MICE tourism poised for greater growth

Sri Lanka in the past few years, has shown remarkable progress in hosting international conferences and congresses and has emerged as a sought after venue particularly in the international Association meetings market' said Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, CEO Vipula Wanigasekera.

Hydro Asia (in March), World, Blood donor day conference (June) , 9th SAARC ENT Congress (October), 12th Congress of the SAARC Academy of Ophthalmology (October), BAQ-Better air Quality conference (November ) are among world renowned conferences that were held in Sri Lanka this year.

Sri Lanka has hosted large conferences such as FIGO - International Conference in Obstetrics and Gynecology (October 2014) with Government support through the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau.

An increasing number of international conference to be held in the next three years have been already secured by Sri Lanka, Third Global Conference on Entomology (November 2015), 16th Conference of the International Colored Gemstones Association (2015), Council Meeting and International Symposium of the Commonwealth Medical Association - CMA-( 2016).

The International conference market is a key element of MICE tourism which is promoted by Sri Lanka Convention Bureau. Being a niche market with tremendous potential to drive tourism and the economy, this segment is the key focus of many countries particularly due to the spin-off economic benefits.

Apart from the technology/knowledge transfer, these high end delegates who attend international conferences are opinion makers who support in strengthening the positive image of the country and generate repeat visits; in addition they also generate a considerable volume of direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Being a pioneer in the Sri Lankan conference business, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) of Sri Lanka Tourism, over the past two-and-a-half decades has been aggressively promoting Sri Lanka as a sought after MICE venue in the global market. Currently SLCB is the only organisation in Sri Lanka

with ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association), a membership that has been maintained by us since the establishment of SLCB.

ICCA is one of the most respected networking organisations for meetings industry professionals, an organisation with an established global network of over 1000 suppliers and membership base spanning across 90 countries.

Backed by infrastructure development projects such as the Mattala Airport, Katunayake and Matara expressways, Ruhunu Magampura International Conference center and the emerging international brands in Sri Lanka such as Hyatt, Shangri La, Sheraton, Movenpick, Sri Lanka has gained competitive edge internationally as a country that is capable of holding even larger conferences and Sri Lanka could anticipate accelerated growth in the conference business in the years ahead.