Incentive Travel & Corporate Meetings
Meetings Morocco, the first specialist meeting for MICE in Morocco (meetings organisation, incentives, conferences, and congresses) held at the Palmeraie Resorts complex (strategic and host partner), closed its doors last Friday with a record level of satisfaction expressed equally by the exhibitors, the hosted buyers and the visitors. In the opinion of all, this first edition had been a great success.
According to its cofounder, Georges Freiha, who received the support of the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Lahcen Haddad and the unwavering backing of the Moroccan National Tourist Office, Mr. Zouitene, the National Confederation of Moroccan Tourism, Mr. Kabbaj, and the Regional Council of Tourism of Marrakech, Mr. Bentahar, and the Wali of the Marrakech-Safi region, Mr Moufakir, “this annual event is and will continue to spearhead the international promotion of Morocco as a business destination and an essential annual rendezvous for professionals in the Kingdom.”
Announced last September by the company Globe Network, organizer of the fair, the stated objectives were to gather together the majority of the Moroccan MICE offer (regional tourist committees, hotels, convention centres, reception agencies, production and communication agencies, etc.), more than a hundred foreign event organizers, as well as a selection of 50 corporate events organisers and Moroccan institutions.
The first thing to be noticed was the confidence and interest shown in the destination by foreign professionals with projects. With more than 1,000 international visitors registered, for 100 available places, the meeting finally saw a total of 123 experienced professionals from 20 countries, or 23% more than the original target. The professionals come from: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA.
As for the Moroccan market, more than 50 professional event organizers working within national and international corporations were present at the event via the VIP program (transport, 5-star accommodation offered). These were professionals from a wide range of industries including: banking, financial, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and luxury, food, automotive, aviation, etc.
For the 2016 edition, the organizers have counted 2219 appointments.
In 2017, Meetings Morocco promises to increase the number of Hosted Buyers places available in order to reply to the increasing demand for the destination.
