Infrastructure on ICPB radar

In tourism, one of the main challenges is said to be lack of infrastructure, this is true for MICE. At the 9 th Conventions India Conclave (CIC), the first session deliberated on ‘Infrastructure-The Big Picture’.

- Kanchan Nath

The session was moderated by Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, MOT. Panellists included Ajit Joshi, CEO, BKC, Reliance Industries Limited; SGK Kishore, CEO-GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL); Renu Basu, Global Vice President, Sales, Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, Kamal Hingorani, SrVP & Head Inflight Services & Customer Experience, SpiceJet and BM Gupta, Executive Director, TFCI.

BUILDING THE RESOURCES FOR MICE 

Reliance Industries Ltd. is building The Dhirubhai Ambani International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DAICEC) at Bandra Kurla Complex, BKC in Mumbai. Elaborating on convention centres,

Ajit Joshi, says, “We are putting up a mixed use development project in which initially only we have planned to put in 6,000 car parks. In the project we have a Convention Centre, a luxury mall, a performing arts theatre that will make India proud, apart from that there is also a commercial project.

This mixed use development would be ready by next financial year.” Alluding to building resources, he adds, “I make an effort to talk to the grassroots level, which is the educational institutes, MBA programmes; we go and talk to them about the opportunities that will come up in the MICE industry. We are especially talking to the people who have enrolled now so that a ready crop of people becomes available in the future. The idea is to build the resources and many kinds of resources.”

REALISING THE MICE POTENTIAL