MICE tourism records healthy growth

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) tourism sector has potential for growth and the country needs to be geared to cater to this segment as the service demand has huge untapped potential.

“MICE tourism is a good industry and to move forward from where we are it needs proper infrastructure to attract events of large scale.

However, at present the country does not have sufficient capacity which hinders the industry growth,” Tourism Development Authority Director General and Sri Lanka Convention Bureau General Manager Vipula Wanigasekara told Daily News Business .

This segment of tourism is important to increase the overall number of tourist arrivals. The MICE industry which accounts for 10 percent of the total tourist arrivals at present needs to be doubled in the near future to become a significant player in the tourism industry, he said.

MICE tourism has several components and the country gets sufficient numbers in the small meeting as well as incentive categories. However, we need to work in the area of international conferences to attract more numbers.

As tourism industry continues to grow, necessary lands and locations should be made available for the MICE sector to contribute in the industrial growth.

“The industry recorded healthy growth in the last month and we need to ensure locations and infrastructure development is on par with the growth in the arrivals. Plans are necessary to cater to the surge of tourists expected by 2016 in terms of accommodation capacity and other facilities,” he said.