Doing business@India

Seeing the multiplier effect that large convention centres have on the economy of a region, there are quite a few being planned across various cities in India to add to the two that have come up in the last one year.

The conventions business worldwide is pegged at $122.3 billion, according to the chairman of India Convention Promotion Bureau and the DG, Ministry of Tourism, Rajeev Talwar.

To get an idea of the size of India's MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) market and its contribution to India's economy, the Ministry of Tourism has recently commissioned a study through Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

The two convention centers, which began operations in India recently - one on the outskirts of Delhi in Greater Noida and another in Hyderabad - have given a significant boost to their local economies.

Philip Logan, GM, Hyderabad International Convention Centre, says that adding up all components of "spends" of a visiting delegate like travel, hotel stay, transport, food and beverages, delegate charges and shopping, would yield a fairly significant number.

HICC's target is to tap the international conventions market and pitch Hyderabad for some of these events.

The logic is simple, says Logan, citing the example of the Sydney Convention Centre - an international delegate spends $749 a day while a domestic delegate spends $ 200 a day (he expects this spend gap to be much greater in India).

Since it opened four months ago, HICC has hosted 23 events involving over 27,000 delegates, of which 6,000 were international delegates. "If one calculates the total spend of all these delegates, it works out to a huge amount just for one convention," says Logan.

The India Expo Centre Expo XXI in Greater Noida is also four months old, but it has already been "successful in bringing the world to India", says managing director, Barbara Hanlon.

Apart from the direct benefits that an event brings to an area, "it ensures buyer-seller interaction leading to joint ventures, investments and assorted business activities, apart from direct and indirect employment", according to Hanlon.

In Germany, well-known for its exhibition industry, revenues from this sector are estimated at a whole 1 per cent of GDP.

Rajeev Kohli, secretary and treasurer, ICPB, feels that "delegates take back fond memories and vibrant experiences with promises to return as tourists to spend more money". These convention centres, thus, end up selling India. Or rather, Incredible India.