The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) has granted PHP17.6 million to this city to boost its promotion as a meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) destination.

In an interview on Tuesday, MICE Center Director Maria Lea Victoria Lara said they were very happy with the response of the office of TIEZA Chief Operating Officer Mark Lapid on the request for support from the city government and Iloilo MICE Alliance.

MICE Alliance is composed of private sector tourism partners of the city government.

“We want to be able to market our facilities, function rooms, primary convention center, and hotels that can house more than 10,000 guests. We hope that through the grant they are providing, we will be able to have more activities in terms of business-to-business, events in key cities or internationally since we have international flights,” Lara said.

They also hoped to have new promotion collaterals, explain why Iloilo should be considered as a premier destination, and the holding of capacity building activities for stakeholders.

The grant is spread over five years: the initial amount is around PHP3 million, the second year will be PHP3.5 million, and the third to fifth years will be PHP3.7 million annually.

Lara said that with the grant, the private sector would be more active in the projects that they want to suggest and pursue together with the city government.

They target to sign an agreement with TIEZA and MICE Alliance before the end of this month for specific guidelines on how the grant will be utilized.

Lara said that after the five-year grant, they hoped to see more investments and “cement Iloilo as a destination for MICE events and get more support from other agencies.”

“Hopefully, we will be able to achieve our goal to make Iloilo a top five MICE destination not just in the country but of course ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and renewed support from our partners,” she added. (PNA)