OREANDA-NEWS  The demand for business events in Russia in the first quarter of this year increased by 20% year-on-year. A slight increase was also noted in comparison with 2019. This gave rise to MICE market participants to assume that the segment has overcome the shocks that arose during the pandemic. The share of foreign events remains at a minimum level — four times less than four years ago. But the rejection of them, according to market participants, turned out to be painless for entrepreneurs: business events abroad were mainly of a status nature.

The volume of realized demand for MICE events in monetary terms for the first quarter of 2023 exceeded the value for the same period last year by 20%, according to the "Aero Club Tour". The company points out that a slight increase is also recorded relative to the first quarter of 2019, suggesting that this may indicate the end of the period of turmoil for the segment that arose as a result of the pandemic. Alyona Avel, Operational MICE Director of Vipservice corporate business, says that the number of business events held in February-April 2023 is 30-35% higher than the same period last year. This may be due to the implementation of deferred demand, the expert believes.

High-quality hotels with conference halls, according to Stanislav Ivashkevich, founder of Ivashkevich Hospitality, are now seeing an increase in demand for events by 50% year-on-year. According to him, events take place daily in some facilities and there are no free dates for the near future. The expert calls seminars the most popular format.