At the recent FHW 2015 Bengaluru, six general managers from leading hotel brands in Bengaluru were part of the GMs Conclave panel discussion on MICE business in this Garden City. They all agreed that the state government’s intervention to build world class facilities and infrastructure support is the need of the hour By Steena Joy
Leading Bengaluru hotels want the state government to build an international convention centre to bring MICE business into the Garden City. This was the common demand of the general managers from six leading Bengaluru hotels who participated in the GM’s Conclave, a panel discussion on the ‘MICE Business in Bengaluru’ at the Food Hospitality World trade show held at the White Orchid Convention Centre which concluded in Bengaluru recently.
J P Menon, VP and general manager, St. Marks Bangalore said, “There is no better city than Bengaluru for MICE. But unfortunately we drove away the MICE market. We need more infrastructure. There is no great convention centre in the city. There are talks of the government building an international style convention centre at Devanhalli. If that happens, it will be a real blessing for Bengaluru.”
Puneet Dhawan, area general manager, Bengaluru and Chennai, Accor India, general manager – ibis and Bengaluru Techpark agreed, “Bengaluru needs an international standard convention centre like the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) which was a game changer for the Hyderabad convention business. As a MICE hub, Hyderabad is huge success. Though Chennai has large meeting facilities, it has no convention centre. The upcoming Jaipur International Convention Centre is double the size of HICC. We will be opening a Novotel there. But I must say that infrastructure wise, Bengaluru is slowly improving. The city already has a world class international airport ranked third after Mumbai and Delhi in India. We would also like to see a world class convention centre here. This will bring back the business.”
Bhaskaran T, general manager, The Lalit Ashok Bangalore added, “A custom built convention centre will definitely bring in international MICE business. The intervention of the state government is needed here. Domestic conventions are different from international ones. The million dollar question as to why an international company would choose Bengaluru over Macau or Bangkok or any other international destination needs to be answered. At the end of the day it is the business and the money. And remember when huge conventions are held, this money goes into the local economy as well.”
Sameer Sud, resident manager, The Leela Palace Bangalore was of the opinion that though Bengaluru lost the opportunity to be seen as a MICE destination, the city can still catch up. “In the earlier years, the business dynamics were very different.The point is, do we really understand what is MICE? The business will definitely get a boost when the planned Food Park and Manyata Park is completed. We do get our piece of the convention business but lots of supply is being built by hotels and this will definitely exert pressure on us. So we will just have to find out how to excite the business by thinking differently.”
Vinesh Gupta, general manager, Movenpick Bangalore, felt that it may be another five to seven years before the city will see any international standard convention centre. Mahesh Pillai , resident manager, The Zuri Whitefield Bangalore, was concerned that though the inventory of convention facilities in hotels was rising, they needed infrastructure to match this supply. He said, “Whitefield which is the hub for the IT business in the city is seeing many companies moving out because of connectivity issues.” Menon informed, “As hoteliers we are eternal optimists. There are talks of GVK building a parallel terminal – an airport in a garden with huge entertainment facilities and carrying capacity of 20 million passengers.”
Discussing the possibility of setting up a consortium of hotels for promoting MICE, Bhaskaran said, “Many attempts have been made with no success. We need something like the Hyderabad Convention Visitors’ Bureau for the MICE business to come in. The market is very resilient. The supply has more than doubled, rates have moved up and occupancies are in the mid-60s. Besides now there are many micro markets and new industries like aerotech and biotech. For hotels weekends are a washout with a dip in occupancies; so conventions can help us tide over the weekends.” Talking about organic or green meetings, Sud said that this concept is already catching up.”This is already a part of the MICE business. Being environment friendly is the way forward.”
Commenting on the next 10 years, Menon said, “Infrastructure efforts are being made. Seven roads in the city have been identified to be remodelled in international style with at least 80 per cent being motorable, well lit, with better signage,etc. We are certainly in for good times.” Dhawan opined that hoteliers should use Make in India products as much as possible. “In the F&B space we are competing with independent restaurants so we don’t want to use stock products; we want individual and unique products.”
Gupta opined, “Almost everything is now available locally. Vendor suppliers do accommodate our requirements but after sales is a challenge. So we believe in vendor partnerships. This is beneficial in the long run. Though Movenpick is an international brand, most of our vendors are local. We do believe in giving the Indian touch unless it is non replaceable like a particular kind of cheese.”
