Mice tourism remains a disappointment for Indonesia

JAKARTA – The Jakarta Post, Indonesia largest English daily, recently blowed the whistle: MICE travel in Indonesia remains extremely low and barely grew over the last years despite the fact that foreign tourist arrivals enjoyed healthy growth rates. The Jakarta Post asked the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy about the factors behind the failure. The explanation is simple for Martini Paham, deputy Director for MICE at the Ministry. Talking to the newspaper, she blamed the lack of infrastructure and facilities. But also what should be blamed –but not mentioned in the article- is the fact that Indonesia still does not have a dedicated Convention and Visitors Bureau despite long due promises from the authorities to tackle the issue.  So far, the only city with a proper convention bureau is Jakarta while Bali has been promised for a couple of years to also set up a similar structure. The trade is still waiting for it after two years…
 

Results about the lack of recognition by officials of the importance of MICE are reflected in appalling MICE numbers. According to Paham, only 3% of the 8.8 million travellers came for MICE, roughly 170,000 visitors. “We aim to triple the number of MICE visitors by 2019 […] on the back of the government’s strong commitment to develop the industry,” Martini explained then to The Jakarta Post during a conference looking at the National Mid Term Development Plan (RPJMN) for 2015-2019.
 

Of course, Indonesia will need to seriously improve infrastructure standards to be able to host prestigious or large MICE events. So far, only Jakarta, Bali and probably Yogyakarta are capable to host large meetings. Most of the other cities can only accommodate medium size events. The problem is also the lack of infrastructure to reach rapidly areas. The network of highways still need improvement while many airports suffer of undercapacity, which translates into difficulties for airlines to propose new flights. 
 

Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu from the outgoing administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, previously designated 16 cities as MICE destinations. They include Bandung in West Java; Jakarta; Surabaya in East Java and Yogyakarta; Batam in the Riau Islands and Medan in North Sumatra; Denpasar in Bali and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara; Makassar in South Sulawesi and Manado, North Sulawesi. “MICE sector has the potential to grow, which is in line with economic growth and the public’s increased income,” declared in the past the Minister. However only 10% of all convention facilities in the country can accommodate 3,000 delegates or more… 
 

Some cities look now at improving their facilities. In Surabaya, the Gramedia Expo has been renamed Dyandra Convention Center Surabaya. Although the name is not that attractive for international MICE organizers, the rebranded facility is now looking at attracting more international events with its pillar-free ballroom able to cater for up to 5,000 guests. In Bandung, Accor Pullman brand is associated to an Indonesia real estate developer to operate a five star property integrated to the future West Java Convention Centre. The project due for 2014 is likely to be operational in 2015. In Makassar, the Celebes Convention Center was opened to the public a couple of years ago. 
 

Jakarta is now developing what will be the largest MICE facility in town. Next to the Jakarta Convention Center and JIEXPO in Kemayoran, the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) Center, in South Tangerang will be completed in 2015 and offer 50,000 m2 of hall spaces and a convention centre of 4,000 m2. Additionally another 50,000 m2 of open space will also be available. 
 

What is now missing is a proper independent structure targeting the MICE industry. Urgently, the Ministry of Tourism should look to create an agency in charge of promoting effectively MICE to Indonesia and provide a proper budget –including an envelop for financial incentives encouraging the hosting of events. This might be the task of the next administration of the newly elected Indonesian President Joko Widodo.