SLCB re-launches MICE tourism research bulletin after 6 years
22 July 2015 03:12 am
By Zahara Zuhair
Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) has re-launched its MICE tourism research bulletin after a lapse of almost six years, which can be benchmarked for future research studies.
As a step to support the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Exhibitions) business stakeholders, the research was done based on 46 companies which included Colombo city hotels, resort hotels, conference venues, event management companies and destination management companies.
The data collection in this regard took place from March to October 2014.
The key objective of the study was to ascertain the performance of the MICE industry in year 2013 and to gain insights on measures to be taken in the future in order to strengthen Sri Lanka’s position as a sought after MICE venue internationally.
It was revealed that towards the end of 2013, the Sri Lankan MICE industry has progressed to become a US$ 177 million industry, with a high proportion of the revenue amounting to US $167.6 million being generated by intentional events.
As per the study findings, the total number of international MICE arrivals in 2013 amounted to 134,488, which is approximately 13.5 percent of total international arrivals to the country.
Addressing the gathering, SLCB CEO Vipula Wanigasekera said that compiling a MICE research data was challenging as he called it a “mission impossible” as they embarked on this study in 2014 with many hurdles.
“It’s not only a problem in Sri Lanka, but also a global dilemma. If you look at Singapore, the last statistical report they issued was in 2012 and in Malaysia, except for their annual report, do not even have statistical data. The reason is, it’s not easy to collect MICE data.”
He noted that people prefer to come on different visas in order to avoid the hassle of sending papers for different visa requirements.
“The reason is because today all the immigration offices want to send the passengers out of the airport as soon as possible. In Singapore, they have brought down the time to 12 minutes, so most of the people declare their purpose on visa as business so they are counted as business traffic, and in other cases their purpose is leisure or holiday making, so they are recorded as tourists,” he noted.
According to the report, the highest number MICE arrivals in 2013 were from South Asia (41 percent) followed by the Middle East (20 percent) and UK/western ad Eastern Europe (15 percent).
A relatively high proportion (84.87 percent) of MICE events held in Sri Lanka are connected with meeting and conferences.
However, in terms of revenue, the incentive segment generated the highest income of US $ 112 million, which is 63 percent of the total revenue.
In comparison to the revenue generated by different industry stakeholder groups, the city hotels emerged as the highest revenue generators with US $ 68.4 million.
According to the research, the trending MICE developments were; the increase of smaller-sized meetings and medical conference, meetings becoming more high-tech, drop in European incentives, rise in gem and jewellery and tourism exhibitions and companies becoming more budget-conscious.
The study included key performance indicators of revenue generation, arrivals and qualitative insights towards the development of MICE tourism.