THE Philippine Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions, Exhibitions Conference
(Micecon) 2023 hosted by Davao City received positive feedback from Davao Region delegates who attended the three-day event from March 1 to 3 at the SMX Convention Center Davao.
Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco, who delivered a closing message on Friday, March 3, said Davao City has proven that the Philippines has a potential to be the best Mice destination in Asia.
“For 2023, Davao has shown us the way, it has become a model for others to follow and a springboard from which we can launch even more exciting Micecons in the future, and we will,” she said.
“With all of you on board, together, it will not be impossible for the Philippines to be the best Mice destination in Asia,” Frasco added.
A highlight during the conference was the plenary sessions delivered by the distinguished local and international speakers. There were four plenary sessions and four breakout discussions with different topics in line with the meetings, incentive travel, conventions, exhibitions (Mice), design, and content creation industry.
Delegates from the public sector, namely Reya Yap from the provincial tourism office of Davao Occidental and tourism officer Noel Daquioag of Davao del Norte said the key learning from the discussions greatly helped them plan better the tourism services of their respective provinces.
Yap mentioned the Think Globally, Act Locally: The Circular Economy of Events lecture by Dr. Ivan Henares and Omnichannel and Blockchain Technologies by Donald Lim.
“There's so much room for us to strategize and use these learnings, for example the customer experience journey wherein multi-faceted talaga ang mga dapat isipin namin na (we have to come up with multi-faceted) products and programs for the tourists,” she said.
Daquioag added, “The past sessions have given me another perspective on how to look at destination management for example, and we're putting those inputs for our destinations (in Davao del Norte).”
Other than the sessions that talked about the Mice industry, the delegates said the Micecon 2023 as a whole is well-executed and offered fresh takes compared to the previous MiceCons hosted by other cities.
Daquioag, who has attended the other MiceCons before, said Davao City’s take on the event is well-organized and provided a chance for other venues and destinations to be showcased to the delegates.
First-time attendee and Dabawenyo hotelier Sherwin Lim shared the same sentiment.
“The booths are very organized and the topics are well-thought of. It’s my first time attending Micecon, so I did not know what to expect but everything was a surprise. I'm actually very glad and happy that they brought this back to Davao. I didn't attend the last MiceCon in Davao so I'm very lucky and fortunate to have this experience,” he said.
Daquioag added that the performances, the curation of the venue, and the overall hosting of Davao City have been lively and world-class.
This is the second time Davao City hosted the Philippine Micecon, the last one being in 2013. The Micecon is the premier gathering of professionals in the MICE industry from all over the country.
As of March 3, a total of 645 attendees graced the conference, including 397 delegates, 36 speakers, 47 sponsors, 49 media organizations, and 116 organizers.