What’s Planned for Meetings Mean Business India’s First Year

The Meetings Mean Business (MMB) Coalition has released an update on its plan for the first year of Meetings Mean Business India, which the organization first announced five months ago at PCMA’s Convening Leaders

At a press conference at MPI’s World Education Congress, MMB released new information on MMB India’s 23-member advisory board and two-phase plan for market engagement. 

“India is poised to be one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for outbound MICE tourism,” said Nitin Sachdeva, co-chair of MMB India and executive director of Venture Marketing, in a written statement. “We have the sixth largest economy in the world and by 2025, our outbound MICE tourism market is expected to reach $9 billion (U.S.).”

Sachdeva said that his near-term priorities include continuing to build MMB India’s advisory board and arming different segments of the meetings industry with common messages and programming. He also predicted that India’s MICE industry will triple in the next two to three years, generating more than 2 million outbound MICE tourists by 2020. 

Sachdeva, who began working in travel, tourism, hospitality and aviation 15 years ago, has served as a consultant to numerous convention and visitors bureaus. He is an active member of the Society of Incentive Travel Excellence and Destinations International’s Global Development Committee

Julie Coker Graham, co-chair of the U.S. MMB Coalition and president and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that the organization has been pursuing an organic growth strategy in adding international chapters, the first of which was MMB Canada. She attributed much of the recent interest the organization has seen from destinations worldwide to the success of Global Meetings Industry Day, which was celebrated in more than 50 countries this year. 

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