Promote Wedding & MICE as Niche Segment: Top Tourism Ministry Official

KOCHI:
India has to nurture ‘Wedding and MICE’ with a specialized focus instead of its current inclusion under generic development of tourism, according to Suman Billa, Additional Secretary and Director General, Union Ministry of Tourism.

Delivering the key-note address at India’s first-ever Wedding and MICE conclave here, Billa suggested that Ideally the Wedding and MICE segment should get separate microsites slotted in the country’s leading portals around tourism to bring its immense scope to greater focus.

The three-day conclave, which began here last evening, is organized by Kerala Travel Mart (KTM Society) in association with the state tourism department.

Billa said with its inherent advantages Kerala stands to benefit immensely from the growth of this sector. The state has excellent ambience and infrastructure and the need of the hour was “convergence” by linking the dots to usher in a synergy.

In this context, he pointed out that Kerala has a potential business opportunity of worth Rs 1 lakh-crore in wedding and MICE tourism.

Citing the unique factors which make the southern coastal state a prospective national hub for this segment, he threw light on a set of plans and guidelines to help Kerala achieve the status down this decade.

Noting that East Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have long since leveraged the potential of wedding and MICE tourism, Billa said Kerala must take cue from them by setting up a MICE Promotion Bureau. “It is necessary to create an ecosystem focused on wedding and MICE tourism, for which the state government need to take the initiative” he noted.

Hailing Kerala Government for its “bold” decision to go beyond general ideas about tourism and diversify on to wedding and MICE, Billa said the government’s dedicated treatment of this emerging sector can help the state further light up its unique position on the country’s tourism map.

Kerala’s green-friendly policies and the widely-acclaimed Responsible Tourism have helped the state renew its reputation as a global destination. “Along with this, you have excellent air-transport facilities that make access to foreign countries a big asset,” he said.

With the high spend and low carbon-footprint, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) segment holds immense growth prospects to the travel-and-hospitality packages, he said.

Even as travel and hospitality industry has a central role in development and promotion of the Destination Wedding and MICE sector, an array of local enterprises like florists and caterers also stand to benefit from its growth, he noted.

Billa also pitched for leveraging new technologies like AI to facilitate quick access to data relating to venues and infrastructure in various locations for MICE events and weddings, so as that clients could choose the ideal spot as per their specific requirements.

Citing the global picture about wedding and MICE, he, however, pointed out that while this niche tourism is worth one trillion US dollars India currently accounts for only 1.8 per cent.

He said the recent US imposition of steeper tariffs on India is unlikely to impact its status as the world’s fastest-growing macro economy.

More than 675 buyers from within and outside the country are participating in the event. Of them, 610 buyers are from within the country and the rest from abroad. Representatives have arrived from the western and eastern countries even as 75 exhibition stalls have been set up for sellers for trade meetings, besides seminars by international experts.