New Tourism Developments For MICE In Sanya

With the aim of enhancing its appeal to the meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and meetings sector and making Sanya a truly international destination, the government and the travel industry are constantly looking for new ways to promote the region. Two recent developments are the emergence of pleasure boating and the focus on environmental issues.

Pleasure Cruising: A New Departure For Sanya
With the development of high-end tourism, the number of people favoring pleasure cruising is on the increase and pleasure cruising looks set to grow into a pillar industry for Sanya. Sanya has made it clear in its 11th Five-year Plan that the development of private yachts and yacht clubs will be encouraged and efforts will be made to create Sanya into a first class yacht base in China. But what do yacht companies in Sanya think of the role that pleasure cruising plays in the high end MICE market?

Hu Xiaoming, the marketing director of Sanya Visun Royal Yacht Club said during an interview with China Hospitality News that generally speaking, Sanya’s pleasure cruise market is still at its initial period. Hu believed that in the coming three to five years, the pleasure cruise market in Sanya will gradually gain momentum and the market would be further standardized.

According to Hu, the Sanya Visun Royal Yacht Club's main clients are senior managers, VIP clients and individual clients. At present, the Club has not received many high-end meeting clients and the main reason is that there are always more people at a meeting than the cruise boats can accommodate. Even though some cruise vessels can hold more people after being renovated, this is still a superficial change but not a major restructuring, and it's harder to make a renovated vessel meet the demands of high-end clients. Hu stated that it is crucial that pleasure cruising keeps it’s exclusivity and comfort for these clients.

Earlier this year, Sanya Visun Royal Yacht Club began to explore new products. Based on the actual demands of meeting planners and business activities, the Club has launched some packaged services. For example, the Club has provided services to the students of a business school. Considering the great number of the attendees one vessel couldn’t meet their demands, so the Club dispatched four cruise boats together so the students could experience water-based activities such as fishing and diving. Hu said that high end meeting clients can continue to enjoy pleasure cruises life after their meetings. Sanya Visun Royal Yacht Club has launched four pleasure cruises: the Nanshan cruise, exploring the sea bed, the fishing cruise on a luxurious high-speed cruise vessel, and the cruise to the bottom of the sea. The Club’s vessels may operate different schedules or many cruise boats may depart at the same time to meet clients' demands.

Hu said frankly that they launched these products because each cruise boats hold few people, usually about 15 for each trip. So they hope to make up their numbers in meetings by improving other services. In addition, they will fully equip each cabin, with one to two attendants, and provide cold drinks, tea, and fruit on board. If necessary, they will arrange a tour guide for clients. The Club is also planning to provide catering services to private yachts.

Finally Hu said that with the development of the pleasure cruise industry, the number of cruise based meeting products would be increased and cruises would become a brand new itinerary for high end meeting clients.

First Class Ecological Environment Drives Up Sanya's MICE Industry
Beijing GPJ Market Consulting Company is a solely-owned Chinese entity of U.S.-based George P. Johnson and it is mainly engaged in providing marketing strategy consulting and event planning for transnational companies and top local companies.

Asked about GPJ’s thoughts on the current market situation when many companies have chosen to cut their MICE budgets as a result of the global financial crisis, Zhou Lei, deputy general manager of the Meeting Affairs Department of Beijing GPJ Market Consulting Company Greater China, said that as an American company, they have felt since last year — and especially after the Beijing Olympic Games — that some companies have made adjustment to their MICE budgets and many that had planned to hold their events in first tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai have shifted to second and third tier cities. Zhou said that incentive travel plans have been greatly affected by the global economic depression. However, the emergence of new clients has brought about new opportunities. In general, GPJ is fully confident of the Chinese market and hopes that it can realize a win-win for it and its clients.

In Zhou's eyes, Sanya is a perfect destination for incentive travel. Zhou and his team have organized events for many multinational companies including IBM and Cisco in Sanya. Zhou said that Sanya’s advantages as a MICE destination mainly lie first, in its unparalleled climate and natural resources which can compete with those in Thailand and Hawaii; second, its rich tourism resources, including various land and ocean scenic spots and facilities, as well as its golf venues; third, its perfect services. As far as Zhou is concerned, out of a total of a hundred prestigious international hotel management companies 19 have entered Sanya, bringing along with them about 31 brands which are spread out in the Yalong Bay, Sanya Bay, Da Dong Hai and Haitang Bay areas, and many other brands are still coming in Sanya and Shimei Bay. All this has provided a broad range of options for MICE planners. In adition, Sanya has many professional travel agencies that are able to meet the market demand. What’s worth mentioning is that with the increasing scale of the MICE market in Sanya in the past five years, Sanya — and Hainan province — have seen the appearance of many a professional MICE companies offering dedicated service and resource.

Hotels in Sanya have offered great options for MICE planners. Based on clients' demands, GPJ has cooperated with many hotels in Sanya, including Mangrove Tree Resort Sanya, Resort Horizon Hotel Sanya, Sanya Marriott Resort and Spa, Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa, Crowne Plaza Sanya, Sheraton Sanya Resort, Holiday Inn Sanya and Kempinski Resort & Spa Sanya. Zhou believes that the overall hotel market in Sanya is mature with a great number of hotels and brands available; however, he said that when there are more five-star hotels, there will be fierce competition. In terms of location, facilities and services, hotels at Yalong Bay, are the best of them all, but of course, they are the most expensive ones.

As the MICE market diversifies and clients' demands increase, Zhou Lei has four suggestions for the hospitality industry in Sanya: first, he hopes that the industry can improve and become standardized as a whole to meet the market demand; second, he suggests that the overall quality and awareness of the hospitality industry employees in serving the clients needs to be improved; third, he wants the hotelsto provide value-added service and personalized service, e.g. some hotels have prepared tool kits for MICE planners and this showcases their professionalism; fourth, he says that hotels should enhance communication with MICE partners to understand the changes and demands of the market and make Sanya a real valuable choice in China.

An excellent ecological environment is an important premise for the development of MICE in Sanya. At present, the prosperity and development of MICE not only brings in tourists, but also adds great value for the consumption and tourism markets. Statistics show that MICE coefficient of promotion to economy is 1:8. The factor eight includes transportation, accommodation, food, shopping, entertainment, and travel, most of which belong to the tourism industry. Quite a significant proportion of "MICE consumption" and "tourism consumption" intersect. And this means that when there is an increase in MICE, there will surely be a growth in tourism.

Based on his experience in organizing events in Sanya and the comparison of Sanya with other first tier cities in China, Zhou thought that Sanya's MICE market has three features. First, MICE is one of the most important means to bring Sanya’s tourism resource into full play and it plays an important role in integrating the city's tourism resources. From the nature of MICE and tourism, both MICE and tourism cover a lot of fields and it is easy for them to generate synergy. Enlarging on the opening-up of Sanya's MICE industry and promoting its development is a good way to encourage the construction of the city's tourism infrastructure, e.g. the construction of hotels, the renovation of scenic spots, the building of city roads and improving of the city appearence, to meet the demand of large and higher end meetings. Meanwhile, it is conducive to the improvement of tourism agents and consulting organizations and facilitating the establishment of MICE-focused travel agencies.

Second, as an important way of helping to boost Sanya's international image, the non-economic effects MICE brings are usually even greater than the economic ones. International conferences and meetings are most efficient advertisements and they can effectively upgrade a hosting city’s popularity and overall image. Just as Hainan which became world famous for the annual Bo'ao Asia Forum, so Sanya’s image and reputation has been raised as a result of the Miss World Competition and its tourism has also seen a rapid growth.

Third, MICE can help promote tourism consumption. Of course, economic reward is just one of the things that MICE can bring. If Sanya wants to set up a long term MICE platform, it needs to improve and regulate its support for the relevant industries and resources, for example, the improvement of the overall quality of the service staff, the planning of the city environment and the affiliated facilities. All this needs a joint effort from all parties involved ranging from the government to ordinary citizens. When this is done, Sanya's MICE market will see a prosperous future.

Sanya Is The Premier Choice For MICE Planners
Zhao Yan, project director of Sanya Boying Business Exhibition Company, a local DMC in Sanya, introduced Sanya’s advantages as a MICE destination to China Hospitality News. Zhao said that Sanya features convenient transportation and has advanced meeting facilities, a whole range of product options and rich natural resource such as white beaches, warm sunshine, and fresh air to attract a great number of tourists. What’s more, Sanya has a great variety of hotels to choose from. Take Yalong Bay for example, over a dozen international five-star hotels are gathered there while hotels at Sanya Bay and Da Dong Hai Bay are more cost-effective. Third, more and more personalized services are available to make Sanya a destination for returning customers. Fourth, MICE service providers can combine client’s events with Sanya's natural resource such as beaches, ocean, primary forest and tropical forest as well the local resources of human interest such as the Local Style Village, the Miss World site, bar street, and yacht clubs.

Currently, there are a wide variety of international hotel brands in Sanya, including Marriot, Starwood, InterContinental, and Accor and these brands have provided strong backup to Sanya's MICE industry. While they are there to attract high end MICE clients for Sanya. Zhao and her team have organized an annual business meeting at Crown Plaza Sanya for Dognfeng Yulong Automobile Selling Company featuring 650 attendees and it was a great success. Zhao said that Sheraton Sanya Resort, Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa, The Ritz-Carlton Sanya, Sanya Marriott Resort & Spa, Crown Plaza Sanya, Holiday Inn Sanya, and Kempinski Resort & Spa Sanya are all their partners.

Because of the global financial crisis, many companies, including some international Top 500 companies, have reduced the number of meetings scheduled in Sanya. However, Zhao believes that Sanya's MICE business is still at an initial stage, with the improvement of various parts of the infrastructure and the affiliated facilities and the increase of the city’s popularity in the international community, Sanya will definitely become a premier choice for MICE planners.

Sanya Impresses Meeting Participants
According to the senior procurement specialist of the company, Shen Yuhan Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd holds a number of meetings and events each year including internal training, incentive meetings, academic lectures, and academic seminars. This year, though the company has cut down the budget for each meeting, yet the destinations have not been changed.

Shen was of the opinion that Xian-Janssen would hold meetings in Sanya every year. For medium sized meetings, there would usually be 100 to 150 participants; while for small meetings, there would be 30 to 50 participants. Hotels the company has regularly chosen include Hilton Sanya Resort and Spa, Yalong Bay Mangrove Tree Resort, and Crowne Plaza Sanya. The city has so many hotels with good facilities and acceptable services. Sanya's pleasant weather and fine ecology have greatly impressed all the meeting participants.

Hotels meeting facilities and services are quite good, according to Shen Yuhan. Along with the full-scale development of Sanya, Kempinski Hotel Sanya and other hotels in Sanya Bay will also be good choices for MICE organizers looking for price advantages.

Unexpected Surprises Brought By Sanya's Sunshine And Sea
Ni Hui, the general manager of M.I.C.E. Department, China Travel Service Head Office Co., Ltd, told China Hospitality News that the year 2009 is quite critical for the industry. Though many of its clients have moved their meetings or incentive travel destinations from abroad to China, yet there are still some that have canceled their plan for traveling overseas due to the limited conditions of MICE destinations. Meanwhile, the budgets of most clients are lower than before. The MICE market has seen a steady trend with small changes. But, in Ni's opinion, MICE will prosper again by next year.

From the perspective of a professional in tourism, Sanya is now a mature MICE destination, Ni Hui said. Its unique climate and natural beauty have attracted people who want to enjoy the sun and the sea. The newly developed Sanya Bay has also impressed guests a lot for its quietness and peace. And world famous hotels are entering Sanya one after another, which has developed the natural resources. In addition, MICE events are becoming more diversified here and offer much more than just sightseeing. Outward Bound in certain areas and touring around Yalong Bay on a small cruise are all good choices.

The beach at Sanya can inspire MICE organizers with brilliant ideas. The diversity of various beaches has greatly enriched the MICE activities. Ni Hui and his group have held BBQ banquets and outward bound events on the beach. Taking the advantage of the beach and sea, they have organized interesting and challenging games for guests. For example, they have planned a game for a pharmaceutical company after the company's meetings. Guests were divided into several teams to make bamboo rafts. The team that reaches the destination first with the raft they make would win the game. It is actually an common outward bound exercise, yet together with the sunshine and the water of Sanya, it gave the guests a lot of fun.

CTS International Convention and Exhibition Co., Ltd has planned MICE events for enterprises in the pharmaceutical, finance, insurance, automobile and IT sectors in Sanya and has cooperated with most hotels in Sanya. Ni Hui said hotels' hardware and software facilities are equally important. For MICE events, hotels should be able to meet the demand of a large team in terms of rooms, meeting venues, the number of sub-venue, the number of people the dining room can accommodate and emergency measures. Service for large teams is the second item to be considered. Problems of taking elevators, holding meetings and catering for many people at the same time should be all included in the plan organizers have made through coordination with hotel.