According to a recent report by ICRA, the Indian hotel industry is projected to experience revenue growth of 7-9% during the 2024-25 financial year. Key revenue drivers include leisure travel, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions), and the wedding sector. Indian hotels can leverage global technological advancements to capitalize on the expanding MICE market and enhance their business prospects.
India’s increasing focus on trade and business has spurred a notable rise in demand for conferences, seminars, and exhibitions, significantly boosting the MICE sector. An illustrative event is the recent G20 summit held in India, which provided a platform for global leaders, policymakers, and business executives to convene, collaborate, and forge connections. Hotels play an indispensable role in facilitating MICE events of varying scales by offering a comprehensive array of services and amenities. These include meeting and conference spaces, accommodations, food and beverage services, audio-visual facilities, and technical support, all conveniently available at a single location.
MICE tourism presents several advantages for hotels, event planners, and other stakeholders. Unlike leisure travel, MICE business is generally more predictable and secure, as it is planned well in advance with fewer cancellations. This stability allows hotels and chains to mitigate fluctuations in leisure travel and concentrate on attracting more MICE events. While Indian hotels possess the requisite infrastructure to host MICE events, they face challenges such as identifying the right planners, managing limited budgets, staffing issues, and time constraints. To address these challenges, hotels are increasingly turning to technology as a strategic solution.
Adopting advanced technology solutions enables hotels to connect with active planners seeking MICE venues while streamlining operations, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of these advancements, making it essential for the Indian hotel industry to align with global trends and best practices to remain competitive and attract more MICE business.
The demand for comprehensive platforms that facilitate collaboration between planners and hospitality professionals is rising. Venue-sourcing platforms enhance the visibility of venues, enabling them to connect with planners who are sourcing for specific dates. These platforms allow hotels to engage with potential buyers, establish meaningful connections, and optimize revenue per available room (RevPAR) and market share. AI-powered features such as natural language search and writing assistants simplify the prospecting process, enabling personalized outreach to planners.
Given the time constraints faced by planners, hotels need to innovate in how they showcase their spaces digitally. Implementing event diagramming technology, photo-realistic 3D representations, interactive floor plans, and custom diagramming options allows planners to explore the property virtually and visualize their events, facilitating informed decision-making. AI-driven diagram assistants further empower hotel operations teams to deliver precise, customized floor plans and room layouts, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.
Hotels also encounter challenges related to limited budgets and staffing shortages when managing requests for proposals (RFPs) from event organizers. Automating and standardizing the RFP process enables hotels to respond promptly and accurately. AI-enabled platforms can assist suppliers by referencing past RFP responses and generating answers to custom questions from planners, reducing the time required by sales teams to complete and respond to proposals. AI-powered RFP agenda builders enable planners to create comprehensive agendas within seconds.
Effective management of room blocks is critical for successful events. Traditional methods of manually sharing rooming lists via email are prone to errors and lack security and collaboration. Technological solutions such as Passkey simplify the booking and confirmation of guest rooms and meetings online, minimizing human intervention and ensuring data security and reliability. Tools like Instant Book allow planners to reserve small meeting spaces directly without navigating lengthy RFP processes.
To outperform competitors and uncover areas of opportunity, hotels require critical insights into market conditions. Business intelligence suites provide valuable insights into RFP trends, response activities, win ratios, pace against expected demand, and other key performance metrics. Business intelligence also enables hotels and venue operators to evaluate their group performance relative to competitors and identify opportunities for improvement.
The MICE sector in India plays a crucial role in the tourism industry, significantly contributing to revenue and stimulating the local economy. Embracing global technology trends and leveraging AI-powered solutions can empower Indian hotels to tap into the growing MICE market and achieve substantial growth.
