Van Piggelen says BCCK will explore new revenue streams as Covid-19 continue to put a damper on MICE.
KUCHING (Aug 11): The Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) is optimistic that it will bounce back despite a subdued meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to chief executive officer Eric Van Piggelen, this entire financial year with regards to the MICE industry has been dismal in terms of big groups coming into the centre and thereby affecting its revenue.
“Obviously, we had to adhere to all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that were in play, also obviously the Movement Control Order (MCO) period and the Recovery MCO after that,” Van Piggelen said in an interview with The Borneo Post today.
“Subsequently, the SOPs — the way they stand right now is that we’re not allowed to have more than 250 people per event and there’s also the 50 per cent capacity limit.
“We are fairly big in terms of space — but 250 for us is a very small number.”
That said, Van Piggelen outlined that BCCK has robust plans to bounce back amidst these trying times.
“We have robust plans in place to bounce back. Once the skies open up again and people are less afraid to travel, I think we will bounce back quite quickly.
“I think for this particular year, we try to focus on local business, government business, weddings and others.
“Again, we have to obviously restrict (the events) to those numbers, and that’s the kind of business we will fully be focusing on.
“On a side note, I think the important thing for us that we need to look at and we are looking at, is that our business model is that of a ‘vertical keiretsu’. That basically means that we are trying to find revenue streams also linked to the convention centre but it could be in various areas.
“We are looking at these revenue streams, as it were, quite closely. We are looking even at for instance, homegrown events, where BCCK comes up with their own event and once that is successful, we can then even go out into the region.”