• Friday, March 29, 2024
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African countries look to MICE to increase tourist arrivals

tourism industry

In a strategic move to increase tourist arrivals and receipts, top African destinations are increasingly turning to the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions (MICE) sector, a segment of the tourism industry valued at $23.4 billion in Africa and $621.4 billion globally in 2017.

The countries, which have invested heavily in convention centres and have also attracted international hotel brands to improve accommodation offerings, are further looking at tapping into the global MICE industry projected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2025.

Though Africa accounts for a meagre 3 percent of the global MICE industry, countries such as South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and Rwanda are making the most earnings from the industry in Africa, which implies that the countries attract and host most international meetings on the continent.

According to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) 2018 Country and City Rankings, South Africa led the Africa region with 100 meetings in 2018, ranking 39th position globally. Morocco ranked 56th globally with 45 meetings, Egypt 68th with 31 meetings, Kenya and Rwanda ranked 68th and 70th with 31 and 26 meetings, respectively.

Nigeria, in spite of being acclaimed as the economic giant of Africa, attracted just 18 international events and meetings, ranking 75th and surpassing neighbouring Ghana with just 8 meetings.

Moreover, Cape Town in South Africa, Kigali in Rwanda and Cairo in Egypt are ranked as top cities in Africa that host most international meetings, according ICCA, while Lagos and Abuja were hardly mentioned due to less international meetings holding across the cities in a year.
According to the South African National Convention Bureau, South Africa hosts about one million delegates at business events every year, supporting over 250,000 jobs directly and indirectly in the sub-sector alone, which makes up just a quarter of the overall tourism pie in the country.

In 2017, MICE contributed R115 billion to the South African economy, with the overall travel and tourism industry’s contribution amounting to R412.2 billion in 2017, or 9.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Speaking on the rationale for the growth in MICE, Amanda Kotze Nhlapo, a convention bureau officer for SA Tourism, said a number of African countries have started providing more financial support to their convention bureaus so they can launch more bids for conferences. This has created a “fertile environment to attract business events”. There are about 12,000 association meetings alone that rotate around the world that African countries can bid for, she said.

In 2017, Rwanda hosted over 20 international meetings, which brought tens of thousands of customers to its hotels, restaurants and the national airline and $40m was injected into the economy, according to Rwanda Development Board.

Reacting to the new ICCA rankings, Nelly Mukazayire, CEO, Rwanda Convention Bureau, said the country is aiming at even better rankings.

“We believe that identifying and working with our local associations will help Rwanda perform better in ICCA rankings in the years to come. Rwanda recorded 38,745 delegates in 2018, up from 28,308 delegates in 2017. Tourism is the country’s largest foreign exchange earner and MICE is playing a significant role in its growth, bringing in 20 percent of all tourism revenues. MICE tourism contributed $56 million in 2018, and this year, we intend to increase it to $88 million,” Mukazayire said.

Kenya attributes its good ranking to the provision of world-class meeting venues, convention centres and stabilities in the government and economy, while growing international hotel brands in the country is plus for the Kenyan MICE industry.

The North African countries are back and hosting more international meetings due to the relative stability in the region now.

In Morocco, the government’s long-term national development plan Vision 2020 puts tourism at the heart of economic development. Through Vision 2020, Morocco aims to double the size of the tourist sector and boost revenues to $15bn annually by the end of the decade.

Large specialised cities such as Marrakesh, Casablanca, Fez and Agadir generate 15 percent to 20 percent of the county’s MICE revenues and to capitalise on this, one of the first projects is a new congress centre in Agadir, a city along Morocco’s southern Atlantic coast, which is planned to open later in 2019.

According to a market study made by Colliers International, the total number of tourists to visit Egypt in 2017 was around 7.2 million. This is a huge leap forward in comparison to the 5.3 million tourists in 2016 and Egypt’s overall tourism revenues jumped 123 percent YoY to $7.6 billion. The research indicated that 67 percent of the tourists in Egypt visit for corporate/business purposes, 20 percent for MICE, and just 13 percent for leisure.

Also, with the boom in the global MICE industry, the e-visa service is giving Ethiopia an edge to reap the benefits the industry offers, with 200, 000 visitors mark recently.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, through its National Convention Bureau (NCB), has also intensified efforts to unlock MICE for the destination by reinforcing its engagement of associations.

In 2016, Zimbabwe was ranked number 12 in Africa by ICCA, while South Africa emerged as number one followed by Morocco, Rwanda, Egypt and Kenya.

Obviously, the tourism sector is increasingly turning to the MICE segment for sustainability – to overcome seasonality of leisure travel, which has previously been the local tourism sector’s mainstay.

 

OBINNA EMELIKE