Ningbo: Competitive Industries Foundation For Branded MICE Travel

Ningbo's meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions industry saw a resurgence during the 65th China Automobile Parts Fair in April 2009 that swept away the shadow of the financial crisis and brought exciting news to the industry. With more than 1,800 exhibitors, over 2,100 exhibition booths and over 50,000 clients, the event was a great success in Ningbo.

Reports state that Ningbo's budget hotels and many star-rated hotels were fully booked during the exhibition. It is learned that the three-day exhibition was attended by more than 20,000 people who came to Ningbo especially for the event, and this did not include the professional audience and buyers. During the event, most of the hotels in Jiangdong District achieved 100% room occupancy. Hotels such as Super 8 and Home Inn, that are near the Stadium and the Convention and Exhibition Center all said that "no rooms are available for the coming three days" when they received a booking request. As well as budget hotel,s five-star hotels in the city also saw an increase in their room occupancy. Of these, the New Century Hotel in Ningbo had more than 100 out of a total of 378 rooms booked by exhibiters. Howard Johnson Plaza Ningbo's rooms were fully booked. The booming business for the hotels was in a sharp contrast with the economic downturn in the preceding days.

During the exhibition, Ningbo International Conference & Exhibition Center issued 1,200 travel coupons to exhibitors in the hope that they would tour and consume in Ningbo following the event. The venue wanted to maximize the benefit the exhibition brought to the city.

When recalling the development of Ningbo's exhibition industry, it is not difficult to see that the development of Ningbo's famous exhibitions and the creation of aMICE brand have all been closely related to Ningbo's industrial advantages.

Regional Advantages
Ningbo is an important economic center on the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta region. It is also an important industrial city in the East China region and the economic center of Zhejiang province. Ningbo is culturally and economically linked to its neighbor Shanghai. With the completion of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, travel between Ningbo and Shanghai has been shortened to 160 kilometers and it is possible to get to Shanghai from Ningbo within two hours. This has also given Ningbo more advantages and better links to Shanghai, and has brought a brighter perspective for it to be integrated into the Yangtze River Delta region.

Aviation Advantages
Ningbo Lishe International Airport not only has flights to major cities in China, but also to many overseas destinations. In August 2009, Ningbo became one of the first hubs to run direct flights to Taiwan. Currently there are weekly flights between Ningbo and Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

Industry Advantage
Ningbo has five major port-related industries: chemicals, iron and steel, energy, paper-making, and ship building and repair. In addition, it has its own traditional industries such as textiles and apparel, equipment manufacturing, electronics and IT, precision chemicals and biomedicine, and stationery. These well-established industries have provided a strong foundation for the development of Ningbo's MICE industry.

Since the late 1990's, Ningbo has been organizing and developing two major exhibitions: Ningbo International Fashion Festival, and Zhejiang Investment & Trade Symposium and China International Consumer Goods Fair with apparel as a key theme. The scale and influence of these two exhibitions is still increasing today. Following this, Ningbo has brought other key industries into full play and has held successive exhibitions such as: the Residential Building Exposition, the Culture Exposition, the Home Exposition, the Plastics Exposition, and the Medical Instrument Exhibition. These exhibitions have won Ningbo the titles of "a famous city of apparel", "the capital of China's stationery", "the capital of China's modules" and "the capital of China's famous brands".

Tourism Resources
It is necessary to exploit the local tourism resources to expand on the consumption related to exhibitions. Ningbo features rich tourism resources and a unique history and folk art, which can be used as a complimentary tourism item or combined with incentive travel by using the local venues and integrating Ningbo's diversified culture.

Fenghua Xikou, a major tourist destination in downtown Ningbo, is also a key national tourism zone. Based on the birthplace of Chiang Kai-shek, the former Kuomintang president, the tourism zone is most famous for Xuedou Hill and Xuedou Temple. F it features the former residence of Chiang Kai-shek and ancient township culture, including Wuling Gate, Wuling School, Wenchang Ge (Kui Ge Ling Xiao), The Small House, Chaing's former residence (Feng Gao Room), The Yutai Salt Shop, Maha Temple, The Tomb of Chiang's Mother, Yushu Ting, Jinjing Lake, Qianzhangya Waterfall, Miaogao Terrace, Qianzhangyan, The Xuedou Temple, Jiangjunnan, the original Zhonglvshe, Sanyin Lake, Xufuyan, Tingxia Lake and may other attractions.

In addition, Ningbo has abundant natural and historical tourism resource such as the Jiufeng Mountain in Beilun District, the Five-dragon Lake in Qinzhou District, Yehe Marsh Scenic Spot, Lianzhu Culture Park, Ningbo Tengtou Ecotourism Demonstration Zone, Jiulonghu Lake Scenic Area, Songlanshan coastal tourism resort, Lake Dongqianhu scenic area, Shipu Yugang Ancient Town, Tianyi Ge, Songlanshan, Baoguo Temple, Hemudu Relic Museum, Xuedoushan, Beilun Fenghuanshan Themed Park, Tiantong Temple, Tianhe River, Lake Dongqian, Asoka Temple, Moon Lake, Fenggao Room, Qiazhangyan Waterfall, Tashanyan, Miaogaotai, Five-dragon Lake, Nanxi Hot spring, Zhedong Volley, Ningbo Ocean World, Tomb of Chiang's Mother, Liangzhu Culture Park, Song Imperial Beach, Qiantong Ancient Town, Shanglin Lake Yueyao Relic, the Qin Temple, and the Drum Tower.

Hotels Provide Strong Foundation For MICE Development
In recent years, international hotels have entered into Ningbo one after another. InterContinental, Marriot, Starwood, Hyatt, Carlson, Landison, Shangri-la, and Wyndham Hotel Group have all opened their hotel brands in Ningbo. With the entry of these international brands, the competition between foreign and domestic hotels has become fierce while the internationalization of Ningbo's hospitality industry is advanced to a higher level and the city's hardware and software advantages in receiving MICE clients have become prominent.

Take Shangri-La Hotel Ningbo as an example. The hotel has a ballroom and meeting facility of more than 5000 square meters including a pillarless ballroom of 2,000 square meters (excluding the 800 square meter front banqueting hall), a 500 square meter meeting room, and a special VIP room as well as 11 multifunctional rooms. All the ballrooms and meeting rooms are equipped with advanced audio-visual facilities. In addition, the hotel offers 563 rooms and suites which offer a great view of the Sanjiangkou and are extremely suitable for group clients. In addition, the hotel has a professional meeting planning team to ensure the smooth operation of various events for clients.

In just one month after its opening, Shangri-La Hotel Ningbo held a sales tour exhibition, which was the largest of its kind in the China region and was participated in by more than 40 hotels under the Shangri-La group together with local governments, enterprises, and travel companies. The hotel also provided servicse to the Ningbo Tourism Festival, one of the major events in Ningbo, and attracted officials from the China National Tourism Administration, Ningbo local government, and representatives of the related tourism industries. Apart from providing accommodation, the hotel also held an opening banquet for the attendees of this high profile event. In addition, Rong'an Real Estate celebrated their listing at the hotel and participants at the celebration included local officials as well as representatives from the real estate and finance industries. In addition the new generation Odyssey auto was also released at the hotel.

Boon Kwee Lim, the general manager of Shangri-la Hotel Ningbo told China Hospitality News that the hotel's main clients are corporate clients, large groups, and meeting clients. Lim said that MICE clients contribute about 20% of the total income of the hotel.

Boon Kwee Lim believe that in the coming years, Ningbo's MICE sector will boom and this will result in more and more international hotels coming to Ningbo. Currently there are 16 five-star hotels but the number will reach 30 in the next three years. Second, the completion of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge has greatly reduced the distance between Ningbo and Shanghai and Jiangsu. Meanwhile, Ningbo Municipal Government is constantly promoting infrastructure construction and they have initiated the construction of Yongtaiwen high-speed railway and Ningbo inner city rail (on which construction work has already started). Third, Ningbo Municipal Government aims to build Ningbo into a leisure travel destination and to this end Ningbo Tourism Department is sparing no efforts to promote the city as a tourism destination. In 2008 and 2009, the Ningbo Tourism Department went to Shanghai for promotional events. They also went to Nanjing, Nanchang and Chengdu to introduce their resources to the people there. Fourth, the holding of 2010 Shanghai Expo will certainly have some impact on cities in the Yangtze Delta region, and its influence may also expand to Ningbo.

Industry Professionals Highly Optimistic About Ningbo's Incentive Travel Market
Regarding the development of Ningbo's incentive travel Xu Sheng, the general manager of Ningbo Feiyang Travel Service local hospitality sector, believes that the pattern of consumer groups for Ningbo's tourism market has basically formed with the number of incentive travel consumers increasing. Xu said that Ningbo's domestic incentive travel market is currently performing well and the most active industries are medical, technology, energy, and finance. As MICE includes meetings, exhibitions, incentive travel, and events and business travel, it combines business and incentive travel. Another important aspect of the MICE business is company annual meetings, and travel that companies use to reward their employees. Xu stated that it is because of the influence of MICE that Ningbo's tourism industry has become so prosperous.

Due to the global financial crisis, the general situation of the MICE market this year is that clients spending less time at a destination, and most important of all, is that they are more sensitive to price. More clients choose to directly bargain with the actual suppliers such as hotels to save cost, and some suppliers who want to go out of the low season may choose to directly contact clients and this has caused a disruption in quotations and a break between meetings and travel, and is thus making MICE professionals suffer losses.

Xu and his team have successfully organized incentive travel events for major companies such as BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, Pfizer, and Lilly Pharmaceutical. Xu told China Hospitality News that many factors would be involved in planning an incentive travel event. First, there must be sufficient meeting venues. In recent years, there have been a dozen five-star hotels in Ningbo including Shangri-La, Sheraton, Marriot, and Howard Johnson. Together with such national brands as Nanyuan and New Century, they all provide good environments. Second, the Ningbo government has offered great support to the MICE sector and supports key exhibitions. All the departments concerned coordinated well and this has had a positive effect on the development of Ningbo's MICE sector. Third, Ningbo's tourism resources are an important part of the MICE event. Travel products affiliated to incentive travel are often one to two day trips. With the completion of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge and the launch of Zhoushan Liandao Bridge, Haitian Foguo-Putuo Mountain, the Jiang's Former Residence, and Fenghua Xikou all can be destinations. What's more, with the addition of new tourist destinations like Five-dragon Lake (a natural scenic spot) and Xuedou Temple (Buddhist culture), there are more options for incentive travelers.

With the development of incentive travel, Ningbo Feiyang Travel Service has reached sound cooperation with the city's major star-rated hotels. A hotel's hardware facilities are important, but its service is even more critical. A meeting will involve the coordination of all the departments of a hotel. A mistake in one department may result in unexpected problems for the whole event. Ningbo OCT Howard Johnson Hotel does extraordinarily well on this aspect. The hotel dedicates a professional team to serving each client from the moment they enter the hotel until the end of the meeting. They even arrange special personnel to be responsible for the client's checkout. It's worth mentioning that all the staff at the hotel will greet customers with a smile.

Provided there is no big difference in hardware among high star-rated hotels, it is important for hotels to attract clients with excellent service. Xu believes that Ningbo hotels still need to make more innovations and carry out reforms on incentive travel: for instance they may focus on the features of Ningbo and integrate Ningbo local culture into their products so that clients from other places can learn about the city's culture and customs. They can even add Ningbo specialties to their tea breaks to bring some surprises to people from far away. They can offer a one-stop service and can directly undertake the service provided by affiliated industries.

Ningbo Will Develop Featured MICE Economy In The Future
In its "Plan of Building and Developing Ningbo into an International MICE Capital" Ningbo Municipal Government positions Ningbo as a main outsourcing base for foreign businesses in China as well as a base for imported equipment and raw material supply; a logistics base for domestic and foreign trade; a gathering place for international marketing organizations for domestic and foreign trade companies; and a meeting and exhibition base for major events in the Yangtze River Delta. The government plans to create Ningbo as a capital of international meetings in five years by: basing meetings in Ningbo and Zhejiang, providing services to the Yangtze River Delta, impacting on the middle and west part of China, and linking China with foreign countries.

Ningbo will develop its MICE industry in two steps. As a first step, it will focus on an exhibition economy based on the New Town National Exhibition Center and International Trade Exhibition and Transaction Platform in the east part of Ningbo. In essence this is exhibitions focused on the imports and exports of Ningbo.

The second step is to introduce domestic and international business meetings, finance, tourism, culture, and technology meetings (forums), festivals and sports, build the city into an international MICE capital, and develop a featured MICE economy. The issuance of travel coupon at the auto exhibition to prolong exhibitors' stay in Ningbo represents the effort the city has made to increase consumption.

Over the last decade Ningbo's MICE industry experienced three periods: an initial stage, a developing stage, and an upgrading stage. Now, the city's MICE has advanced to a higher level. Ningbo's international reputation has been greatly improved through cooperation between exhibition organizers, Ningbo Municipal Government, and the related industries.

In 2008, 276 events were held in Ningbo, an increase of 34% over that of the previous year. Of these, 136 were exhibitions, up by 32%, and the total exhibition area was 1.392 million square meters, an increase of 36.5%. The average area for a single exhibition topped 10,000 square meters and reached 10,200 square meters. There were 27 exhibitions whose total exhibition area was more than 20,000 square meters, an increase of 28.6%. In addition, there were 63 special festivals and 77 meetings or forums.