^{Macau has been a place to meet since as far back as the 16th century when the Portuguese started to expand their trade in the Far East. Other European and Western countries also developed trade through Macau, which flourished until the establishment of Hong Kong in the mid 19th century. This ‘East meets West’ backdrop of over 400 years of meeting in Macau is still part of the promotional spin of marketing Macau as a meetings destination and ‘city of events’. Although greatly discussed and examined within various tourism media and by tourism stakeholders and defined as a major tourism development strategy for Macau, the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) industry currently reflects a minor segment within Macau's overall visitor flow.}

Large resources are also invested into the staging of events and festivals to enhance overall tourism offerings with objectives ranging from attracting more and a wider range of tourists, to enhancing a destination's image and instilling community involvement and pride. As can be seem by recent large events in Macau such as the 54th PATA Annual Conference (2005) and the upcoming 4th East Asian Games (2005) and the 2nd Indoor Asian Games in 2007, Macau is now using events as a key tourism promotion strategy. Yet to fully optimise the use of meetings and events as an approach to tourism development, various strategic challenges still lie ahead and merit further research.

Within a tourist destination, there will usually be an array of tourism stakeholders with varying resources and objectives, including the government, influential individuals and organisations from the private sector, public utility companies, educational institutions, media, tourists and the local community. An issue with such groups is how to consolidate opinions impartially, ensuring that tourism bodies do not become ‘window dressing’ in favor of those with the most resources and influence highlighting their own agendas.

A central coordinating MICE body involving public and private sector membership could be a useful addition in Macau for developing the meetings and conference industry. This might not only involve the tourism office, conference planners, destination management companies, meeting venues and hotels, but also those involved with immigration (arrivals/departures) and local associations whose support would be important in the process of attracting international association meetings.

Events and conferences is a tourism development strategy being increasingly used by tourist destinations internationally. There may be several economic and social objectives, but a common aim with events is to increase and enhance global awareness of the destination in the hope of influencing potential visitor perceptions. However, the messages sent by a destination's various tourism stakeholders may not necessarily match the messages received. Research to determine exactly how international audiences perceive a destination can be utilized in the formulation of more segmented and directed event marketing and promotional strategies.

There has been gradual growth in the demand for and introduction of training programmes with a focus on professional event management. An event planner may perform many demanding roles, going through the complete event process from conceptualisation, writing and pitching bid documents and planning the event to actual implementation, monitoring and event evaluation, and should possess an assortment of specialist skills and knowledge. For destinations to develop their MICE industry and to compete in regional and global markets, training local people in professional event management and planning should remain a major focus of development.

In the end, the winning and hosting of a conference could come down to a marketing- and sales-orientated approach. Given the highly competitive nature of the meetings industry, designing an effective sales pitch will become more crucial as a larger number of destinations seek greater shares of the business-travel market. With corporate and association meetings looking for the ‘unique’ or something different for their conference and with many destinations becoming more convenient thanks to new flight connections, competition goes beyond regional counterparts to international ones.

The MICE industry continues to become ever more competitive as additional destinations jostle for part of the meetings and events pie. The result is more convention facilities and infrastructure and a search for unique attributes that can be promoted to distinguish a destination from its neighbors. This can mean exploiting the beauty of the local natural environment, purpose-built landmarks and historic venues or packaging meetings with cultural components such as local cuisine, activities and festivals. With Macau receiving MICE competition from neighbours such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Guangzhou, this search for competitive and distinctive attributes will remain a significant issue for MICE development.

Given that potential meeting facilities range from the standard function room, to the natural environment, to historical locations, a useful reference for any meeting professional is a concise and accurate guide to the usage of such venues, including rental pricing, floor layouts, fixtures and contact persons. Macau has an array of historic venues and locations that could be used for meetings or catered events. If included with meeting proposals and bid documents, information on them could help provide competitive advantage, underscoring the value of a comprehensive guide to their use.

With events comes the development of infrastructure and venues. A major challenge is how to use facilities developed for a particular major event after it has been held. Utilization of facilities built for a one-time sporting event depends on the community's abiding interest in the sport, for example.

Research is a key element of event strategy at all stages. Bidding for an event can present opportunities for marketing and promoting a destination, but can also help build community pride. Continuous feedback and input is important in advancing objectives such as stimulating tourism and economic growth, enhancing a destination's image, maximising sponsorship exposure, improving community involvement and getting full value from the infrastructure legacy of major events. Research and evaluation should be a basic event management tool, offering guidance and direction to event planning.

For many destinations, MICE development is a strategy for countering seasonal cyclical lows in visitor arrivals. Destinations must make judgments on the optimum mix of events and conferences and the resources needed to support them.

Large-scale MICE events play out over a long cycle, beginning with the bidding process and ending with the event itself. Supporting the long-term effort involved requires monitoring of interest by potential participants or spectators in coming for the event, determining spin-off benefits and insuring that the event is of net benefit for tourism development.

The hosting of events and the desire to develop the MICE industry play major roles in the marketing and promotion of Macau as a tourist destination. Given the presence of Las Vegas casino operators Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, both renowned for entertainment and hosting events, this focus will undoubtedly intensify in the future. However, with other destinations also targeting the MICE sector for advantage in the highly competitive global tourism market, addressing the sector's challenges is of growing importance.

by Glenn McCartney
Lecture in Marketing and Event Management at the Institute for Tourism Studies/Macau Business Tourism Analist