As companies continue to reimagine and adapt for the next era in business due to the impact of the Coved-19 pandemic and societal change, corporate travel priorities are also shifting with the focus now on factors influencing the next era of business travel.

Discussions on GBTA forums now show that corporate travel managers (CTM) are prioritising sustainability, and the industry is pursuing carbon-offsetting programmes, according to CEO and executive director Suzanne Neufang.

During a recent Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) webinar, Strategic Event Procurement’s principal Therese Jardine noted that “risk mitigation” ranked ahead of savings in the priority rankings.

Jardine posited there would be no savings if suppliers were unable to deliver on client priorities to mitigate risk and bolster travel policy compliance. She also advised corporates whose TMCs contract on their behalf to spell out expectations on data privacy protection, sustainability and social and environmental concerns moving forward.

Hwang Cheng Meng, vice president, global market management, Asia Pacific, CWT, noted “risk mitigation and traveller safety have been at the top of the agenda since the pandemic began”.

He shared: “The leading question in many RFPs we have received over the past couple of years has been: ‘How will you help us keep our travellers safe when they begin travelling again?’”

Hwang said the myCWT platform has been enhanced in the past year with new capabilities, its messaging support channel expanded to many more clients, and its travel counsellors are now equipped with next-gen tools that give them a 360-degree real-time view of a traveller’s journey across all channels to be better prepared to provide assistance.

Aside from risk mitigation, one Singapore-based CTM told TTGmice that sustainability has become a hot topic that is being driven by clients.

The CTM said: “For my company, there are definitely activities at the global level around sustainability with a specific team with full-time roles and targets being set.

“The business approach is evolving and instead of just looking at our immediate impact, we are also starting to consider secondary and tertiary spheres of influence, our partner suppliers and where we spend our money.

CWT’s Hwang added: “Sustainability is on everyone’s radar, and ranks in the top five priorities for many travel programmes. When we surveyed our global customer base at the end of 2021, 87 per cent expressed that they would like sustainability information provided to their employees at point-of-booking to help reinforce responsible travel choices.”

In March, CWT added carbon footprint indicators to its myCWT mobile and web booking channels, and recently entered into a offsetting partnership with Etihad Airways.

Benson Tang, executive director, corporate travel, Informa Markets (IM) said “governments around the world have illustrated more determination in sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance principles) after COP 26 (the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Glasgow last November.

“This top-down government approach will exert more requirements on corporates to focus seriously on the overall level of carbon emissions and carbon emission trading. As the world sets its sights on achieving net-zero emissions, there is increasing debate on carbon offset and tax,” he elaborated.

Tang, who is also executive director of IM subsidiary Corporate Travel Community, noticed that CTMs were indeed complying with new government requirements, amending travel policies, and implementing the new requirements in the RFP processes.

He told TTGmice: “IM aims to become a champion of sustainability within our business and across the specialist markets we serve.

“As part of our FasterForward programme, we have committed to a series of specific goals and activities over a five-year period, designed to help us become an ever more sustainable, and high-impact business to support and accelerate change in our markets.”

Palawan hardly needs any introduction – it regularly picks up global accolades for its incomparable natural beauty and rich biodiversity.

Its three most-coveted destinations – the city of Puerto Princesa and the towns of El Nido and Coron – have varied offerings further boosted by the reopening of Philippine international borders and full capacity operations for business event venues since February this year.

Puerto Princesa, which is also Palawan’s capital city, is still the leader for business events. Its edge, according to Arfel Travel and Tours president, Fe Abling-Yu, is its airport that can handle bigger aircraft like the A321, while the city also has hotels with facilities for medium-sized events.

Abling-Yu said that while there are frequent commercial flights to and from Coron, its short runway cannot accommodate large aircraft. A mountainous area, Internet signal and connectivity can pose a challenge at times. But as Coron aspires to capture more events, it has a growing number of new accommodation and the latest, TAG Resort, has event facilities for up to 500 pax.

Bustling El Nido has been expanding its cache of hotels but its slim airstrip can only accommodate small turboprops. For now, only Airswift flies to El Nido from Manila, Abling-Yu pointed out.

However, El Nido has a number of accommodation and at Lio Tourism Estate, a sustainable, low impact lifestyle destination, there are six quaint hotels of various categories to choose from.

If implemented, the proposal to develop the province’s second airport – in Taytay in north Palawan less than two hours’ drive from El Nido – will certainly enable the province to attract more passengers and host bigger corporate groups.

Taytay and Culion are being eyed for further tourism developments, as are various areas within the province that are still undiscovered by tourists, in what is known as the Philippines’ Last Frontier.

The town of San Vicente, known for its long stretch of pristine white sand beaches, was touted to be the next destination after El Nido but interest in its development was hindered by the pandemic.

What Palawan lacks in big airport is somehow compensated for by the variety it offers in terms of hotels and resorts, tours and activities, and logistics for bleisure.

For now, corporate groups are starting to find their way back to Palawan, after two years of lockdown. For instance, at the WTTC 21st Global Summit in Manila last April, El Nido and Boracay were the most popular sites for post tours.

According to Bernadette de Leon, owner of Amiable Intertours, Palawan can be a promising events destination as it has the facilities and logistics for such gatherings.

Since domestic and international borders reopened in February, de Leon observed an increase in fam trip invitations for the travel trade to see and experience new hotels and resorts that have sprouted in Palawan in recent years, indicating the destination’s readiness to host business events again.

Indeed, while Palawan is home to luxurious resorts such as Amanpulo and Pangulasian Island, it raises the bar with posh island retreats so exclusive that they can only be reached by chartered and private aircraft.

Curiously, there’s a scarcity of international hotel brands in Palawan. However, homegrown brands, with their architecture and service, are able to hold a candle to their foreign counterparts.

Palawan also offers more variety in tours and activities, being the only province in the Philippines that boasts two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the 8.2km Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park and the 97,030-hectare Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park. Both are coveted for teambuilding adventures.

The province is also the getaway paradise with endless white beaches, secluded islands, coves and lagoons, breathtaking panorama of tall limestone cliffs rising above turquoise waters, unhurried life in fishing and agricultural villages, and exotic and endangered wildlife at the Calauit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary.

Variety is the spice for business events in Palawan, yet new tours and activities are continuously popping up, said eco-tour operator Al Linsangan III, particularly in the Calamian Islands which includes Coron.

Linsangan listed some of them: expeditions, eco-tours, land-based and marine-based adventures, tribal community immersion, gastronomy, urban agriculture specifically in Coron, and many more.
With most of Palawan still untouched and has not yet succumbed to mass tourism, the five-year Sustainable Tourism Development Plan launched in 2020 is out to make tourism in Coron and El Nido sustainable and inclusive.

This focus on sustainability leads the national tourism board to market Palawan for Inspiring Incentives, with emphasis on programmes and activities on sustainable tourism efforts, CSR, nonexploitative rather than staged activities, and slow food and slow travel concepts.

While Palawan undoubtedly has huge tourism potential, it should also prioritise its airport infrastructure if it were to optimise its business events potential.

Boracay Newcoast Convention Center, the Philippines
Boracay Newcoast Convention Center, set to open in July this year, will burnish and expand the insufficient number of events facilities on the Philippine island.

Located in the Boracay Newcoast township that is fast taking shape, the modern convention centre has capacity for 800 pax banquet style or 1,200 pax theatre style.

Its outdoor venue, The Gazebo, has space for up to 200 guests.

The convention centre is next to Belmont and Savoy hotels, which have 1,000 keys combined, with a third hotel, Chancellor, being developed all under the same owner, Megaworld Hotels and Resorts.

The entire venue has LED walls and can be divided into three function rooms, with a modern set up and fixtures for virtual and hybrid meeting facilities equipped with Wi-Fi.

Boracay Newcoast Convention Center’s selling point is its location, making the venue and surroundings a business events destination in itself, with a vantage view of the ocean and the iconic Boracay keyhole.

It is also within walking distance to the beach, just 50m away.

Haneda Innovation City, Japan
Located one train stop from Haneda International Airport, Haneda Innovation City features convention facilities and numerous F&B options including gourmet dining.

The conference centre has rooms suitable for both large and small meetings, as well as accommodation for visitors attending multi-day events. There is also a multipurpose hall for 3,000 pax, standing.

As the facility’s main goal is to bring together advanced technology and culture to facilitate social innovation and present old and new Japan, the space also offers cultural experiences, entertainment and a rooftop plaza with foot baths overlooking the nearby runways.

Haneda Innovation City connects directly to Tenkubashi Station on the Keikyu Airport Line and Tokyo Monorail Line.

India International Convention and Expo Centre, India
Located in Dwarka, New Delhi, India International Convention and Expo Centre (IICC) is slated to be the country’s largest convention and exhibition centre when fully operational.

Conceived as a smart city project driven by the government, IICC will have five large exhibition halls, a multi-purpose convention centre, the largest auditorium in India capable of holding 10,000 people at one time, as well as multi-arena facilities for 6,000 people.

The first phase of IICC is expected to open in 2022, and will comprise Halls 1 and 2 as well as an 11,000-seat convention centre. Between the exhibition and convention facilities, an artistic one-kilometre-long lobby will capture various attractions, shopping and entertainment, as well as a 3,500-key hotel, office space and meeting facilities.

Phase two is expected to be completed by December 2024.

IICC is expected to infuse a demand for more than 100 major international and local exhibitions annually.

Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Thailand
While not a new addition to Bangkok’s well-established business events scene, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center will reopen this year with vastly expanded hardware after an extensive renovation project.

Capacity has been boosted five times over to 300,000m², allowing the centre to accommodate 100,000 visitors per day and several meetings and events concurrently. Of the total space, 78,500m² has been dedicated to event usage, while 10,000m² has been earmarked for retail space.

The venue has installed 5G Internet to support hybrid event needs, touchless access system, and an intelligent event platform management system.

Accessibility is also improved, with Queen Sirikit National Convention Center now connected to the city’s rapid rail system of the same name.

The versatile venue will reopen in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit 2022 this September.

Sabah International Convention Centre, Malaysia
Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) is the largest convention, exhibition and entertainment facility in East Malaysia, with a total function space of 153,197m2.

Located in the heart of Kota Kinabalu city, SICC offers 38 event spaces of various sizes across five levels. These are suitable for any event arrangement, and the venue can accommodate up to 7,542 people altogether.

Facilities include an expansive column-free convention hall with a retractable partition system divisible into three sections, three contiguous exhibition halls spanning 5,200m², a 1,250-seat two-tier amphitheatre, 19 meeting rooms, and several private VIP rooms and VVIP lounges.

For planners desiring an outdoor venue, SICC has a 7,000m² plaza connected to the main lobby, set against a backdrop of islands and the South China Sea.

Tākina, New Zealand
Tãkina is a new convention and exhibition centre that is set to open in Wellington, New Zealand come 2023.

Located within the CBD, the purpose-built venue will offer a multitude of flexible spaces that come with fully integrated audio-visual and Information and Communications Technology systems to facilitate hybrid conferences.

Tãkina boasts two divisible plenary halls located on separate levels, allowing for two conferences of up to 700 pax to function concurrently. Alternatively, the entire hall can accommodate up to 1,600 attendees at once.

There are also up to 2,500m² of exhibition and catering space, plus 11 breakout rooms.

Delegates attending events at Tãkina will benefit from easy access to Wellington’s myriad accommodation, recreation and lifestyle offerings – many of which are within walking distance, thanks to the compactness of the central city.

Convention centres in the region – especially those in countries where more freedom has been restored – are looking to the future with renewed optimism, as international business events gradually return.

To tide through the pandemic, these convention centres got creative – large floor spaces were turned into quarantine facilities and vaccination centres, and lifestyle offerings such as attractions and F&B were developed for the domestic market.

Muscling up with tech
The most important step large-scale venues took, were to upskill their staff, and quickly digitalising their services to support virtual events.

Marina Bay Sands (MBS) was one of the first movers in the region. It created its own Hybrid Broadcast Studio – a holographic teleprescence and mixed reality stage – early on in 2020.

MBS’ vice president of sales, Mike Lee, shared: “We embraced technology further and launched the Virtual Meeting Place (VMP) in October 2021, becoming the first venue in the MICE industry to launch such a platform globally.”

VMP allows organisers to scratch-build their virtual venue and replicate real-life event spaces at MBS, and includes multiple functions such as live streaming capabilities, exhibition booths and a content library.

This rapid digitalisation effort is what led to MBS playing host to over 870 events in 2021, amid the pandemic.

This year, several large-scale events have already held shows at MBS, such as the Singapore International Water Week and Asia Pacific Maritime. PCMA Convening Asia Pacific will make its way there come September.

Across Singapore, Constellar Holdings has been running digital and hybrid events at Singapore Expo. One of these studios, ApeX, is Singapore’s largest hybrid studio. It was created as part of Singapore Expo’s upgrading efforts during the pandemic, shared incoming CEO Jean-François Quentin.

The move to beef up event technology has also benefitted ICC Sydney, which delivered over 600 events between March 2020 and March 2022. According to CEO Geoff Donaghy, these events attracted more than 660,000 visitors and hundreds of thousands more online.

Aside from transforming its brick-and-mortar space into hybrid and virtual studios, Alan Pryor, general manager, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, told TTGmice that a priority for its survival “was strict compliance, implementation and enforcement of the new SOPs”. These measures boosted confidence among clients and the public in hosting and attending events at the centre, which was also the first venue in Malaysia to obtain the MySafe BE certification.

Full steam ahead
As social and business conditions improve on the back of better pandemic management, convention centres in key cities are happy to show extremely healthy forward bookings for 2023.

Donaghy is seeing an increase in demand for in-person events.

“ICC Sydney has 300 domestic and international events for the first half of 2022. When looking at the full calendar year, we are working towards delivering another 300 events across all market segments,” he shared.

Australia’s relaxed border controls have helped to stoke interest, and Donaghy expects the number of confirmed events will only continue to increase in 2H2022.

Singapore’s commitment to reopening has not gone unnoticed among show organisers. Jewellery & Gem World and Cosmoprof Asia have chosen to escape the confines of a restrictive Hong Kong, moving their shows to Singapore in September and November respectively.

Two more mega events under the Food&HotelAsia (FHA) platform, FHA-Food & Beverage, the largest international F&B showcase in Asia and FHA-HoReCa, the world’s leading foodservice & hospitality event in Asia, are slated to return to the Singapore Expo in September and October respectively.

Quentin said enquiries have tripled from what Constellar Holdings got at the end of 2021.

“While we’re unlikely to see bookings return to pre-Covid levels for at least another year, we’re also cognisant that the landscape is vastly different now. For example, a few event organisers are rethinking their business models, such as scaling down from having several shows a year to just one or two,” he shared.

There is greater positivity in Kuala Lumpur too. Pryor is confident of achieving the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre’s sales target as measures have been lifted in Malaysia. Currently, 30 per cent of 117 confirmed events this year are international conventions and exhibitions.

“For 2023, we have secured five conventions and 15 exhibitions, and are looking to lock in 80 more from both segments in the next six months,” he shared.

For Loy Joon How, general manager of Thailand-based IMPACT Exhibition & Convention Centre, this year’s business outlook is “still weak” even as international bookings return for 2023. As the Covid situation continues to improve, Loy expects domestic events to be critical to industry recovery.

Even new-kid-on-the-block Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre has much to cheer about. General manager Ross Steele said “business is looking good”, and pointed to more than 100 events already on the books for the next six months, including 60 conferences, and a “solid pipeline” for the coming years.

Hurdles remain
It is a new dawn for convention centres in Asia-Pacific, but the road to recovery is still fraught with challenges. Manpower constraints and a hyper-competitive landscape are threatening to dampen venues’ ability to win more events.

Loy observed a critical need for venues to maintain cost effectiveness while balancing the implementation of Covid protocols, standards and practices.

For Quentin, manpower acquisition and retention have been a struggle. The perception that other industries are more stable than the events industry are of no help to recruitment efforts, while rising demand for hospitality professionals is pushing up salary expectations.

Beyond internal challenges, Quentin also shed light on a possible reduction in large-scale shows available for venues to court, as “many consumer show exhibitors are rethinking their participation level” due to supply chain challenges and rise of e-commerce.

Pryor also warned that most venues and destinations would be contending for the same piece of business, resulting in intense competition. As such, the host destination’s openness to international travel would influence the show organiser’s decision.