The nuts and bolts of MICE according to Kawar

"Jordan is becoming one of the big destinations for MICE business" says Mazen Kawar, one of the Managing Partners of Petra Tours in Amman.

Almost every country in the region including Dubai, Egypt and Lebanon are now positioning themselves as MICE destinations for big international business events.

"Here in Jordan we are getting our fair regional share of MICE, and tour operators are beginning to have special divisions solely devoted to attracting this kind of business," adds Kawar.

And the case is true with Petra Tours which was established as a family concern and has since diversified into catering for the different needs of the traveler and a developed "Petra Events Management" division.

"We felt there was a need to establish such a division because of the growing demand by international businessmen, corporate executives, and companies who increasingly want to hold their events in Jordan," points out Kawar one of whose roles is to monitor the activities of the division and reports to the executive board of Petra Tours.

Petra Events Management has a full-time staff specialized in the organization of the different activities related to MICE. It's a division established in 2002 because of the growing importance of MICE in the world economy, which experts say is growing by eight to 10 percent annually, an increase that is being felt in Jordan because of the expansion of its different business sectors especially after 2003.

"We were becoming part of a global village, where international business and conferencing and exhibitions are coming to us and held on our soil, that's why we were determined to establish a separate MICE division, a trend gradually followed by other travel and tourism companies in Jordan," suggests Kawar who has been in the travel business for more than two decades.

"Jordan was becoming a regular place for WEF [World Economic Forum] events and business forums in the Dead Sea, Rebuild Iraq venues, the Chinese Products Fair, UN and foreign affairs meetings and such like which require a high degree of organization," maintains Kawar.

This called for more professionalism because of the clients coming to Jordan demanding quality service in terms of event management, organization, networking, and logistics of venue booking, hotel booking, transportations and excursions.

Some of these conferences are quite large, catering for up to 1000 participants, many in the 600 to 700 range mark and others are less and held in different parts of the country.

With MICE off course comes the fun side of the business activity, and with Jordan it is the skies the limit for attractive sites. "For participants, we provide pre and post events optional tours and excursions for those who want to go sightseeing to places like Petra, Jeresh and even our desert castles, the clients actually expect this service, and organize programs for the spouses during conferences who usually accompany their husbands."

MICE business is generated either locally and/or internationally. On the locally scene conferences and workshops regularly come up from different quarters in the country, and the case is the same internationally.

"Although, and understandably so, this kind of business tends to be seasonal, it is generated from the USA and Canada, across Europe, Russia and China, and the different booking dates means we are working full throttle in the year and there is a momentum in the flow of business tourists to the Kingdom."

But this has also to do with the fact that Jordan is increasingly becoming an incentive travel destination where international companies make bookings to reward their employers is also being made. Although Kawar says this kind of business constitutes small numbers, nevertheless it's growing and steady and effective in terms of business flow.

"As a country, we are becoming very competitive vis-à-vis Europe and even in the region," he concludes.