CLARK FREEPORT – A four-day convention to promote this freeport and the Province of Pampanga as a preferred destination for meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibits/events or MICE kicked-off yesterday at the Fontana Convention Center here.
Clark Development Corp. (CDC) President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade, meeting with the media during the opening, cited the Philippine Tourism Promotions Board and the CDC’s Tourism Department headed by Noemi Garcia for “working hard” to hold the MICE 2014 convention here.
“MICE Con is not only Philippines but global and worldwide. Today we are just dealing about that Philippine segment,” Tugade told newsmen. “Today we see 400 to 500 delegates but those are just the trigger mechanism.
Hopefully by having activities like these, you put the proper trigger in the right place. What we are after is a multiplier effect. They see Clark or even Pampanga for two or three days and hopefully what they see, what they feel, what they taste, what they observe can trigger the persona in them so that what we could do is a multiplier effect,” Tugade said.
Commenting on the attendees, Tugade said “what you have here are the movers of the industry in terms of meetings, incentives, conventions events and exhibits that can spell the difference for Clark.”
For her part, Garcia said “If we are able to project the image that is needed to be projected you can just imagine the global multiplier effect if we can do our act together. We want to promote Clark and the whole of Pampanga as a destination for MICE. The more people that use our facilities the better for us not only locally but those coming from other countries,” said Garcia.
Asked to comment on critics observations that the best way to attract people to hold meetings, conventions and events here is to immediately complete the full development of the Clark International Airport, Tugade said: “pwedi mong pagsabayin (you can do them together).”
“To create a good image, there’s got to be facilities. But the issue is: Do we need to complete the facilities before we can invite others to come?” Tugade asked. “So that if we can complete the facilities like the airport, then everything is set,” he added.
But Tugade said he is not out to grab credit from those who actually worked for the holding of the MICE Con 2014 here. “Let us give them their due recognition,” he said referring to the Tourism Promotions Board and the Garcia’s team.
“The details, creation and definition of the mission as well as the objectives and details of the planning were good,” Tugade said.
Meanwhile, MICE Con 2014 is envisioned to create the demand for increased investments in meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibits/events facilities and other support infrastructure from this freeport to other MICE hubs such as Subic and Baguio and spreading to the rest of Northern Luzon which accounted for 2.07 million of the country’s foreign and domestic touris
