Coronavirus
confident as an industry.”
Gopinath believed the international
meetings industry had a role in finding
the solution to the outbreak.
“We have further analysed the impact
of meetings and sectors and I am sure this
will be beneficial to our members,” he
added.
ICCA has six members in Wuhan, the
epicentre of virus outbreak and amidst all
the noise on dealing with the global
epidemic we should remember to return
and question the wisdom of allowing wild
animal markets to spread disease on such
a global scale and with such consequences.
capital and 14,000 temporary jobs.
David Audrain, CEO of the Society of
Independent Show Organisers (SISO)
made the point succinctly on social media,
saying: “If an association cancels its event
and the community finds other ways to
replace that economic value, doesn’t the
association risk losing their value to the
community?”
Let us not forget our industry
colleagues in the areas worst affected by
coronavirus, included mainland China,
Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Japan
and, more recently, Korea where MICE
business has been hit badly.
Informa has postponed events in
Thailand, Singapore and China, while
Relx said it had put off nine of the 45
conferences it planned to host in China in
2020.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board
(HKTB) tells CMW: “As MICE
organisers see health safety as their
utmost priority, they have postponed most
of the events that are originally scheduled
before March to a later time this year.
“The HKTB is working tirelessly on a
number of strategic initiatives that will be
rolled out when the situation gets better
to attract MICE events. With the
Government’s additional funding
allocated from the 2020-21 Budget, the
HKTB will strengthen support to the
travel trade and step up promotions to
Hitting ‘cancel’ too soon?
The industry has shown its creativity
amidst the crisis too: GSMA’s decision
taken in the USA to pull #MWC20 in
Barcelona, led to the mobile community
reacting by organising alternative events
within a pop-up ‘Opportunity Week’ and
thus salvaging many deals that would
have been done at the congress.
In that instance there was no medical
advisory to cancel the show. Such
precipitous action to press the ‘cancel’
button could come back to haunt some
organisers if delegates and attendees find
alternative ways to meet and conclude
their business in future.
The decision to cancel MWC put at
risk an €492m of revenue for the Catalan
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ISSUE 105
secure more MICE businesses.” The extra
HK$1bn (USD$130m) funding was
announced on 24 February to subsidise
exhibition and convention organisers and
delegates in the region.
“The HKTB has every confidence that
with the solid foundation of Hong Kong’s
MICE sector, we will be able to revive the
industry with the concerted efforts of the
travel trade and the staunch support of the
government,” a spokesperson told CMW.
Below: Early ICCA
statistics
putting some
perspective into
the coronavirus
debate
Chinese whispers
CMW contacted global PCO and China
Star founder Liu Ping to find out how
agencies were coping on the mainland.
Liu Peng believes the situation is getting
better in China. “The confirmed cases and
fatality rate have been dropping,” she
noted, “and we expect that the point of
inflection will be at the end of this month
and the control of the epidemic situation
will come in April.”
Liu Ping also said that the majority of
event companies in China have asked staff
to work at home and that practically all
MICE business for the first half of the
year had been cancelled or postponed.
“China Star is still busy working for a
couple of association conferences and
corporate events scheduled to take place in
the second half of 2020,” she added,
explaining the company was trying to use
the time for online training and
improving its databases and procedures.
“China Star took lessons from SARS in
2003 and has a strong sense of crisis
management. We have a healthy cash flow
that will help us survive the disaster,” Liu
Ping said. “China Star has not hesitated to
refund its clients and is trying to protect
the interests of the clients. By doing this,
we can earn the trust of the clients who
will come back to us and work with us
whenever China is ready.”
Singapore has been badly hit by the
outbreak with a string of major
international association events and
exhibitions withdrawing from the city.
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) pulled
the plug on its inaugural IBTM Asia
Pacific trade show, which was due to be