MICE Travel Mart ends with more prospects for incentives

The group of 40 MICE buyers and travel writers ended their round trip with a workshop in Colombo where presentations were made by SLCB, SriLankan Airlines and SLAPCEO followed by one to one meetings with industry members.

In the final themed dinner the group visiting from eight countries witnessed a mini Perahera staged only for this event. The pageant depicted all traditional dances with several decorated elephants. They were also given the opportunity to take photographs with the dancers in their costumes.

The round trip covered all attractions and locations where MICE events can be held. Participants expressed their total satisfaction and thanked SLCB for offering this opportunity which compels them to promote Sri Lanka among their clients. This was attended by many guests including SLCB Chairman Udaya Kumara Rupasinghe, SriLankan Country Manager Lalith de Silva and Minister’s representative Janaprith Fernando.

Minister of Tourism Navin Dissanayake is keen to reach out to up market tourists in the coming years hence the interest to pay attention to MICE segment which spends three times over leisure holidays.

Sri Lanka Convention Bureau CEO Vipula Wanigasekera offered a detailed presentation and explained to participants that Sri Lanka’s MICE industry experienced a leap forward in the last few years recording over 144,000 MICE visitors to the country in the year 2014 of which majority has emerged from the Incentive Travel segment.

He further explained, “Sri Lanka is a hot spot today for incentive travel, where apart from known attractions such as beaches, ancient cities, mountains and wild life, this island is now a popular destination for new attractions which are whale watching, bird watching, elephant gathering, underwater activities, leopard safaris, etc. Local DMC are experts in offering many creative programs for participants to have memorable experiences when they return.”

At the workshop, the audience was also addressed by Sri Lankan MICE Manager Gayan Peries and President of Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference and Congress Organisers Zian Ameen. Conference business has reached a new high with 62 international conferences recording in the year 2014 and around 70 to be held in 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 corporate 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, Canon and many others.

According to the CEO of Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, bringing MICE buyers and offering them FAM tours and workshops, is one effective way of promoting Sri Lanka as a MICE destination.