Focus on tier III & IV cities

The Network of Indian MICE Agents is concentrating on expanding its outreach across India and trying to enrol more members from tier III, and IV cities, according to Gajesh Girdhar, Founder & National Coordinator, NIMA.

Surbhi Sharma

With Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry in India touching new heights every day, Gajesh Girdhar, Founder & National Coordinator, Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA), says, “NIMA is concentrating more on expanding its outreach across India and trying to get more members from tier III, and IV cities. We always look for applications filed from these cities, as we believe they are the end users who will give business to consolidators. Hence, they should come forward. To push these cities towards growth and to reach out to more members, we are tapping the far Northeast, the extreme South, and the extreme North of the country.”

Sharing his experience, Girdhar said that corporates are looking for new destinations for their incentive and business conferences and are approaching agents in tier II, III and IV cities. He said the government is positive about creating the required infrastructure to boost tourism, which will benefit the agents sitting in remote areas to generate business.

Talking about the steps taken by the association recently, Girdhar said, “In the past month, we focused more on the growth of our membership and added 45 new members to our association. Adding to this, another 50 to 60 members are all set to join hands with us within the next 15 days. About 200 or 300 applications are still pending, which need to be scrutinised by the committee that approves the members.”

NIMA and the Moscow City Tourism Committee recently met at Leela Palace in New Delhi to discuss some pilot projects. The meeting was fruitful, as it was articulated that the association will launch a few pilot projects in the coming months the details of which are still awaited.

He mentioned that after successfully conducting a training session in OTM, and another one in VLTM, NIMA is convinced to emphasise more on training in the upcoming VLTM. NIMA aims to give education and training to tourism students pursuing their final year.

“We also invite students from different universities to come and attend the seminars, so that they can understand what exactly M!CE is,” he said.

Established in 2014, NIMA is the only not-for-profit network dedicated to the benefit of M!CE operators in India. The association plans its annual flagship event M!CE Forum soon after the Lok Sabha elections results are announced.