MICE earns US $ 40 mn., accounting for 12% of total tourist arrivals

Shirajiv Sirimane

EARNING: Sri Lanka has earned US $ 40 million revenue from Meeting Incentive, Conference and Exhibition (MICE) market last year said General Manager Convention Bureau, Vipula Wanigasekera.

He said that MICE tourism has accounted for 12 percent of arrivals last year and they are hoping this to increase.

Wanigasekera said that they are hosting a road show in India next month to woo more Indians (Mega Minds) and are targeting five cities.

He said that Sri Lanka would be hosting an Asia Pacific AIDS conference, Commonwealth Games committee meeting, Ayurveda Conference in Sri Lanka giving more value to the destination.

Chairman Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) Renton De Alwis is planning to bring over 300 guests for the World Tourism Day celebrations that would be hosted by Sri Lanka this year on 27 September.

The theme for the event would be ‘Tourism opens doors for tourism’ and the SLTB have invited many women business leaders, Zonta Club members to attend the event.

“While organizing business related events we would also arrange fun events for them,” he said. He said that they have drawn up a tourism recovery plan and one of the main aims is to have regular smooth cash flow to the hotels so that they can sustainable.

“For this we are promoting domestic tourism and are requesting young working couple to send their parents to hotels during week days,” he said.

Manager Corporate Communications SriLankan airlines, Chandana De Silva said that the rescheduling of flights have not resulted in cancellations.

“There are some logistic problems with regard to transit passengers and we are working on it,” he said. He also said that they are looking at hosting a Sri Lanka India Women’s Golf championship to commemorate the International tourism day and already nearly 100 golfers have confirmed their participation.

President Sri Lanka Travel Agents Association (TAASL) Hiran Cooray he said that though they are selling their rooms for lower rate than the previous year they are thankful for the government for agreeing to provide concessions on electricity tariff.

“This would help us to save around 35 percent from our costs,” he said.