FEATURE
MICE MARKET
MICE market potential for more ?
Despite Britain being one of the top five economies and a centre for world commerce , the UK hospitality sector ’ s MICE business is seen to be lacking when compared to other european countries . LEWIS CATCHPOLE explores why this is the case and what can be done for the market to reach its potential
As one of the leading financial capitals in the world , the UK is very much a destination to do business . In fact , in 2017 Forbes listed the UK as the single best place in the world , and Eventbrite has estimated the current contribution of corporate conferencing , meetings and events to be worth £ 54.8bn to UK GDP .
But in terms of that correlating towards MICE ( meetings , incentives , conferencing , exhibitions ) business for the UK hospitality industry , we are lacking behind our European counterparts .
Event organising tech firm Cvent recently announced the results of its ‘ Top 50 Meeting Hotels in Europe ’, a list which featured only two UK hotels in the top 10 ( Hilton London Metropole and Hilton London Paddington ). Germany and Spain were the top destinations for MICE business with the largest selection of hotels on the list .
“ We [ The UK ] don ’ t have the same square footage in meeting space as other countries ,” says Jason Carruthers , managing director of the hospitality group Jurys Inn . “ We would be the third of the size of Germany relative to the meeting space available in the UK but we are the fifth largest economy in the world . It is disproportionate and that to me is the crux of the issue .”
Jurys Inn has invested heavily into the MICE market offering by integrating specialised meetings and events properties into its network . “ We added nine hotels into
Jason Carruthers
Jury ’ s Inn ’ s portfolio in 2015 ,” Carruthers says , “ and invested £ 75m into those properties in addition to some refurbishment of the existing estate .” He says the nine hotels are “ very meeting and events orientated in terms of the mix of the business that they enjoy ”, and as a consequence , the group has increased its meetings and events space available to use by 61 %.
So for a segment of the hospitality industry thought to be worth £ 18bn worth of revenue annually , why are we falling behind ?
LAGGING BEHIND EUROPE ? Carruthers explains that one of the main reasons for the UK ’ s trailing position in a wider European context is a lack of convention centre capacity . “ Other European capitals such as Barcelona ,
Amsterdam and Vienna ,” he says , “ all offer a wide range of large convention centres , making it difficult for the UK to truly compete due to its current limitation of conferencing and meeting venues .
“ Many of the M & E players on the continent have taken the needs of conferencing planners to heart , covering their basic requirements of capacity , access , infrastructure and security , whilst offering good value and wider appeal such as good weather , attractive locations and high quality continental hotels .”
He goes on to continue to explain that it is down to the hoteliers themselves to try and force some change to the current state of the market , and hints that it ought to be part of the mission of the various trade bodies to apply pressure to government both centrally and at the local level , to reverse the trend and increase conferencing ‘ stock ’. “ This is both at a hotel level and city congress as well . It is a challenge for us as an industry - what works really well at local level is if there is an active hoteliers association and an active marketing bureau in the city along with venues that campaign for more MICE business together . There are a few of those examples across the country so I am not suggesting that it doesn ’ t work now but we just don ’ t have the volume in comparison .”
To ease the burden on the most popular hubs , Carruthers thinks improvements to the relationship between business activity
22 www . hotelowner . co . uk August 2018