It's in the air at the moment: the increasing integration of MICE into corporate travel policy is forcing the various players in the business travel industry to review their strategy and their offer. AirPlus has no intention of missing out on this trend, and will be launching a new MICE card from the 1st quarter of 2012. With centralised data, secure transactions and visibility over expenditure, AirPlus intends to capitalise on the strengths of the corporate card in a MICE sector that is still too fragmented.
"Ten years ago, the business travel sector was at the stage where MICE is today: buyers had no visibility over their expenditure, and could not negotiate with suppliers". Nicole Flory, Head of Marketing and Communications France at AirPlus, sums up the current trend: the need for rationalisation brought to light by the crisis is now driving companies to gain greater visibility over their MICE expenditure, by taking advantage of new, better adapted payment solutions.
Already tested in three French companies since October, the "MICE Card" can be used by events agencies or directly by hotel chains, to meet the needs of companies used to using their local hotel for recurring seminars. While AirPlus follows in the footsteps of other existing MICE offerings, the Lufthansa subsidiary is emphasising the novelty of a card that is no longer nominative, but issued in the name of the company, for greater centralisation - and therefore visibility. The new offer should enable the company to reduce its direct costs with suppliers, mainly in the hotel sector. Buyers can rely on the figures to support their arguments during negotiations: there is talk of an improved margin for manoeuvre of between 20 and 30%. In addition to this potential reduction in direct costs, the future "MICE Card" should also, and above all, limit indirect costs, by simplifying the accounting management of expenses.
MICE therefore looks set to be one of the major challenges for business travel next year, as demonstrated by the Univ'AirPlus event - the AirPlus summer university organised at the end of August - whose 2012 edition will be devoted to the events and meetings sector.
