World MICE Now -Europe-
World MICE Now -Europe-
Hello, this is Chris & Partners. 😊 When you think of Europe, what comes to mind first? We imagine you'd think of various things—diverse and grand architecture, nature, the food you can taste in each country, and more. 🗼🏔🛕🍖🍝🍺 Amazingly, Europe is like the home of MICE, where the international conferences and exhibitions that form the roots of the MICE industry began! In this post we'll look into the development of Europe's MICE industry and its post-pandemic recovery status.
MICE on Europe
First, with a few countries as examples, we'll look at the development of Europe's MICE industry and the pre-COVID situation. 🧐
<Germany>
Germany is the country with the most activated MICE industry in Europe. It holds 2.7 million sqm of exhibition space—20% of the world's exhibition area—and Germany holds 4 of the world's 5 largest exhibition halls. Cited as Germany's representative MICE industry, the Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show (IFA) is Germany's largest home-appliance fair, a storied industrial exhibition first started in 1924. Germany is also the host country of famous exhibitions like the Hannover Industrial Fair, Frankfurt Motor Show, and more. Held every May in Frankfurt, Germany's financial and economic hub city, IMEX is famous as a large MICE-specialist event in which about 20,000 people from 150 countries take part—incentive-specialist travel agencies, event hosts, related organizations, and more—from around the world.
<Switzerland>
Switzerland, located at the center of Europe, leveraged its geographic advantage to raise the value of tourism and the MICE industry. The Alps, clean lakes, and its position as a neutral country are favorable conditions for attracting world-class summits and international organizations, as well as international events. Switzerland holds the Geneva Motor Show, the world's best auto fair, every year. Also, through the annually held World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos—a small town with a population of only about 10,000—became widely known worldwide.
<Spain>
Spain, whose main industry is tourism services,—foreign tourists account for 56%, more than half of total tourism income, and the employment generated by this accounts for 76.2%, it's said. In particular, Barcelona takes up a large portion of Spain's MICE industry; the Mobile World Congress (MWC), held in Barcelona every year, leaves income of more than 500 million euros (about 600 billion won). Barcelona, so that this event isn't a simple event but can become the world's HOTTEST mobile exhibition, discovers and presents new trends each year and holds the conference, it's said. Barcelona's MICE industry is cited as a model case that effectively linked its ancestors' cultural heritage and the city's resources to the industry, rather than reckless expansion and urban development.
<Belgium>
Belgium, despite being a small country, has the most international organizations after the USA, including the European Union headquarters. To overcome its narrow geographic weakness, it makes continuous efforts—such as creating differentiated convention districts according to event purpose and scale—steadily maintaining a leading position in the MICE industry.
Europe after Covid-19
Europe's MICE industry is one of Europe's core industries, accounting for about half of the world MICE market. The infectious disease that suddenly began in 2020 caused border closures and travel bans in most European countries, and as a result, most business events in Europe were canceled, plunging Europe's MICE industry into severe economic depression. The economic damage in Southern European regions heavily dependent on tourism—Spain, Italy, Greece—is said to be immeasurable.
First, the European Tourism Association, which has more than 60 public and private travel-tourism bodies in Europe and a voice in the field, called on EU member states to establish plans to resume European travel and tourism in time for this summer. Their goal is for Europe to return to being the world's best and a safe travel destination, and—with the EU vaccination program underway—to protect the most vulnerable citizens while preparing to resume travel, it's said.
Germany—how about it? Due to the COVID-19 fallout, the world's largest MICE-specialist fair, slated for May, ‘IMEX Frankfurt,’ was canceled. The German Convention Bureau (GCB) also expressed regret over the cancellation of IMEX Frankfurt. Also, Munich in Bavaria decided not to hold ‘Oktoberfest,’ the world's largest beer festival, slated for October. The Bavarian state premier said this was to prevent a feared third major COVID wave from the festival and minimize economic loss. As the EU pushes to resume travel between countries ahead of the summer holiday season, Germany is paying attention to preventing a COVID resurgence.
Spain's government, early this year, to overcome the COVID crisis, announced a 4.2-billion-euro support package for the tourism industry. It was the government's judgment that Spain's dependence on international tourism is too high, domestic demand can't cover all the costs and investment of international tourists, and most of the many self-employed businesses have closed in connection with COVID-19, so financial support is needed at least until the situation changes. The government decided, in agreement with local governments, to extend this support plan for several months at a time. As Spain was heavily dependent on the MICE industry, the government is showing active response.
Besides these, the UK is providing 80% salary support and other financial support to struggling event-industry workers, and Greece and Italy, which showed high dependence on the MICE industry, are also preparing and rolling out active government-level response measures.
Like this, despite the tough, depressed situation caused by COVID, MICE events are being held across Europe to find a breakthrough. ✨
First, the Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show (IFA), counted as one of the world's three major IT exhibitions, decided on a small-scale offline holding. An IFA official explained, “We can't hold it at the originally planned scale, but the reason we decided on an offline holding—even in the form of a small-scale special edition—is to express our will to be a networking platform for companies worldwide in any crisis.” They repeatedly emphasized that, regarding the safety measures that have become essential due to COVID-19, they designed the exhibition by preparing extensive exhibition measures in cooperation with the Berlin city government. They also designed a digital exhibition, ‘IFA Extended Space,’ for companies and visitors who can't come to Berlin in person. Though a virtual space, companies that couldn't exhibit on-site can hold showcases through it—actively leveraging online.
In France, an ‘exhibition powerhouse’ where over 400 exhibitions are held annually, how is the COVID-19 crisis being overcome? The international fair spreading design trends, Maison&Objet, is also slated to be held online this September. Visitors can visit the online exhibition hall, look at products, and then live-chat with companies. To draw continuous industry interest rather than ending with a one-off visit, it plans to hold new trend conferences for 8 weeks, it's said.
Held every two years in Venice, Italy, the comprehensive international art exhibition Venice Biennale was originally slated for last May but was postponed due to COVID-19; it resumes on May 22 in a combined online and offline format, it's said.
We looked into Europe's MICE, which is going through a tough time given its high dependence on the MICE industry, including travel and tourism. We hope a day comes soon when the whole world recovers stability from the virus's threat and we can visit Europe—with its history and romance—again. 🙏🏻
Are you planning a hybrid event running online and offline in parallel due to COVID-19?
Prepare a satisfying event with Chris & Partners, a professional platform ready for in-person/contactless meetings, hybrid/virtual events, and digital marketing. 😉