New tourism infrastructure as well as upcoming tourism and business districts are giving Shanghai a greater sense of confidence
The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration (SMTA) is expecting 2017 to be better than the last while the industry is equally upbeat and has made calls for a convention bureau to be set up to further boost Shanghai in light of new hotel inventory and products opening this year and the next, and new areas being developed to enhance the city’s offerings.
By 2020, Shanghai will have six tourism new areas – the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone in the Pudong New Area; the Sheshan Tourism Resort in Songjiang District; the Dianshan Lake Tourism Resort in Qingpu District; the Bund-Yuyuan Garden-Xintiandi historical and cultural tourism area; the Dongtan wetlands ecological tourism area; and the China cruise tourism development trial zone in Baoshan and Hongkou districts. Also in the pipeline are seven suburban parks and nine countryside tourism belts.
When China’s austerity drive kicked in four years ago, SMTA scaled back on its international tradeshow attendance. According to Patrick Chen, its deputy director, the only overseas tradeshow SMTA is attending this year is IMEX Frankfurt. On home ground, IT&CM China in Shanghai and IBTM China in Beijing are the only ones it is investing in.
However, Sophie Wang, director of sales and marketing, The Westin Bund Center Shanghai, feels that such exposures are insufficient when the city is expanding rapidly with new products.
Wang said: “Perhaps SMTA can consider going back to AIME in Melbourne and attend tradeshows like ITB Berlin to reach out to European association meeting buyers.”
For now, Chen is content with SMTA’s reach, noting that the number of international association meetings held last year was “stable”. Shanghai hosted a number of transport and research congresses in 2016, most with around 1,500 delegates. Some of the notable events were Huawei Connect 2016 in 3Q2016 with 20,000 delegates, 83rd UFI Global Congress in November with 600 pax, and 6th Congress Of The Asia-Pacific Pediatric Cardiac Society held in October with 1,500 attendees.
He added that Shanghai welcomed a record 8.54 million international arrivals in 2016, an increase of six per cent, with business travellers making up 50 per cent and meeting delegates 10 per cent.
For 2017, major association meetings bound for Shanghai include the 17th International Congress of Ophthalmology and Optometry China in March, with up to 4,000 delegates; the 11th Biennial ISAKOS Congress for arthroscopy, knee surgery and sports medicine in June, with up to 1,500-delegates; and the 70th IIW Annual Assembly and International Conference, which looks at green welding technologies for manufacturing, in June, with up to 1,500 delegates.
Recognising the power of word-of-mouth promotion, SMTA has expanded its Conference Ambassador Programme with six new members. There are now 104 ambassadors representing various fields including medical, mathematical and pharmaceutical.
On the private sector side, the Shanghai MICE Consultant Committee (SMCC), set up in 2014, whose members comprise DMCs, media and exhibition companies, is gaining traction by helping the industry access resources, raise professional standards and improve service quality through its educational and social programmes.
BCD Meetings & Events China is considering joining SMCC. On recent trends, Sam Lay, senior director, Greater China, observed overseas and domestic pharmaceutical clients attending association meetings have become “more careful and have been consolidating their budgets”.
“We are helping our clients strategise by matching their compliance with company policy, understand hotel seasonality with the ups and downs in pricing, show our hotel suppliers that Shanghai has to be needs driven and for all parties to be able to find the middle ground,” he said.
For a “mature” destination like Shanghai, with a reported 37 hotels and new products coming online this year and next, Ronald Kang, area vice president, Bellagio by MGM Shanghai, thinks the city needs a CVB like the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau to consolidate the industry in bidding for international association meetings.
Bellagio by MGM Shanghai opens on June 28 and other luxury properties like Aman, Bellagio and Capella, Shanghai are scheduled to open within the year. Shanghai is also beefing up its inventory of business hotels including the opening of InterContinental Shanghai NECC, Hyatt Regency Shanghai, Wujiaochang, located in a thriving business, innovation and university district, St. Regis Jingan, Cordis East Bund, Cordis Hongqiao and Meliá Shanghai Hongqiao.
Remington Zhu, vice president, sales, Greater China and Mongolia, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, pointed out that the Greater Hongqiao business area is a new growth area for business events in Shanghai.
Zhu said: “Many international hotel brands will be launching properties in this area, including our own Hilton Garden Inn brand. Shanghai remains one of the hotspots having hosted 27 per cent of (business events) in China according to a 2015 report.”
To be highly competitive in the face of new rivals, Hilton will leverage its commitment to environmental sustainability by launching Meet with Purpose this year, a holistic proposition designed to make it easier for meeting professionals to reduce waste and incorporate health and wellness into meetings and events.
As well, meeting and event clients can benefit from Hilton’s Clean Air Program which buys equivalent carbon credits based on the carbon output generated at no additional cost, and LightStay, a calculator that measures meeting impact on the environment.
To draw more association meetings, Zhu suggested making bookings easier with an “all-inclusive price” and using technology to cater to bleisure travellers who can experience local attractions after work is done.
