The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Meltdown hits events

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Sunday, Jan 04, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Meltdown hits events

M.L.Melly Maitreyi

Companies resorting to cost cutting measures impacting the MICE segment of the sector

HYDERABAD: Winter months this time have taken the sheen off the hospitality and travel sector in the State with corporate and business travel witnessing a down trend.

Reeling under the impact of global recession, the peak season has seen corporate companies resorting to cost cutting measures impacting the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) segment of the sector. But, knowledgeable persons in the industry say things would look up by March.

Popular venues of MICE events-- hotels, resorts , convention centres that are normally abuzz with corporate events and bulk bookings during this period have reported an overall drop in revenue.

Though there are no cancellations of corporate conferences as they are booked well in advance, comparison between figures of the last season and the present indicate that hospitality and travel sector suffered a revenue setback by 20 to 25 per cent, admit industry sources.

Restaurants and hotels Association of AP President Veer Vijay Singh confirms overall decline in corporate events so far.

Occupancy down

Annual events like Medical conference, TANA, CII Partnership summit did not happen this year and there have also been few cancellations. Room occupancy rate came down by 20 per cent.

With more hotels coming up and advantage of international airport and good infrastructure, Hyderabad will emerge as a competitive MICE destination with some aggressive marketing they propose to do through ‘Visit Hyderabad’ Society headed by APTDC Managing Director Jayesh Ranjan, he adds.

Fall in revenue

Philips of Alankrita Resorts, a popular MICE destination, admits to a fall in revenue of 20 per cent due to corporate companies resorting to austerity measures. Travel Agents Association of India, Hyderabad chapter president Shekhar said business traffic was down by 50 per cent.

Not only IT sector, even other businesses impacted by slowdown imposed air travel restrictions on their executives. Despite being the peak season for travel, many aircraft were flying with several seats empty.

But recession did not force medical profession to pull out any of its conferences or continuing medical education programmes.

Some foreign delegates opted out of conferences due to travel advisories but otherwise turnout was impressive in several medical conferences of various specialisations held in different places like Ludhiana, Jaipur and Hyderabad.

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