ICCA recognises Sri Lanka as an international MICE Venue
View(s):The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has recognised Sri Lanka as a venue for the conduct of international MICE events and this is considered a notable achievement by the industry, a media release issued by the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) stated.
In this respect, ICCA has recognised 30 events out of 62 international conferences held in Sri Lanka in 2014 as ‘International’ as per their classification, based on research input provided by the SLCB, the release stated.
ICCA publishes this on its website which is the most valuable instrument to Conference Organisers when bidding for such events. Obtaining this endorsement from ICCA, which is a well-respected world renowned organisation, with a global network of over 1000 suppliers and membership base spanning across 94 countries worldwide, is indeed a notable achievement for Sri Lanka.
“ICCA has stringent criteria for recognizing conferences to be world class,” said the Manager Research of SLCB Iyroshi Jayawardena. “They have to be held regularly, attract a minimum number of participants, and rotate between several countries’.” Sri Lanka received this recognition after many years of consistent work by Sri Lanka Conference organisers as well as promotional work carried out by SLCB. “We are going to see more conference facilities in the city as well as the suburbs. They themselves will join SLCB’s promotional efforts in the future to bring in more conferences for Sri Lanka,” said SLCB CEO Vipula Wanigasekera. Sri Lanka in the recent years has shown progress in the tourism sector and MICE tourism which is a niche market has posted notable growth particularly in the conference business in year 2014, it was stated.
ICCA was founded in 1963 as a global network giving access to research tools, and sales and marketing opportunities for the International Association meetings sector, and is one of the most respected networking organisations in the global meeting industry. Its database which has been maintained since the 1970s contains comprehensive information pertaining to past, present and future events taking place across the globe, SLCB stated.
The media release highlighted that The World Youth conference (May 2014), World, Blood donor day conference (June 2014), 9th SAARC ENT Congress (October 2014) and 12th Congress of the SAARC Academy of Ophthalmology (October 2014) were among the events recognized by ICCA.
Currently SLCBis the only organisation in Sri Lanka with ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) membership, which is similar to the membership of PATA and UNWTO, a membership that has been maintained by us since the establishment of SLCB. It has provided invaluable information on conference leads, trends and other useful information on the Association Meetings industry, it was stated.A MICE tourist generally spends three to four times more than a holiday maker and thus has drawn the focus of many countries due to the spin-off economic benefits, it added.