Norte continues to attract more tourists each year. This time, tourism officials are grooming the province as a destination for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibition (MICE).

Department of Tourism Region 1 Director Martin Valera in an interview that there is an increasing demand for conferences in recent years and Ilocos Norte along with other neighboring provinces in the region has a great potential for this specialized segment of the tourism market.

“Various regions are becoming competitive and each province has their own convention. For Ilocos, it offers huge potential because of good infrastructure and support facilities so we are good for regional and national conventions,” said Mr. Valera as he underscored there is a need to perfect the hosting of visitors for the first time to have repeat visitors.

To date, the Northern Luzon Convention and Visitors Bureau is taking the lead to promote meetings in the north while local government units are also investing in convention facilities such as the Vigan Convention Center in Ilocos Sur and the Fort Ilocandia and Plaza del Norte Hotel and Convention Center in Ilocos Norte.

At the forum attended by around 50 participants from DOT-accredited accommodation  establishments in the region as well as local government units at the Java Hotel, this city, Mr. Valera hopes the first of a kind MICE forum in the region will inspire tourism stakeholders on the potential of MICE industry and share strategies to make Ilocos region a MICE destination.

According to Charisse Marie Fajardo Lacson, convention services officer of the Tourism Promotions Board and one of the speakers at the forum said hotels need to improve its marketing and promotions to the global market in order to sell the country as a MICE destination.

“Let us assess our resources for MICE and work towards meeting venue standards for the ASEAN market,” said Ms. Lacson as she presented the country’s MICE Roadmap 2030.

Among the key strategies is to provide enabling policies and institutional support, accelerate infrastructure improvements, develop a highly competitive human resource and strengthen research and development.

According to the AMR International’s Globex 2017 Report, the Philippines is the fastest-growing trade fair market in Asia in 2016, where space sold jumped by 9.6 percent and a MICE delegate spends nearly six times more than what an average leisure tourist spends.

For now, Manila, Cebu and Davao are identified as key MICE destinations in the country. 

Ilocos Norte, on the other hand is also on the process of updating its Metro Ilocos Development Plan as it is expected to have its share in the MICE industry in the future.