Bacoma leads the charge to revive Bali’s MICE industry

A screenshot from Bacoma's website

Bali Convention Management (Bacoma), a new business event solution company, has been formed to become a strategic subsidiary of the MICE Department of Bali Tourism Board (BTB) to market the island as a business events destination.

Levie Lantu, CEO of Bacoma, said the idea of forming a business entity was conceived by BTB board members during the pandemic after seeing how the pandemic devastated the business events industry.

A screenshot from Bacoma’s website

He said: “In order to revive tourism and business events, Bali needs to go out and be proactive in approaching businesses. (Ideally), the Bali Convention and Exhibition Bureau (Bali CEB) should lead the way, but with no income, the government cannot provide the needed financial support. Therefore, board members deemed it important for Bali CEB to be privatised. With capital from an ‘angel’ investor, Bacoma came into being.”

Levie explained that Bacoma’s role was to look for regional and international businesses, and share the leads with the local business events community through open bidding or appoint suppliers – such as hotels, transport, venue providers, and event planners – through BTB member associations.

“We will only share the business with companies based in Bali. This way we do hope that the business events industry in Bali will revive and its GDP will grow,” he said.

Currently, Bali does not have many local PCOs, and only a handful have the capacity to handle large international events. With Bacoma’s help, Levie is hopeful that more local PCOs will be able to eventually handle large events.

“For example, out of 100 events held in Bali, only around 25 were organised by local companies, which also meant that only 25 per cent of the tax becomes the direct income for Bali,” he explained.

As to how Bacoma will generate income, Levie expects funding to come from event sponsorship, marketing activities, and good rates from hotels.

Although set up in 2020, Bacoma only started its activities late last year. Despite this, Bacoma managed to secure a 2023 International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities Conference which will be held at Merusaka Nusa Dua from November 6-9 with 500 delegates; and the International Medical Conference on November 10-13 in a new convention centre currently under construction in Sanur with around 3,000 delegates expected.

Bacoma has also partnered with the World Tourism Network Indonesia to organise the first WTN Siummit-time 2023 which will take place at Renaissance Bali Uluwatu Resort & Spa from September 28 to October 3.

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