With the global financial crisis looming over the Middle East, companies are inevitably wondering where they should look to get them through the tough times if and when they arrive.

One area that is being looked toward to provide a solid base is the lucrative MICE sector. For many hotels in the Middle East, in particular the UAE, MICE is the mainstay of their business, but to maximise revenue they are looking to diversify when it comes to what they provide for MICE clients.

One trend that is starting to appear is the hotels looking to combine the leisure and corporate businesses. Grant Thornton Hospitality and Tourism Consulting general manager Grant Salter has been in the industry for more than 30 years and was employed by Al Ain Wildlife Hotel and Spa Resort last year to conduct market studies and feasibility work into the growth of the resort.

Salter has studied the corporate market around the world and how it has become a key component in the hotel industry, but he has identified that there is a demand for meetings and incentive facilities across the wider leisure industry.

“Dubai’s meetings and incentive market is looking for somewhere to go,” says Salter. “Given its proximity to Dubai, Al Ain is appealing to the city’s breakaway corporate market for meetings and conferences, and the wildlife park provides something out of the ordinary.”

This has led to the development of a new conference centre at the resort, with a planned opening date of 2009. The centre will be separate from the resort, but linked by a tunnel, which enables the MICE packages that will be offered to combine the two aspects of the business facilities and the extensive leisure facilities of the resort.

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Packages are likely to include early-morning and lunch-break wildlife tours, safari, night drives, functions set in the bush, wildlife-themed events and buffets outside the typical conference environment.

Salter says that as well as the immediate benefits of this, there are longer term benefits that may stem from this combination of facilities, with MICE guests more likely to return as leisure guests with their families after experiencing the leisure side of the resort themselves.

This is not a new idea to some hotels however, with some business orientated hotels such as the Courtyard by Marriott Dubai Green Community, having looked at that from opening. Their approach is that of offering to extend a corporate client’s stay if they wish some leisure time too. “It happens a lot that delegates of a conference have little time to enjoy the leisure facilities of the hotel or to go out of the city. Therefore if any guests attending a conference or meeting would like to extend his or her stay even after the conference, we are more than happy to offer them the group rates or a special rate for their extension if they extend over a weekend,” says Howard Liem, Marriott cluster PR and marketing executive.

This combination of leisure and corporate business is also being exploited elsewhere. The Four Seasons in Doha is making use of the small, compact nature of the Qatari city to combine the two sectors.