BACOLOD—The SM group seeks to catalyze the capital city of Negros Occidental into a major destination for the meetings and events industry with the opening of SMX Bacolod, now the biggest exhibition and convention center in the Visayas.
Located on the new wing of the group’s seven-year-old shopping mall SM City Bacolod, SMX Bacolod has 8,218 square meters of event space, with a pre-function lobby, six meeting rooms and three function rooms which can accommodate up to 4,500 people in a concert-style layout or up to 2,800 people on a sit-down format with tables.
This is the fourth in the SM group’s growing chain of SMX-branded convention centers after the flagship property in the SM Mall of Asia complex, SM Aura in Taguig and SM Lanang Premier in Davao. On top of SMX properties, there are two trade halls included in the portfolio: Megatrade Hall and Cebu Trade Hall.
In an interview during the grand opening of SMX Bacolod on Tuesday night, SMX general manager and vice president Dexter Deyto said counting only the net meeting space and excluding provisions for common utility, lobby and administrative offices, SMX Bacolod offered 4,200 square meters (sqms) in net meeting space. This brings to 36,500 sqm the net meeting space offered by the SM group across the country.
“We want to prove that Bacolod is a good convention destination,” Deyto said. “It’s called the City of Smiles. When we first came here, the people welcomed us with open arms.”
The grand opening of SMX Bacolod was also graced by SM Hotels and Conventions president Elizabeth Sy and Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella.
SMX Bacolod is seen as an ideal venue to support the Philippines’ fast growing MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) industry. This is a niche of group tourism specializing in planning, booking and facilitating conferences, seminars and other events.
Mayor Puentevella said that with SMX Bacolod now open, the city could bid for many of the national conferences looking for venues outside Metro Manila. He estimated that the city now had a little over 3,000 hotel rooms to support the tourism industry.
Puentevella said this hotel room capacity was still not enough but noted that more hotels would be built in the city, noting that the SM group itself would put up a 200-room hotel room in the future while Ayala Land was planning a 150-room under its homegrown boutique hotel brand “Seda.”
In a separate interview, Bacolod City councilor and chair of tourism committee Jocelle Batapa-Sigue said that to encourage the development of the MICE industry, an ordinance was passed last July mandating fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for the MICE industry.
For groups bringing more than 3,000 MICE participants, for instance, the city has committed to provide Masskara welcome leis, welcome streamers, free use of city facilities, Bacolod tourist maps, tourism officers support, police security, one cultural show or local band performance, special tokens for VIPs (very important persons), discounted tours, Masskara welcome dancers, chicken inasal dinner and Bacolod Masskara performance.
For the SM group’s part, Deyto said building more convention centers would answer the demand from the country’s professional and trade associations for more MICE venues outside Metro Manila. At the same time, he said Bacolod was a province with high spending power.
Deyto said there was pent-up demand for such a conference venue from local folks as well. For example, he said that the Lacson family.—one prominent local clan—always found it challenging to secure a venue that would fit 1,800 people. The Lacsons conducted such a big reunion twice in the past but could not hold such reunions more frequently due to the lack of available venues.
SMX Bacolod is also located in the bustling domestic and international port area and is close to several commercial establishments and popular tourist destinations in Negros Occidental, also known as the “Sugar Bowl of the Philippines,” being the country’s top sugar producer.