Turisme Comunitat Valenciana promotes new MICE tourism initiative for 2022

Tuesday 4th January 2022 – PRESS RELEASE with Mike Smith

Turisme Comunitat Valenciana will continue to promote one of the tourism products with the “best” forecast for 2022, MICE tourism aimed at business trips, conferences and incentives. MICE is the acronym in English used to define such a tourism sector, standing for ‘Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions / Events’.

Thus, during 2022, the regional government plans to carry out a plan to promote the Comunidad Valenciana as a MICE tourism destination, which includes 15 different actions to be developed at national level and in the main European markets.

The aim, according to the regional tourism secretary, Francesc Colomer, is to “promote this product as a sector that has a significant drag effect, both in other products and in many destinations in the Comunidad Valenciana“, adding that the plan would “significantly contribute to the de-seasonalisation [of tourism] and increase in average spending per tourist“, two of the strategic objectives of the region’s tourism policy. He said that the Comunidad Valenciana has “the best equipment for all types of meetings and professional events“.

Colomer also referred to the offer that encompasses this product, “from a balanced network of trade fairs, auditoriums and conference halls, to a wide range of hotels and complementary services, which make it the ideal place to host conferences and national and international fairs“.

He commented on the support for the development of the business tourism plan for this sector, which continues to be “severely affected by the consequences of the pandemic and the characteristics of its activity“.

However, he said that, according to the latest data, the demand for MICE tourism is also recovering relatively quickly. In fact, in the first quarter of 2021, the meeting segment has increased by about 70% year-on-year in the Comunidad Valenciana, although it decreased by 34% compared to 2019.

The pre-pandemic figures place the Comunidad Valenciana as the fourth national destination for congress, fair and convention trips with 1.7 million tourists a year in 2019, a year in which foreign demand was at its peak in this specific sector.

Characteristics of the MICE Tourism Plan

The MICE plan promoted by Turisme Comunitat Valenciana and agreed with the Convention Bureaux and the main associations in the sector, includes a total of 15 promotional actions specifically aimed at MICE and aimed at the national market and the main European markets.

It also includes the creation of a MICE Guide to the Comunidad Valenciana that will collect and present jointly the offer of the sector, as well as the update of the section on the MICE tourism on the website of Tourism in the region.

The plan also includes a series of measures for the promotion of the Comunidad Valenciana as a MICE destination, both with the participation with own spaces in some of the main fairs and events of 2022, but also with the IMEX fairs that are expected to be held in Frankfurt at the end of next April or IBTM WORLD, which will take place in Barcelona next November.

Finally, the plan aims to highlight the upcoming celebration of events such as the Iberian MICE Forum to be held in Benidorm and the meeting with French MICE operators in Valencia which will take place in late spring next year.

With the collaboration with TurEspaña and the various convention bureaux, this roadmap incorporates the realization of familiarization trips of MICE operators from markets such as the Dutch, British or French, as well as the participation in roadshows and meetings with MICE operators in markets such as the German or Italian.