MICE CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

By Dr. Zuzana Adamson

 

As part of our media and MICE buyers’ inspection trip during the post-tour FAM trip following the ITB trade fair in Shanghai, we visited the picturesque island of Hainan.

 

Surrounded by the South China Sea, the island is a completely duty-free zone. It resembles Hawaii, which is also its common nickname. Its southern part is sometimes dubbed the “Chinese Maldives” due to the approximately 200 small islands scattered around it.

 

It is China’s southernmost province and its only duty-free zone. We flew from Tianjin to the northern part of the island, landing in the city of Haikou, which boasts an excellent, large international airport with great accessibility. From there, we travelled by bullet train, which is fast, comfortable, and punctual; the journey took about 1.5 hours. The train raced along, carrying us at speeds of up to 248 kilometres per hour. A second, smaller airport is located in the southern city of Sanya, offering connections to Beijing and other destinations.

 

The combination of tropical nature, pristine sea, skyscrapers, and superb infrastructure makes the island a stunning location both for relaxing holidays and for organizing events, congresses, conferences, and various corporate functions. Here you will find a multitude of luxury resorts and hotels that look like something out of a magical, romantic fairytale.

 

Mission Hills Resort Haikou, a 5-star complex, is globally renowned as the largest golf facility in the world as registered in the Guinness Book of World Records. It features 10 incredible 18-hole golf courses, the most famous of which is the Blackstone Course. It has hosted the most prestigious events and welcomed major stars such as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

The resort includes the Mission Hills Volcanic Mineral Springs, Asia’s largest spa and wellness complex featuring mineral springs. Vast congress halls, luxurious lounges, and restaurants provide an excellent venue for a wide range of MICE events, the signing of memoranda, and VIP business meetings.

 

 

The Mission Hills Haikou resort and stunning complex is the fascinating story of Dr. David Chu and his family, whose grand 30-year vision transformed a volcanic wasteland into a luxury international business hub. Hailing from Hong Kong, he made his first major fortune in the 1970s in a factory producing corrugated cardboard and packaging materials. Later, he became completely captivated by sport. Even though golf had been banned in communist China since 1949 as a “bourgeois pastime”, he pushed for a change in 1992. He purchased more than 20 square kilometres of absolute wasteland, swamps, and waste landfills on the mainland and built an empire.

 

It stands as the fascinating result of vision, high-stakes risk-taking, and a family legacy. The founder passed away in 2011, and his two sons took over the management of the multi-billion-dollar enterprise. However, they pushed the legacy even further under the motto “Golf and More”, introducing concepts centred around family holidays, wellness, spas, and the entertainment industry.

 

And in 2008, the empire expanded to the tropical island of Hainan. With an investment exceeding USD 4 billion, the owners commissioned the construction of 10 new large golf courses woven directly into volcanic rock. They built the massive Mission Hills Resort Haikou, complete with a spa.

 

Movie Town Haikou – our next destination was a movie town built by the Chu brothers to attract mass tourism. Riding in buggies, we passed through movie sets and historic Chinese-style districts, and peeked into studios showcasing a wide variety of costumes. The entire project was created as a joint mega-project between Mission Hills, the leading Chinese studio Huayi Brothers, and famous film director Feng Xiaogang. It comprises an incredibly vast film studio space spanning 8,000 square metres, providing comprehensive technical facilities for film crews.

 

 

 

When visiting and strolling through the city of Haikou, you should definitely not miss the historic lane of Qilou Old Street. It offers local signature products, including tastings and sales of diverse types of tea, and showcases a unique blend of Chinese and European architectural styles.

 

Haikou West Coast Hotel is another venue which is highly suited to hosting your MICE events. It boasts high-quality infrastructure with excellent, direct access to the sea, romantic seating areas, and comfortable rooms. We had the opportunity to test the conference venue

 

when it hosted a “Night of Hainan” for us – an event focused on tourism and networking between tour operators and representatives of Hainan Island resorts.

 

 

Key representatives from local government, television, and media were also in attendance. In the evening, we danced and socialized until late into the night, eventually moving outside to be by the pool.

 

 

If you are looking for a venue with an ambience suitable for larger events, this place will certainly be unforgettable. The next day, buyers held meetings and appointments with local service providers, while media explored the resort or caught up on sleep after the previous hectic days. The ideal period to visit Hainan Island is truly right now, in June. The tourist season has not yet started, the island is peaceful, luxurious, with excellent facilities, and features favourable hotel prices, attractions, and pristine nature.

 

Hainan Island also offers great opportunities for medical tourism: traditional Chinese medicine, hospitals, single-day health check-ups combined with accommodation in luxury resorts, health recovery options using medicinal herbs, acupuncture, and more. The island, and China in general, aims to develop medical tourism and attract affluent European and American clientele to its state-of-the-art facilities.

 

The Yanoda Scenic Area is a large ecological rainforest park featuring scenic structures that the Chinese love so much, where you walk high up in the clouds with magnificent views across bridges designed with deliberate glass flooring (Glass Bridge). Accompanying this experience is audio mimicking the screeching and cracking of breaking glass, making it a thrilling experience. Bungee jumping from these heights is also available.

 

 

A visit to the indigenous ecological village was also interesting, where children in uniforms presented the Soviet flag and women sold wicker containers and baskets. Musical performances, along with theatre where you are not just a spectator but also an actor – all of this creates an engaging offering when combined with local specialties like outdoor dining. We danced again all evening with local dance troupes, and later, our active group gathered outside under a romantic full moon, making the entire island feel like one big celebration of music, dance, and a symbol of joy and life.

 

In the southern part of the island, around the city of Sanya, we find magical, fairytale-like resorts. The monumental architectural masterpiece, The Mangrove Sanya, offers absolute luxury, a geometrically intriguing park with secluded spots, outdoor restaurants, a beach bar, hammocks, pools, and children’s playgrounds. It feels highly natural, as if the renowned Atkins studio – the firm behind Dubai’s Burj Al Arab – designed it based on French Louis-style geometry.

 

 

Inside the 146-metre-tall building, we stayed in luxury suites featuring a bathtub on a wide balcony that provided breathtaking views of the mountains or the sea, smart toilets with various functions, a bar, and tea/coffee making facilities. In total, the property offers 510 rooms and 29 beach villas,

a rooftop heliport, and six top-tier restaurants. Nearby, there is a massive duty-free shopping centre, which serves as a major draw for shopping enthusiasts.

 

We have discovered an incredibly fascinating new island destination – Hainan Island. All the participants heading home from Sanya Phoenix International Airport shared a bittersweet sentiment, stating they must definitely return, but will first tell their clients all about this wonderful island. This is how trends are born. With destinations like this, one must capitalize on the trend immediately. So, goodbye for now! See you soon in Hainan.