The Mice Stuff

With India being ranked as one of the fastest growing outbound business travel market globally, it is unsurprising that Stephanie Tanpure, VP, sales at Sands China, is keen to get more luxury and MICE tourists to frequent her company’s multi-use integrated resorts

- Vinita Bhatia

Hoteliers globally have discovered a segment that is fast emerging as their favourite one – MICE tourism. An acronym for meetings, incentives, conferences, and events, this is one domain where hospitality companies are seeing a significant amount of business coming from; and this applies to India too.

According to figures published ahead of the 5th Annual MICE India and Luxury Travel Congress (MILT), India is estimated to generate 6.5 million outbound luxury and MICE tourists annually by 2020, reinforcing the country’s influence as a key source market for MICE and luxury travel. Stephanie Tanpure, VP, sales at Sands China Ltd, informed that last year, India was ranked as one of the fastest growing outbound business travel markets in the world. According to her, not only is this market growing in volume and value, but following the introduction of more direct flights to key cities across the world, Indian travellers are now venturing further than ever before. She shared more details on how her company is hoping to increase its Indian customer market share by 20% in the coming year.

What kind of scope do you see for MICE business from India to Macao?

India is estimated to generate 6.5 million outbound luxury and MICE tourists annually by 2020, reinforcing the country’s influence as a key source market for MICE travel. These figures were published ahead of the 5th Annual MICE India and Luxury Travel Congress (MILT) where Sands Resorts Macao was the Platinum Sponsor for this year’s event that was hosted in Mumbai. Given this level of growth and opportunity, the current scenario presents an even more exciting horizon for the Indian MICE into Macao than ever before.