Drop the word ‘MICE’, it’s ‘Business Tourism’ – ICCA CEO
The term MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tourism has created confusions among policy and decision makers globally, and thus it’s better called ‘business tourism’, says Dr. Senthil Gopinath, CEO of International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
During a strategic dialogue between the industry experts and stakeholders in Sri Lanka held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo last week, Dr. Gopinath made this remark. The title of the dialogue was ‘the future of congress and convention – how to harness its potential for Sri Lanka’.
Dr. Gopinath said, “We need to drop the word MICE and call it business tourism. MICE has created confusion among policy and decision makers. A traveller that visits another country for a meeting, convention or an exhibition travels with the intention of building new contacts and make new businesses.” They fall under the business tourism category, he added.
Things have changed since the pandemic, while prices of air tickets and hotels have increased by many folds. “People have started travelling as the pandemic ended. They know much about the leisure tourism sector, but little did they know about the vast and growing business tourism. The number of people attending meetings has increased globally and business tourism contributes 30 per cent to the global economy,” noted Dr. Gopinath.
In Sri Lanka’s context he highlighted that the country cannot have one strategy to attract leisure and business travellers. “You need to have two different strategies for both leisure and business tourism.”
In his presentation Dr. Gopinath revealed that a business event visitor spends three to six times more than the average tourist and has a large multiplier effect. Business travellers are more likely to stay in 4-5 star accommodation and dine at fine restaurants since they are meeting with business clients. Approximately 40 per cent of such visitors travel with their spouses and 60 per cent of them return as tourists later.
The 2019 global business events data shows that 1.6 billion participated at business events across more than 180 countries. US$ 1.2 trillion direct spending (business sales), represented spending to plan and produce business events, business events related travel, and other direct spending, such as spending by exhibitors.
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