PITE puts spotlight on Penang MICE

Penang is looking to strengthen its position as a premier business events and travel destination with the hosting of the 6th Penang International Travel Exchange (PITE) 2023, which took place at Setia SPICE Convention Centre from 7-9 November 2023.

Spearheaded by Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB), the homegrown travel trade event offers site inspections, education workshops and networking events.

This year, PITE drew 82 buyers from Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Germany, Latvia, UK, US and United Arab Emirates, together with 42 top-notch Malaysian exhibitors.

“This year, we had more than 600 buyers registered with us in less than a month. We were very selective. The 82 buyers who are here with us are really the cream,” said PCEB’s CEO Ashwin Gunasekeran, adding that the number of buyers would be doubled next year.

PCEB has a 10-year plan to make PITE as big as Australia’s Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME). “In 2019, we attracted some 200 international delegates. The target was to grow these numbers every year by 200 to 300 in order to achieve what we were heading towards, but the pandemic slowed it down for us,” said Gunasekeran.

He commended Penang-based Ace Conferences, the organiser of PITE, for being the first professional conference organiser in Malaysia to develop the online B2B travel trade exchange platform. “That is our intention. It has been a long journey. We are very proud to be the only B2B travel match in Malaysia.”

Bigger exhibition focus

As a popular holiday destination renowned for its UNESCO heritage list, history and gastronomy, Penang wants to equally excel as a MICE destination by leveraging these attributes, including its 50-year industrial history, now known as the Silicon Valley of the East.

More focus will be placed on the exhibition segment, particularly with the completion of the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre by 2025, according to Gunasekeran.

On Entopia, which is home to a butterfly farm, the International Conference for Butterfly Exhibitors and Suppliers will take place in 2024, thanks to the successful bidding by the Penang government.

“It is programmes like these that put Penang on the international map,” said state tourism and creative economy councillor Wong Hon Wai, acknowledging the presence of other MICE destinations in the region as complements, instead of competitors

Attracting corporate incentives

Meanwhile, PCEB will also put an increased focus on the incentives segment as more facilities come online in Penang.

“For India, the incentive segment is very large, particularly corporate incentives. It could be any form, from multi-level marketing such as Amway and Herbalife, to large corporate meetings from financial institutions as well as medical healthcare sectors. These are key segments we will be focusing on again as far as India is concerned,” Gunasekeran said.

In addition, PCEB plans to revive film tourism initiatives, stalled during Covid, by promoting Penang as a film location among travel agents in its annual road show in India starting 15 January next year.

“There are still a lot of talks (in India). We met up with the movie industry both in the north as well as south of India, and they are keen,” he said.