Catalan Tourist Board saw Indonesian MICE arrivals more than double from 1,510 in 2023 to 3,850 in 2025. Photo Credit: iStock/KavalenkavaVolha
According to the Catalan Tourist Board, Southeast Asia’s combined MICE strength is quickly catching up to the Japanese market, prompting the autonomous Spanish destination to invest in a sub-regional strategy.
While Japan, Australia and South Korea remain Catalonia’s largest APAC feeder markets for MICE travel, momentum is clearly building across Southeast Asia – particularly in Indonesia, shared Raül Guerra, Asia-Pacific regional director, Catalan Tourist Board.
Japan continues to deliver the highest volume of Asian MICE arrivals by a wide margin, said Guerra. Contributing more than 25,000 visitors to Catalonia in 2025, the market is still nearly seven times the size of Indonesia, currently the biggest Southeast Asian feeder with 3,850 arrivals in the most recent year.
However, MICE arrivals from Japan have been slower to rebound, currently still approaching pre-pandemic levels.
By contrast, Indonesia has already surpassed pre-2019 benchmarks, Guerra told M&C Asia while in Singapore this month. Beyond the pandemic recovery, MICE arrivals have already more than doubled from 1,510 in 2023 to 3,850 in 2025.
The rebound has been driven largely by incentive travel, as Indonesian corporates return to longhaul reward programmes more aggressively than some of their North Asian counterparts.
Another market to watch is the Philippines. While 2025 data is still not available, the Philippines was the leading Southeast Asian source market in 2024, contributing 4,080 arrivals.
Other Southeast Asian markets are showing mixed but increasingly encouraging signals. Singaporean arrivals nearly tripled from 2,870 in 2023 to 6,590 in 2024, before moderating to 2,700 in 2025. Following a similar trajectory, the Malaysian market grew by 47% from 2,330 in 2023 to 3,430 in 2024, before tapering to 2,700 in 2025.
While Catalan Tourist Board intensifies its outreach in Southeast Asia as a whole, it is also keeping its finger on pulse in individual markets.
Incentive groups from Singapore tend to stay put in one city and run activities in and out of the city, to minimise travel time, especially when group size goes up to 80 pax, the bureau shared.
On the other hand, Indonesian MICE groups tend to maximise their stay by hitting a city per day.
Christian religious groups from the Philippines arrive in group sizes ranging anywhere from 20 to 1,000, and tend to continue to Spain after their Catalonia leg.
Overall, Guerra noted that Southeast Asia’s faster recovery trajectory and appetite for long-haul incentives make the region increasingly critical to Catalunya’s MICE growth strategy.