The M.I.C.E. Impact

Over the past week or so I have been reading about destination management and the planning and processes involved in getting a destination to be "tourist-attractive". From what I read, its not an easy thing to do....in fact, its quite challenging. This got me thinking about the M.I.C.E. segment of the tourist market and how much quicker it is to see M.I.C.E. activities impacting a destination or city. It is no wonder that most local/regional/national governments have in their tourism development mandate the promotion of M.I.C.E. capabilities.

The M.I.C.E. segment impacts economies in numerous ways:
- generating increased visitor traffic (business travellers attending exhibitions, conventions etcO
- bringing in higher yield visitors (business travellers tend to have higher spending power)
- generating repeat visitor traffic
- as M.I.C.E. activities increase in a destination, there is almost always some increased investments in infrastructure and services upgrading
- the non-seasonality of M.I.C.E. activities helps take up the slack in low periods....periods when leisure visitor numbers fall
- generate demand for M.I.C.E. service suppliers - hotels, convention venues, audio-visual equipment, catering, stage builders/decoraters, photographers/videographers, performance artistes etc

The list goes on. There are, however, certain characteristics that a destination must offer in order to successfully capture the M.I.C.E. mindshare. These include accessibility; infrastructure; a wide range of service suppliers; political stability and safety; etc.

My own conclusion is that its easier to attract a business visitor as opposed to a leisure visitor.