Bohol braces for MICE tourism with BE’s new convention hub

CEBU, Philippines —  Bohol is stepping up its bid to become the Visayas’ next major meetings and conventions destination, with BE Group scaling up event capacity to accommodate as many as 1,000 delegates in a move aimed at siphoning corporate spillover from Cebu’s MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market.

The privately held developer built its Grand Convention Center in Panglao shortly before the pandemic, betting that Bohol’s tourism growth would eventually require purpose-built facilities for corporate gatherings. The venue can seat about 800 guests on a single floor plate and can be reconfigured into three halls. By opening adjacent breakout areas, capacity can be pushed to around 1,000, according to President and CEO Grand Benedicto.

“For large-format events, configuration matters,” Benedicto said in an interview. “There may be other function rooms on the island, but not necessarily a single space that can host 800 to 1,000 in one hall.”

That scale is significant for Bohol, where big-ticket events have historically relied on improvised setups or fragmented venues.

In the past two years, BE Group has hosted gatherings of as many as 3,000 attendees by extending the main hall with tented outdoor structures and live-feed monitors, allowing companies to centralize programs that would otherwise be split across multiple locations.

One of its repeat clients is IBEX, the island’s largest business process outsourcing employer, which holds its annual corporate events at the facility. The steady bookings reflect what Chief Operating Officer Nova Noval describes as a largely untapped segment of Bohol’s tourism economy: corporate demand.

“MICE stabilizes the market,” Noval said, referring to meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. “Leisure can be seasonal. Corporate events are planned, budgeted and recurring.”

Twin-Destination Strategy

Cebu has long dominated the region’s convention landscape, leveraging its airport connectivity and established hotel inventory. But as the city transitions from “island alternative” to mainstream MICE destination, BE Group sees Bohol emerging as a complementary venue rather than a competitor.

The two islands have historically been marketed as twin destinations, and that positioning was reinforced during recent ASEAN-related meetings, where major sessions were held in Cebu while smaller gatherings were staged in Bohol.

“Cebu is already a MICE city,” Benedicto said. “Bohol can be the island alternative within that ecosystem.”

For event organizers, the pitch is logistical flexibility: main plenaries in Cebu, breakout or incentive components in Panglao. The short sea and air connections between the islands allow planners to package both destinations within a single program.

Resilience Amid Tourism Concerns

The push into conventions comes as parts of the tourism sector grapple with softer international arrivals, particularly from South Korea, historically Bohol’s largest source market. While Korean arrivals have moderated, Noval said diversified bookings and corporate events have offset the impact.

January performance at the group’s Bohol properties surpassed pre-pandemic levels, she said, aided partly by ASEAN-related activity but also by broader demand across segments.

Industry-wide figures have shown uneven recovery in certain markets, yet BE Group’s executives say their portfolio is benefiting from a more balanced guest mix, including domestic travelers and other foreign visitors.

“The narrative that tourism is down doesn’t fully reflect what we’re seeing on the ground,” Noval said. “For us, the numbers have been strong.”

Infrastructure-Led Diversification

The convention bet reflects a broader strategy of infrastructure-led tourism diversification outside the Philippines’ primary urban hubs. Rather than relying solely on leisure beach traffic, BE Group is investing in facilities designed to attract higher-spending corporate groups.

Purpose-built halls allow for standardized lighting, acoustics and staging—features that multinational firms typically require but that are difficult to replicate in traditional resort ballrooms or temporary venues.

By anchoring Bohol’s events capacity at around 800 to 1,000 seats in a single hall configuration, the company is effectively setting a new benchmark for the island.

Benedicto said that scale could catalyze a broader MICE ecosystem, including event suppliers, production firms and transport operators.

“We came in before the pandemic because we believed Bohol was a promising and growing market,” Benedicto said. “The infrastructure wasn’t there yet for large conventions. Now it is.”

As Cebu continues to absorb major conferences and exhibitions, BE Group is betting that a secondary node in Bohol will capture the overflow—reshaping the Visayas tourism map from a single-city model into a multi-island network.