ILOILO CITY—If you build it, they will come. Since the completion of the Iloilo Convention Center (Icon) in 2015, visitor arrivals in the city have reached 1.24 million in 2018 from just 627,000 in 2013, according to Sen. Franklin Drilon, in a speech on Thursday, as the Department of Tourism (DOT) launched its “Meet You in Iloilo” campaign.
It was Drilon who spearheaded the construction of Icon, which has been the venue of high-profile international events like the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) senior officials’ meetings, the East Asian Seas Congress and World Food Expo, to name a few.
The Meet You in Iloilo campaign, said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, promotes the city as a major destination for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions. “The campaign aims to expand the MICE pie with more tourism players. We are expecting to open more than 2,000 rooms between this year and 2022, adding to the current inventory of 4,000 rooms in the city.”
She added, “MICE impacts more than just venues and convention facilities, but hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and car services. It also bolsters tour guides, production companies, spas and wellness centers, and producers of crafts and souvenirs.”
New convention site
Agnes Pacis, vice president for Sales and Marketing for the SMX Convention Center, told the BusinessMirror the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) will open a new convention facility in Iloilo. While the final design for the facility has yet to be finalized, she said, “It will have over 4,300 square meters of leasable space,” or roughly one-fourth the size of the SMX Convention Center in the Mall of Asia (MOA) complex in Pasay City. It can accommodate some 4,000 people, compared to the Icon, which holds 3,000.
She declined to reveal how much SMHCC will invest in the facility pending finalization of the design, but said they aim to complete it by the second quarter of 2021. For comparison, she said the convention center at the MOA cost some P1.6 billion. SMHCC only recently opened its Park Inn by Radisson Hotel, betting on the boom of MICE events in the city.
Meanwhile, the MICE campaign, said Arturo P. Boncato Jr., DOT undersecretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination, and Resource Generation, will cost an estimated P50 million for 2019-2020 with both the national government, local government of Iloilo City, and the private sector pitching in funds and other resources.
“For our DOT system, from planning to [the] rollout [of] Meet You in Iloilo this year, the DOT is investing P10 million, and at least another P10 million as base amount next year for the rollout of activities such as roadshows, participation in travel marts, hosting, consultancy services, etc. Our initial private-sector partners Ayala, Megaworld and SM will have their own spend to support our ad and promo campaign. Each member of the Iloilo MICE alliance has its own program, too, along with the LGU as well. This brings the total estimated value of this public-private partnership within the vicinity of P50 million for 2019-2020.”
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas announced a P7-million budget this year “to add to the promotions of Iloilo as a MICE destination. And for next year, we have included in the proposed supplemental budget next year, P28.5 million.”
Tourism stakeholders were enthusiastic about the MICE campaign for Iloilo City.
Cesar Cruz, president of the Philippine Tour Operators Association said, “We really need this campaign for MICE as part of the MICE Roadmap. The destination itself is ready; they have the infrastructure, the hotels are ready, things to see and to do for participants of any convention or meeting, and most importantly, the front liners are well prepared now. For example, this launch event has been well organized and can serve as a template on how they can organize conventions, meetings and incentives programs.”
Agnes Gupalor, Cebu Pacific Air’s sales director, Trade Philippines, said “Iloilo serves as our hub in Western Visayas and is integral to serving tourism, investment and trade opportunities in the area. We have been providing low-fare flights to Iloilo for over 20 years, and pioneered international flight connections out of the Iloilo International Airport. Connecting Iloilo to nine key cities in the Philippines and Asia, we remain committed to serve as a vital partner in the economic development of Iloilo and the peripheral areas in Western Visayas.”
Cleofe C. Albiso, general manager for Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo, and representative to the Iloilo MICE Alliance, said the hotels in the city have agreed to a set of incentives and programs to help promote the city as a MICE destination. This includes special accommodation rates, special tours, discounts from major malls and department stores, incentive discounts from participating restaurants, discounts for airfare, to name a few.
Under DOT’s MICE Roadmap 2030, the country targets to increase the gross value added of the MICE industry to P1.4 billion in 2030 from P415.3 million in 2013; raise the GVA of MICE to 0.01 percent of the GDP from 0.04 percent in 2013; improve the delegate expenditure per meeting to 19 percent by 2030, from 5.4 percent in 2016; and hike the MICE revenues to some P25 billion by 2030 from P4.6 billion in 2016.
The tourism industry also aims to increase the total number of usable space for exhibitions to over 170,895 square meter by 2030 from some 71,000 sq m in 2017, and an annual 3-percent rise in MICE arrivals.