City Tourism Operations Office head Generose Tecson announced that the city government of Davao will be coming up with the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) Ordinance to strengthen its positioning as a major hub for MICE destination in the Philippines.
Part of the goal of the ordinance is to create a Davao City MICE Bureau that will do the selling, promoting, and data analytics for Davao City.
“Magko-concentrate lang siya doon sa MICE such as data analytics, sales, how to sell Davao as MICE destination and promotion ang kanilang trabaho,” she said.
Recently, the University of Santo Tomas College of Tourism and Hospitality Management turned over the Davao City MICE Strategic Management Plan to the city.
“Plinano naming ito because we needed a direction for our MICE programs. Our consultants were from the University of Sto. Tomas College of Tourism and Hospitality Management. We did this for six months with our private sector. Right now, meron na tayo nun and with the help of Vice Mayor Baste Duterte and Councilor Myrna Ortiz,” Tecson said.
Meanwhile, Tecson said Davao City is now gearing toward hosting more conventions and one of them is the most anticipated MICE Convention (MICECon) 2022 slated in November this year.
MICECon is the biggest and most highly anticipated gathering of professionals in the fields of travel, tourism, and MICE practitioners in the Philippines.
“We are really gearing towards more conventions here in Davao City kasi yun ang staple ng ating tourism, right now it’s to promote MICE in Davao City and we are going to finally host MICECon 2022 in November and hopefully launch our MICE program already para tuloy na tuloy na ang ating mga programs,” she said.
It can be recalled that Davao City bid in 2019 and won to host MICECon 2020, however, it was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic.
“Ngayon, we are going to go through with it and we are hoping to have 500 participants both buyers and yung mga gustong mag-observe,” she said.
Tecson said the hosting of MICECon 2022 aims to show how prepared Davao City is in conducting MICE events, not just face-to-face but also hybrid.
“When it comes to MICE, Davao City is very much prepared. Meron tayong mga protocols regarding MICE events which we follow and most of our venues and event organizers they already know what to do,” she said.
She also said that there will be also a women’s international convention that will happen in Davao City in June this year that will be participated by 150 delegates.
