The tourism field that will be the first to recover after the war is MICE, which stands for: Meetings, Incentives, Congresses & Exhibitions, professional conferences, incentive trips, conferences, exhibitions and events. This area will recover even before the normal tourism of organized groups and independent travelers. This was announced by the CEO of Ternova, Imri Kalman, at a virtual conference held by the company among people in the tourism industry in Israel.
The survey was conducted among about 130 participants, at the first digital conference of its kind held by Tarnova on the topic of MICE. The survey revealed that most of the business events planned by Israeli companies and organizations abroad have been postponed to the middle or end of 2024, or to the beginning of 2025, and not completely canceled. The considerations that will lead Israeli companies to choose a destination for conferences, exhibitions and incentive trips have also changed: the most important consideration will be “security measures/ Safety”, followed by the consideration of flexibility in the conditions of cancellation/change. In third place will be the consideration “a feeling that Israelis are welcome and valued at this destination”.
42% of the respondents agreed with the statement that MICE will “hurry to return to activity”, and another 30% believed that “it is too early to tell”. The most popular destinations where companies would like to produce their conferences, exhibitions or incentive trips are Greece (48%), Cyprus (33%) and to a lesser extent: Eastern European countries, Israel, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. The survey also revealed that two destinations were “deleted” from the Israeli business tourism map, namely Turkey and Morocco.
The digital conference was attended by key people in the field of MICE tourism in Israel, as well as guests and experts from around the world. At the conference, there was a sense of optimism about the rapid recovery rate of the field after the end of the war in Israel. Verdit Kaplan, chairman of the Nature and Heritage Conservation Fund, said at the conference that “it is time to prepare. The Israeli people are a people with a thirst for travel, with an amazing ability to recover. “Together” is very important to us, especially in times of crisis, so things like incentive trips and trips to conferences will return.”
Revital Shahar, the VP of Marketing for Lamtail, presented at the conference a survey conducted by the website among 1,600 respondents, from which it appears that 22% of Israelis are interested in flying abroad already, 48% would prefer to fly with an Israeli company and about 50% would prefer a country that supports Israel. Alina Tomer, Arkia’s VP of Marketing, which issues hundreds of committees a year for the company’s goals, said: “Everything stopped on October 7 as far as the workers’ committees are concerned, but there is definitely a discussion about the future. The uncertainty is still great, but there is talk of a new tourism map, and Arkia Definitely intends to promote its Eastern destinations: India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.”
Many speakers at the conference emphasized the importance of the incentive trips organized by companies, since they are not equivalent to a financial benefit for the employee, but rather turn the incentive experience from a rational to an emotional one. Thus, for example, said Danny Beaton, the VP of sales of the Nirlat paint company: “The customers, distributors and employees fight all year for the incentive trip. The companies definitely want to return and issue incentive trips as early as possible, and we are already talking about the second quarter of 2024.”
