A Convention Bureau is a non-profit organization that can be established in any large city, but also in smaller areas with good hotel and conference facilities.
Their mission is essentially to develop the MICE industry of a destination and bring groups and events through 3 main procedures :
- Contacting local business tourism professionals and offering them all the support they may need to obtain information and therefore business. The Convention Bureau is the partner of each local resource, and even helps MICE actors to team up to understand the needs of the destination's offer, develop and promote it together in order to get more business by joining forces.
- Inform global event organizers, travel agencies, national and international companies (in other words: potential clients) about hotels, congress facilities and other MICE-related services in the region. The Convention Bureau will be the main contact that will point them in the right direction once they understand the characteristics of the event/group: size of the group, dates, meetings or incentives, budget, transfer needs, team building or leisure activities, etc.
- Strengthen the network between buyers and suppliers in the industry. How can we do this?
- a. By organizing business visits to major national and international event organizers and companies.
- b. By participating in major travel trade shows to represent the destination and their members.
- c. By organizing family trips for event organizers to come and discover the region as a MICE destination in all its aspects: hotel, meeting space, venues, team building and leisure activities, etc. and get direct contact with the participating contact persons of each facility and service used.
There are many other ways for a convention bureau to work to promote the destination, such as social media, blogs, articles in which members are invited to participate to showcase their facilities, meeting spaces and services.
Convention Bureau team members are generally accessible individuals with a wide network of contacts within the sector.
A very valuable partner for any MICE player to be and stay in the game, and for the destination for all the groups and events they manage to influence by selecting it from all the other options.
