What is MICE tourism?

MICE tourism
MICE stands for:
M = Meetings
I = Incentives
C = Conferences
E = Exhibitions

MICE tourism is business tourism - tourism linked with businesses who hold meetings, conferences and exhibitions and provide incentive travel for employees.
MICE might be local, regional, national or international.

This type of tourism is typically booked well in advance, with a high standard of facilities expected. Average high spend makes this a popular form of tourism with destinations that have the necessary infrastructure.

MICE tourism is a very important sector in the tourism industry worth USD. 825 billion per year and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 7.5%

Why is MICE tourism important?

MICE tourism generates a lot of income for the destination. For larger MICE activities - conferences and exhibitions it can include thousands of delegates, often staying in higher end accommodation.

MICE tourism often drives infrastructure development in a destination - improving transport systems, venues, accommodation and the like.

MICE events can lead to international exposure for the destination with coverage in the media

In addition, business travel can lead to subsequent leisure travel with business travellers returning with their friends or families at a later date.

Meetings

Meetings can comprise of few people to many.
It can last a couple of hours to a series of meetings over a few days.

The location for meetings vary enormously from meeting rooms in motorway service stations to country hotels and venues around the world.

Meetings account for 41% of the total MICE market.

Types of meetings include:
. Company board or shareholder meetings
. Management meetings
. Training seminars and workshops

During and post COVID some of these meetings have become virtual .

Incentive travel is a niche market that is provided by companies to motivate and reward their employees or stakeholders.

Incentive travel can take many forms:
. Reward
. Team building
. Partner

Increasingly companies are focusing upon environmental and social responsibility into their incentive travel. This means more sustainable travel - often resulting in domestic travel rather than international - and incorporating local culture and heritage if travelling abroad.
Equally companies are seeking 'different' incentive travel for rewarding employees.
Incentive tourism is being seen as way of both attracting and retaining employee. In an Incentive Research Foundation survey 80% said incentive travel was 'very' or 'extremely' motivating.

Conferences

Conferences are usually much larger than meetings and can last from one day to several days. The form a conference takes can vary enormously and often incorporate many other activities:
. Presentations - from industry leaders to guest speakers giving insights and motivational talks using props or slides.
Company information can also be presented - profits, strategies, trends etc.
. Speeches - sometimes called keynotes, company leaders may open and close a conference with a speech and/or talk about other important issues.
. Panel discussions - are an increasingly popular format whereby industry experts discuss a range of issues - sometimes taking questions from the audience.
. Workshops - smaller groups where participants take a more in-depth look at issues and problems.

Home stay is a type of accommodation is another person's home that allows the tourist to experience the authentic local culture lifestyle and language.
This accommodation is often seen as being more sustainable and a way of directly contributing to the local economy by directly supporting local host families.

Home stay can also include student accommodation provided by local families. This is typically for foreign language students studying for short periods of time or where exchange students stay with their host families in a different country.

Home stay has come in for criticism of late as more commercial home stays have sprung up around the world, which are not strictly homes - rather they are accommodation built in the local style, but not actually homes of local people.

Many homestay websites are now more like AirBnB than traditional home stays.

Homestay.com caters for student and independent travellers