Transforming a Stopover into a Stay: Surabaya's MICE Strategy

The concept of MICE needs to shift from merely ‘meeting in Surabaya’ to ‘experiencing Surabaya’. Conference organisers can obtain package options designed from the outset. A meeting room full of participants does not necessarily mean a city reaps significant benefits from Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exhibition (MICE) activities. Conferences can conclude in hours, with participants staying just one night before leaving the city without truly getting to know the place they visited. Hotels are filled, but longer-term economic opportunities do not necessarily grow alongside this.

In the city of Surabaya, East Java, this condition actually opens up new development space. The city, known as a centre for trade and services, possesses important capital to develop MICE not just as a meeting activity, but as a gateway for tourism, the creative economy, culinary arts, transportation, and micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Data from the Surabaya Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that the hotel room occupancy rate in Surabaya in May 2026 reached 49.95 percent, which is 14.73 points higher than the East Java hotel occupancy rate of 35.22 percent. However, the average Guest Length of Stay (RLMT) was recorded at 1.40 nights. This means that, on average, a hotel guest stays for about one to two nights.

This figure carries an important message. Surabaya already has the ability to attract people to come and stay. The next challenge is to give them a reason to stay longer.

If Surabaya only sells meeting spaces, the city risks becoming merely a stopover. Participants arrive due to work agendas, attend activities, sleep at the hotel, and then leave. The economic value of their arrival consequently becomes heavily concentrated on event organisers, hotels, transport, and restaurants. In fact, a MICE participant can become a tourist with a longer consumption pattern. They can be invited to explore the Old Town, enjoy typical Surabaya cuisine, cruise along the Kalimas River, visit the Mangrove Botanical Garden, join a city tour, or get to know tourism villages. If packaged appropriately, these activities are not just additional entertainment, but part of the MICE product.