Travel / Lifestyle

Government Institutions to promote MICE tourism through Conferences

by Surekha Galagoda

The cabinet has passed a proposal by the Ministry of Tourism directing the government statutory Boards, Corporations and government owned companies to consult with the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau(SLCB)the Government arm of promoting Meetings, Incentives Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism before bidding for conferences and work with them accordingly.

This decision was taken by the government to make the process of bidding for conferences efficient and thereby gain a better share of the market, General Manager Sri Lanka Convention Bureau Vipula Wanigasekera said.

SLCB established under the Ministry of Tourism has bid for conferences until 2011. Starting with South Asian Games(SAG) in August we had the International Pepper Conference, The workshop on Rain Harvesting and the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Conference.

The SAG was held in Colombo and attracted more than 1000 participants, delegates and officials from eight member nations namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The International Pepper Conference and the workshop on Rain Harvesting held in Kandy had over 120 participants from overseas.

The Commonwealth Finance Ministers Conference had over 150 foreign visitors in Colombo for three days. There will be three more international conferences in Colombo during the year.

In November Sri Lanka will host the Water Engineer Development Conference where over 100 foreign delegates are scheduled to participate.

The Commonwealth Dental Conference and the International Conference on Humid Tropical eco Systems scheduled to be held in December will have over 450 foreign participants.

The Asia pacific Congress on AIDS will be held from August 19-24 2007.

There will be more than 4000 delegates coming to Sri Lanka for the conference.

Already the stretch of hotels from Negombo to Bentota has been booked during this period. He said that foreigners who come for conferences and meetings are upmarket tourists.

They spend 3-4 times more than the average tourists and they also visit the country as repeat guests. MICE tourism has many spill over benefits such as repeat holiday visits and additional support services that come along with meetings.

SLCB is promoting MICE tourism in Sri Lanka. Presently the MICE contribution is around 12% of the total arrivals and to develop this sector further, it is necessary that Sri Lanka gears it's MICE industry on par with her competitors in infrastructure development as well as with required standards.

Emirates increases frequencies to Colombo

Emirates is increasing its frequencies between Colombo and Dubai by four a week from 29th October, bringing about seat and cargo capacity enhancements on the route.

The airline currently operates 13 services a week between its home base and Sri Lanka and the additional flights, will increase services to 17-per week.

Emirates Area Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives, Tissa Bibile said: "These additional flights are perfectly timed to cater to the increased arrivals expected by the tourism authorities. We understand that tourist arrivals are expected to top 600,000 this year, a 20 per cent increase over 2005.

Emirates is very pleased to be able to support the government's efforts to promote Sri Lanka with its additional flights."

Forty students complete Airline training

The first two groups of external students completed SriLankan Airlines Ticketing & Business Foundation Program recently.

The 8-week program included classroom training in Katunayake and 10 days of on-the-job training at SriLankan's ticket office at the World Trade Centre, Reservations Department, and Skywards.

The program covered both Basic Fares & Ticketing, and soft skills that would be useful for participants in many types of careers. Students who responded to newspaper advertisements with the intention of embarking on careers in commercial aviation, were selected through an interview process to ensure that they had the aptitude for the program.

"This program provided a very useful service to youngsters who want to learn appropriate skills to enter the aviation and travel industries, and also obtain a recognised qualification," said Training Manager Chinthaka Kulatilleke.

The program Facilitator was Senior Training Executive Kanchana Malluwawadu, and co-ordinated by Senior Executive Operations & Business Promotion - IAA Fiona Elias.

Although the airline did not guarantee employment for participants of the program, ten of them have since been recruited by SriLankan Airlines.