Marine Resources And Olympics Boost Qingdao's MICE Market
Qingdao is a foreign trade port famous for textiles, its household electric appliances industry, marine scientific research, and sightseeing and vacation. Along with the development of the economy, business travel and the convention and exhibition industry are now becoming important parts of Qingdao's economy, and also attracting more and more attention from both China and overseas. This has brought rich resources and broad development potential for Qingdao's MICE and business travel market.
Urban Economy
As one of the open coastal cities and Shandong's biggest industrial city, Qingdao has several well-known brands. Industries in the city are textiles, locomotives and rolling stock, mechanical engineering, chemicals, petrochemicals, steel, rubber, household appliances, beer, and cigarettes. There are also large corporations such as Haier Group, Tsingtao Beer, and Hisense Group. Qingdao also has an economic and technological development zone, a high-tech industry development zone, a bonded area, an export processing zone, and a tourist resort that are approved by the country, making it one of the most vigorous cities in China.
Geographic Location
Qingdao is located at the conjunction of the North China and East China economic areas, and is also linked to Northeast Economic Zone. It is adjacent to North Korea, South Korea and Japan across the see, has the largest mouth in the Yellow River basin, and is an important information center, finance center and distribution center. As the traffic hub linking the Eurasian Land-Bridge, Qingdao has the advantages of a developing MICE industry. For example Chengyang District where Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang is located, there are many foreign invested especially South Korea invested enterprises and factories. In 2009, this district's GDP had reached CNY62.24 billion, and the total value of imports and exports had reached CNY6.715 billion, ranking it the top listed area in Qingdao. Considering the great support from local government, Chengyang has a bright future.
MICE Reception Capability
Currently Qingdao has 200 star-rated hotels, of which 10 are five-star, 30 are four-star and 75 are three-star; it also has more than 4,000 tour guides. Over the years, Qingdao has been successfully holding the Qingdao International Beer Festival, the Qingdao Ocean Festival, China Fisheries and Seafood Expo, China International Consumer Electronics Show, Qingdao International Fashion Week, and Friendly Shandong News Year Celebration. The newly-opened Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang has offered a number of large-scale conferences, banquets and catering services for Airbus, Andreas Stihl, Guangqi Honda, Qingdao Iron and Steel Group, HSBC Bank, Haier Group, and Mercedes Benz, showing Qingdao's hotel industry has experiences of holding various events.
Hotels
Discover A Qingdao Cultural Experience
Tomas Hansson, the general manager of Le Meridien Qingdao, told China Hospitality News what the hotel has to offer meeting planners. It offers more than 1,824 square meters of meeting and banquet space to suit every occasion. For greater flexibility, the 1228-square-meter pillarless ballroom can be divided into five areas and the additional seven multi-function rooms are all equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual facilities and complimentary wireless high speed internet access. For more requisitions, a well-equipped business centre on the sixth floor is ready for all meeting guests. The professional MICE team will coordinate with meeting planners till the meeting completed successfully.
Mixing contemporary culture with European heritage, Le Meridien Qingdao is committed to providing an interactive and culturally enriching experience to the business travelers. They intended to transform the currently functional and transactional experience into an emotional connection. Le Meridien Qingdao creates further intrigue with its unique, sensorial environment by integrating light, sound and scent, sound and use of light. As well as Le Meridien Signature program Unlock Art, the artist-designed key card unlocks a free visit to the Tsingtao Beer Museum, to discover a local contemporary cultural experience.
The business travel market and MICE market are developing very fast in Qingdao, Hansson stated. In line with the city's development, more and more international companies and meeting planners are aiming at Qingdao. It was forecast that there would be an increase of about 10% as compared with 2009 in the MICE market with more than 100 exhibitions and conferences and more than 3 million visitors will arrive in Qingdao in 2010.
MICE Brings Huge Opportunities to Hotel Industry
Alexander O. Wassermann is the general manager of InterContinental Qingdao. He stated that the hotel is the only one located in the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center. All the guest rooms and suites are elegantly furnished, offering breathtaking sea views or city view. The hotel's event facilities include the ballroom seating up to 600 guests, 10 meeting rooms and eight multi-sized function rooms, offering ideal spaces for product launches, corporate meetings or evening functions. The city's only auditorium seating up to 478 guests also provides the-state-of-the-art equipment such as simultaneous translations. The hotel has a dedicated MICE sales team focused at providing professional service, which includes venue selection, budget planning, and in-the-know theme event creations. Guests are able to receive a fast response within two hours. Meanwhile, an experienced event management team takes responsibility for coordination of the event and ensures a smooth event phase.
The Insider Collection uses the huge amount of local knowledge to add something special to corporate events. There are lots of ways the hotel can help guests create a meeting with a difference, such as arranging a tour of a historic building normally closed to the public. The surrounding entertainment facilities and sightseeing spots would definitely enrich a journey, for example a performance in the Olympic Grand Theatre or a tailor-made city tour. Club InterContinental and library located on the 21st and 22nd Floor overlooking the marina feature personalized service delivered to guests.
Speaking to the development of Qingdao's MICE industry in the future, Wassermann thinks that the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta and the launch of Friendly Shandong have already brought a great exposure to the city and the opportunity to develop the MICE and business travel market. The hotel has confidence in this as there is favorable indications in terms of growth in the business travel market and MICE industry, such as the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo, Home Appliances Expo, and China International Automobile Manufacturing Expo. In addition, some newly-launched city events have accelerated the growth of the industry, such as the Qingdao Ocean Festival. The development of business travel and MICE industries also spurs on the increase of conferences and the enrichment of meeting products. More and more Top World 500 companies have moved to Qingdao, including Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and BMW: showing a great potential of development which would benefit the hotel as it finds more and more cooperation opportunities with those tycoons.
Rich Experiences in MICE
Stefan Schmid, the general manager of Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang, said that the hotel has a 840 square meter Grand Ballroom, with function rooms and meeting rooms of various sizes to choose from. Wired and wireless high-speed internet access is available in all meeting rooms, and state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment is also available. The dedicated banquet and conference service team will design personalized meeting plan in accordance to guests' demand.
According to Schmid, MICE customers could bring the hotel 1% of its profit. Qingdao has two major advantages besides its location and tourism resources. First, Qingdao's city brand. As a city with an increasing degree of internationalization and awareness, Qingdao has gained many acclaimations including Chinese historical and cultural city, National Model City for Environmental Protection, outstanding tourist city, and Most Economically Dynamic Cities 2004. The 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta has brought more exposure to the coastal city. It has also many world famous enterprises such as Haier, Hisense, Tsingtao Beer, and Doublestar Group, which have improved the city brand effect for Qingdao. Second, Qingdao has rich experience in holding various events including the Qingdao International Beer Festival, Qingdao Ocean Festival, China Fisheries and Seafood Expo, China International Consumer Electronics Show, Qingdao International Fashion Week, and Friendly Shandong News Year Celebration, as well as The 2000 Overseas Chinese Forum Worldwide, The Third APEC Meeting, and The Third Asia Cooperation Dialogue Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
Booker
Solving Problems Actively Shows Professional Hotel Service
Qingdao is a fascinating coastal city and is considered to be the first choice for MICE planners in China, said Sun Zhenfeng, chief of staff at China Merchants Bank Qingdao Branch. Of all the conferences and public relations activities CMB Qingdao Branch has ever organized or been involved in the organization, the most successful one, in Sun's opinion, is the CMB VISA Olympic Credit Card launching ceremony held together with China Merchants Bank in Qingdao on March 24, 2007. More than 2,000 people participated in this marketing activity. CMB Qingdao Branch also held the "Spring 2007" charity event together with CCTV at Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center, and more than 100 media were involved.
CMB Qingdao Branch would undertake more than five nationwide conferences each year, and more than 10 activities and conferences by itself. The choice of hotel is quite a problem. Sun Zhenfeng says that there are three main factors about a hotel he would like to take into consideration. First, the hardware facilities. Location, meeting venues (floor to ceiling height, area, etc.), dining, and accommodation conditions, should be all included. Second, management and service. What meeting planners worry most is the poor service of a hotel, not only the service capability, standards and levels, but the flexibility of hotel services for there might be changes during the activities which require changes from hotel service. Yet many hotels would refuse to change due to "the relevant regulations". This would probably lead to defects. Third, price. According to Sun, price is not the decisive factor, but high quality at a reasonable price is certainly an extra point.
Le Meridien Qingdao, InterContinental Qingdao, and Shangri-La Hotel Qingdao are the three five-star hotels that are Sun's first choices. In addition, Haitian Hotel Qingdao, Crowne Plaza Qingdao, Huiquan Dynasty Hotel, and Haiqing Hotel Qingdao are also partners of CMB Qingdao Branch. Sun's favourite hotels are Le Meridien Qingdao, InterContinental Qingdao and Shangri-La Hotel Qingdao, because they have much better hardware facilities and service management. Both management and staff are professional and polite when solving problems together with guests.
For people who come from places outside Qingdao, Sun Zhenfeng would recommend three places to go if they have one or two spare days. The first recommendation is the seaside of Qingdao as it is one of the cities with longest coastline in China with a boardwalk 40 kilometers long. Famous tourist attractions along the coastline include Badaguan, Wusi Square, and Little Qingdao Isle. Here you will see a new, vigorous "Oriental Switzerland". Second place is the old districts where you can touch the "Old Qingdao". For example, the Dengzhou Road which is nicknamed Beer Street where you can experience the history, culture and techniques about beer, and even can taste the newly-brewed Tsingtao Beer. Pichaiyuan Courtyard (Jiangning Road) is a place where you can enjoy various cuisines. The third place to go is Laoshan Mountain, the only Taoist mountain beside the sea. Taiqing Taoist Temple at the mountain is one of the origins for Chinese Taoism.
Qingdao, An Impressive City
Tian Ruijing is in charge of secretarial work at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business Qingdao Alumni club. She told China Hospitality News that CKGSB has conducted one-week-long EMBA courses several several times in Qingdao, and has set up CKGSB Alumni Club Qingdao Branch which would have gatherings quarterly. As a native in the city, Tian loves Qingdao very much and is glad to recommend Qingdao's natural beauty and its people's hospitality to readers.
Students of Qingdao Alumni Club are mostly entrepreneurs, who usually have higher demand for venue, according to Tian Ruijing. They will first consider high star-rated hotels, and then the environment, decoration, service and other facilities. Hotels that have been chosen by Alumni Club include Shangri-La Hotel, Qingdao, InterContinental Qingdao, and Le Meridien Qingdao, among which the last has gained the most praise. As a star-rated hotel of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, its fashionable design, harmonious environment, perfect service, elegant guest rooms and delicious cuisine are all impressive to participants. Tian figures that Le Meridien Qingdao will be Alumni Club's first choice in future activities for its quality service.
Hospitality and Efficiency
Zhang Hengyan, the administrative director of Haier Computer, told China Hospitality News that Haier Computer would often launch promotional activities or hold dealer/supplier assembly in Qingdao each year. If meetings are held in hotels, Zhang said the first thing he would consider is the meeting venue — it must be a square, pillarless one with a height of at least 3.8 meters. Then he would consider other aspects such as price and dining. Hotel service is also to be considered.
The company has chosen Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang, Crowne Plaza Qingdao, and Kylin Hotel Qingdao. Among them, Zhang's favourite is Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang. According to feedbacks from participants, this hotel's service and high efficiency have impressed them the most.
To people who come to Qingdao joining Haier Group's activities from other places, Zhang would like to recommend Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang to stay, and Laoshan Mountain or the seaside to relax and enjoy themselves.
Make Use of Marine Resources and the Post-Olympic Effect
CITS Qingdao MICE Dept has been providing visits, inbound and outbound conferences and exhibitions, business investigations, and business travel reception services to government and enterprises ever since its establishment. Yu Zhong, manager of the MICE Dept of CITS Qingdao, said the company has been paying much attention to MICE market in recent years complying with the personalized and diversified requirements of clients. Its clients have covered governmental agencies, industrial associations, finance, insurance, medicine, medical devices, telecommunication, electronics, IT, automobile, construction, real estate, education and other fields.
Qingdao is a city with higher degree of internationalization and higher popularity, said Yu Zhong. The 2008 Olympics has made Qingdao more famous in the world, as well as some famous brands such as Haier, Hisense, Tsingtao Beer and Double Star. Located between the two high-end guest source markets — Beijing-Bohai Economic Rim, and Shanghai-Yangtze River Delta Economic Circle, and being one of the major port cities in Northeast Asia Economic Zone, Qingdao has the location advantages to develop MICE. Boasting rich tourism resources like the beach, Mount Lao, the historical culture, the European style architecture, various of festivals and events, and mature industrial tourism products, Qingdao is also known as "Switzerland of the Orient". What's more, its accommodation capacity and rich experiences in holding festivals and conferences also make it the suitable place for MICE activities.
Yu said his team would give full play to Qingdao's marine resources and post-Olympic effects, integrating sailing, windsurfing, yacht, and fishing into meetings and incentive travel to bring an unexpected experience to clients. Speaking to hotel industry of Qingdao, Yu figures there is still gap between international hotels in large cities and hotels in Qingdao, both in management and in software facilities.
Yu also sees great potential for Qingdao to develop MICE. First, Qingdao has the social base to develop MICE. The increasing support from the government in both policy and investment, and the growing public awareness of tourism and environmental protection, have offered good policy guarantee and social basis for MICE development in Qingdao. Second, Qingdao has the economic base to promote MICE development. Third, it has the market for developing MICE industry. In overseas market, Qingdao has convenience access to South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan with close economic and trade relations, which has provided great potential for MICE. In mainland market, Qingdao is a popular tourism destination with unique beach resources and urban landscape that are attractive to inland cities.
MICE Will Be Better and Better
China Travel Service International Convention & Exhibition Center is specially set up for MICE business, providing personalized MICE service to Fortune 500 companies, transnational corporations, industrial associations and governmental departments. Li Hui is the manager of MICE department at International Convention & Exhibition Center of China Travel Service (Shandong) Co., Ltd. The company has provided services to many transnational corporations of various industries, such as Haier Group, Hewlett-Packard, New York Life Insurance Company, DuPont, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Omega, Canon, Siemens, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Novartis, ABB and GE.
The major idea of planning MICE activities for transnational corporations and corporate clients, said Li Hui, is to bring unexpected experience to them. MICE is a popular business management model in western countries and plays an important role in accelerating business development and building enterprise culture. As a high-end product in tourism industry, its characteristics like large scale, long-term and high grade have fully shown its uniqueness compared with ordinary tourism types. TNCs and corporate clients often have higher demands for MICE than ordinary group travel no matter in the option of destination or itineraries and services. A successful MICE activity should have creative itineraries, dedicated services, and should treat every guest as VIP.
As a professional conference organizer in Qingdao, how does Li review the city's MICE resources? First, Qingdao has its unique coastal city resources. The fusion of long coastlines, Laoshan Mountain, European style architectures, celebrities' former residence, and modern tourism and MICE facilities, have made Qingdao a charming tourism destination since early 20th century. Second, as the co-host city for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the "sailing city" Qingdao will be more attractive as a MICE destination. Third, Qingdao International Beer Festival, Qingdao Ocean Festival and other well-known festivals have greatly enhanced Qingdao's popularity internationally. Fourth, there are plenty of hotels for MICE groups.
There are many local resources that can be integrated into MICE activities in Qingdao. Li Hui brought up two cases. When planning for Canon's dealer summit, Li's team has chosen Qingdao Sea View Garden Hotel for accommodation. When guests have arrived at the hotel, they have seen an electronic welcome letter with their name on and a speech from the president of Canon when guests turned on the TV. This was quite a surprising experience. When organizing sales elite conference for New York Life Insurance, Li's team has chosen three different cuisines for these sales elites: Shandong cuisine, Korean barbecue, and Japanese cuisine. Besides, the team has planned sailing lessons for these elites to experience the passion in the Olympic venue.
Li would like to choose international chain hotels for his clients such as InterContinental Qingdao, Shangri-La Hotel, Qingdao, Le Meridien Qingdao. These hotels have professional MICE teams so it would be much easier for Li to communicate with. And the facilities of these hotels can meet the demands for meetings of various sizes.
The International Congress and Convention Association predicted that China would be the most popular MICE destination in the 21st century, stated Li. As an outstanding coastal tourism city with unique, quality MICE resources, Qingdao will certainly be an important MICE destination.
Special Venue Brings Creative Ideas
The operations director of New Shanghai CITS MICE Branch Xing Yifan has organized a high-end meeting for a foreign invested band in InterContinental Qingdao in 2009. As the annual international business seminar of the bank, it has invited its high-end clients from China. The whole activity's theme is "sailing", including airport welcoming ceremony, tea breaks, sand sculpting game, welcome dinner, a cocktail party on a yacht, fishing, and snorkeling.
Xing Yifan figures there are three advantages for Qingdao as a MICE destination. The first is its geological advantage. With mountain and the sea, Qingdao has a very pleasant climate where guests can feel comfortable. Second, Qingdao has a diversified culture — the integration of Chinese and western cultures, the traditional Taoism and Confucianism, and the unique corporate culture (Haier, Tsingtao Beer). These could bring along different themes according to the demand of enterprises. Third, the Olympic concept will bring whole new experience to guests.
When planning MICE events for multinational corporations and corporate clients, what other resources would Xing recommend to combine with these events that might bring unexpected experience to guests? Qingdao's bathing beach is a good place for teambuilding activities, said Xing. Guests can hold various games to strengthen the sense of solidarity and team cohesion among employees. Secondly, the German architecture and featured bars offer different choices for creative experience, and themed dinner party can be planned in according to clients' corporate culture. Thirdly, for VIP clients, the company would arrange a sailing experience for them in the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center, or a cocktail party, fishing or snorkeling at a luxury yacht.
Taking into account the higher requirements for venues in MICE, Xing Yifan would recommend InterContinental Qingdao. The simple but elegant design, the unique location, and the best InterContinental service, all make guests feel like home.
In the future, Qingdao should pay more attention to supporting systems besides hardware facilities. Compared to those cities with better MICE industry, there is space for improvement for Qingdao in service awareness and quality. In addition, Qingdao should combine those festivals and international events with MICE to develop more new products.
Natural and Economic Conditions Suitable for MICE
Speaking of Qingdao, the general manager of Beijing Sunbetter Diamond International Business Center Ma Haifeng said the Qingdao is a beautiful city with seldom paralleled natural environment. Besides, its economy is developing fast attracting more factories and enterprises to invest here, including tourism industry. New hotels are opening, and services are becoming more and more professional. That is why the company emphasizes its business development in Qingdao. Besides promoting sightseeing in Qingdao's tourist attractions, the company also promotes its MICE options. Till now the company has undertaken new products release conferences and autumn-winter trade fairs in Qingdao for Jamost Sporting Goods (Shenzhen) Ltd, agent for Dunlop, Karrimor, Bolle, and Slazenger in China.
When choosing a proper hotel, Ma Haifeng thinks the first to consider is whether the meeting venue suits the events. Then check hotel's facilities and service. The principal standard is the event held in this place can reach the desired results. And a reasonable price is important too.
Hotels the company has ever chosen include InterContinental Qingdao, Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang, and Crowne Plaza Qingdao. Among them, Doubletree by Hilton Qingdao / Chenyang has impressed him the most. After the hotel entrusted its management to Hilton, its service has been greatly improved and the hotel has become on the whole more international. Though the hotel is not in downtown Qingdao, but in consideration of the convenient traffic conditions, eight minutes' drive from the airport and 30 minutes' drive from downtown, it is of high price/performance ratio.
