Mice for hoteliers: Four ways to attract mice tourists

Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events – This is a MICE full form in hotel industry, and as a hotelier, you are very much accustomed to this abbreviation too. MICE tourism constitutes an important part of business travel, and the market is growing rapidly at a CAGR of 21 and is expected to hit a valuation of 1337.4 billion USD by 2028.  

Therefore, it’s a massive opportunity for all hotel businesses. While attracting quality MICE tourists is still a demanding task. You would already be nurturing your leads from your hotel CRM. But are you identifying your market accurately? Are you keeping pace with the changing demands of MICE tourists? If the answer is no and you are still trying to figure it out, we got you covered.  

Here, in this blog post, we recommend four ways to attract quality MICE tourists, which will maximize your revenues and capitalize on the opportunity we mentioned at the start of this article. But before we get there, let’s first evaluate the increasing Importance of MICE for accommodation businesses. 

Why does MICE matter more now?  

MICE, as an ancillary revenue source, is not new. It has been there for decades. So, you would think, why put extra weight on MICE now? What is new there? The fact that MICE matter more now is because there is a tectonic shift in how business travelers look at MICE tourism. MICE is becoming a cultural need of businesses. Everybody wants to network and cash in on the opportunities that networks bring. So, it creates a balanced win-win situation for both hoteliers and corporate firms.  

Therefore, if you want to double down your MICE business, it is the best time. As we mentioned earlier, the market is growing at a CAGR of 21%. And the growth is ubiquitous. Earlier, only North America was leading the charge, but now Europe Is also increasing spending on MICE tourism.  

So, the opportunity is enormous. But to make it count, you must ensure that your offerings match your customers’ expectations. And your services are tailored to the demands of tourists. Once these variables are in place, you will be fine on the demand side. Global Mice Market Report, 2022-28, shows that as many as 85% of US meetings are happening at hotels and lodging venues. And as established earlier, the trend is the same across the globe.  

Four smart ways to attract MICE Tourists  

So far, in this article, we have looked at the demand side—the increasing Importance of mice for hoteliers. Now we head on to address the elephant in the room, which is attracting, right, high-paying MICE tourists. There are many marketing strategies that you can use to attract these tourists, but we’ll make it short for you. And breakdown into four parts. 

1.    Define your market by identifying your strengths 

You can only sell a proposition once you have a market in sight. All businesses have some competitive edges, and you will have yours. Define your market by highlighting the category of clients more likely to buy the value proposition you have to offer; it could be your strategic location, the customizable space you have, or any other unique feature of your properties that give you a competitive advantage over others. 

2.    Allocate more resources to promising markets 

After the primary differentiation of the market, you now must look at the countries where the popularity of MICE tourism is growing. Adjust your digital ad budgets and allocate more resources to those promising markets. For example, now, MICE tourism is on the rise in Europe. So, your marketing spending should be the highest in European countries. In short, your marketing spending in any location should be proportionate to the demands coming from those locations. 

3.    Create a unique sales space for MICE tourists 

Once you sell a unique value proposition, the customers expect a unique experience. They want to know how serious you are about your services. It would be best if you could create a separate website for your MICE customers. If not, create a neat and clean landing page where all your unique propositions are clearly mentioned. Also, position yourself as a business that prefers MICE tourists.  

4.    Nurture relationships to get return customers 

MICE is an ongoing activity, so if you can cheer your customer on their first visit. And make them feel warm and welcome. They will likely come back to you as returning customers and spread word of mouth. Even if it costs you a few bucks more – keep your customers satisfied. Because businesses also don’t want many experiments, they want to go to the places they are familiar with. So, try to create an experience that they want to have again. 

Recommended: Blue ocean strategy for the hotel industry: A way to carve out new market

Wrapping Up! 

To summarize, we looked at the prospects of the MICE market, which are excellent. We also looked at the rate and trends to set expectations right for what you can expect from the market worldwide. Then we talked about the enormity of the opportunity and discussed strategies on how you can make use of this opportunity by attracting quality customers and earning recurring revenues. All our recommendations are easily implementable, so make the best use of them.