MICE Travel Mart ends on positive note

The group of 40 MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Exhibitions) buyers and travel writers who visited Sri Lanka recently, ended their round trip with a workshop in Colombo where presentations were made by the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB), SriLankan Airlines and SLAP officials followed by one-on-one meetings with industry members.

At the final dinner, the group from eight countries witnessed a mini Perahera staged exclusively for them. The pageant depicted all traditional dances with several decorated elephants. They were also given an opportunity to take photographs with the dancers.

The round trip covered all attractions and locations where MICE events could be held. Participants thanked the SLCB for offering this opportunity which compels them to promote Sri Lanka among their clients. Chairman, SLCB, Udaya Kumara Rupasinghe, Country Manager, SriLankan, Lalith de Silva and Tourism Minister's representative Janaprith Fernando were also present.

Tourism Minister Navin Dissanayake is keen to reach out to up-market tourists in the coming years hence the interest in the MICE segment where visitors spend three times over what leisure holiday makers spend.

CEO, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, Vipula Wanigasekera made a detailed presentation and said that Sri Lanka's MICE industry experienced a leap forward in the past few years recording over144,000 MICE visitors to the country in 2014 of which the majority were from the Incentive Travel segment.

He said, "Sri Lanka is a hot-spot today for incentive travel and apart from known attractions such as beaches and ancient cities, mountains, wildlife, it is a popular destination for new attractions viz whale watching, bird watching, elephant gathering, underwater activities and leopard safaris.

Local Destination Management Companies (DMCs) are experts in offering many creative programs for visitors to have a memorable experience."

Sri Lankan MICE Manager Gayan Peries and President, Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference and Congress Organisers Zian Ameen also spoke.

Conference business has reached a new high with 62 international conferences in 2014 and around 70 to be held this year.

Despite rapid infrastructure development, Sri Lanka's true strength is in the area of Corporate meetings and Incentive Travel mainly because of the diverse locations in Sri Lanka. Within a few hours one can move from one location to another. For this reason a large number of Indian corporates have had their meetings and among them are Paropkar Group, Cadbury, Kaseya, Nokia, Omka, Mahendra & Mahendra, L'oreal, Sree Group, TMI group, Coca Cola, Philip, Epson, VVI and Canon.

According to Wanigasekera bringing MICE visitors and offering them FAM tours and workshops is an effective way of promoting Sri Lanka as a MICE destination.