SUBIC Bay – The Philippine conference on meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE), which ended here Sunday, successfully reinforced Subic Bay Freeport’s bid to become a regional and international destination for such tourism-related activities.

More than 300 delegates to the first Philippine MICE Conference (MICECON) 2010 from all over the archipelago and across the world took notice of the freeport’s complete facilities, which are even undergoing further improvements up to the next three years.

Welcoming the guests at Friday’s opening of MICECON 2010, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Administrator Armand Arreza said the freeport hosted more than 100 MICE events in 2009 and hopes to do more this year.

Arreza said the MICE sector accounted for a significant share of the freeport’s 4 million visitors last year, 60,000 of them were participants in the over 100 MICE events held at the Subic Exhibition and Convention Center (SEBCC).

The SBECC was the venue of the MICECON 2010, which ended yesterday. With a total floor area of 12,000 square meters and a theater capacity of 10,000 people, the SEBCC is so far the country’s biggest convention facility.

The SEBCC will also be the venue for the convention of the Asia Pacific Int’l League of Guam on Feb. 18 with 500 foreign and local delegates, the Government Association of Certified Public Accountants in March with around 6,000 participants, and the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines in October with 1,000.

Last month, the SEBCC hosted the MICE events of the Coca Cola and Couple’s for Christ with a combined attendance of 5,000.

Complementing the SEBCC are Subic’s almost 2,000 hotel rooms, with another 2,000 to be built over the next two years, according to Arreza.

In his keynote speech, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano lauded Arreza and the SBMA for their “generous” contribution to the national effort to make the Philippines a MICE hub in this part of the world.

Globally, the MICE market is estimated to be worth more than $300 billion, about one percent or $3 billion of which is being targeted by the Department of Tourism, which is grooming selected parts of the country as alternative MICE destinations outside of Manila.

Among these alternative destinations is Subic, whose whopping $5.9-billion tourism receipts included revenues from MICE events.

“The staging of MICECON 2010 in Subic is intended to develop and market the North as another international MICE destination outside Manila,” Durano earlier said.

MICECON 2010 also brings guests around the freeport and along the Subic-Clark corridor, including Balanga town in Bataan, now a popular destination for birdwatching.

The tour highlights Subic’s complete amenities for MICE activities as these also complement those of its neighboring localities.