PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco has highlighted the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry as a largely untapped opportunity that the Philippines and its integrated resorts should focus on to drive greater business and leisure tourism to the country.
Speaking with Inside Asian Gaming during the G2E trade show in Las Vegas this week, Tengco said the sheer scale of the MICE industry in Las Vegas and the role it has played in the city’s growth over the past two decades should serve as a lesson to the Philippines as it looks to fuel its own industry expansion.
“The clear advantage that I want to see replicated in the Philippines is the MICE segment,” he explained. “The Philippines has got so much to show. Aside from the different tourism spots in the Philippines, what I want the world to experience is the warmth of the Filipino hospitality.
“Can you imagine, even if we are only able to get a portion of that MICE segment into Manila, into Clark, into Cebu? I cannot see any reason why you will not be able to attract the MICE organizers to the Philippines and have events being held in our integrated resorts that have convention facilities.”
Tengco noted that growing the nation’s MICE capabilities should not be limited to the IRs, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr having previously cited the benefits of expanding development of facilities beyond Manila itself.
At the inauguration of the Mactan EXPO Center in Cebu earlier this year, Marcos said the launch had strengthened tourism in Cebu, adding, “We need to build more facilities such as this and strengthen our infrastructure so that we support tourism even more strongly.”
On developing MICE facilities outside of the country’s integrated resorts, Tengco told IAG, “Then you will have basically a joint effort because you have more of these MICE events. You bring more tourists to the Philippines and more tourists would mean more income generated – foreign currency generated income.
“That multiplies because you have so many ancillary businesses. Aside from your gaming convention, you have the hotel industry, you have the restaurant industry.
“So, the government is definitely looking at the possibility of having regional convention centers to support this issue of being able to attract people worldwide in holding the MICE events in Manila or the major cities in the Philippines.”
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