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South Asian source markets key in 2025: MICE organizer

South Asian source markets key in 2025: MICE organizer

The Morning: Sri Lanka’s Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism industry remains hopeful of the economic recovery and interest in outbound tourism in nations within the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference, Exhibition and Event Organisers (SLAPCEO) President Imran Hassan said, speaking to The Daily Morning Business recently.
“South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan are ideal destinations to target for MICE, albeit they have undergone economic upheavals in the recent past.
“South Asian businesses and economies have demonstrated more resilience than those in the West, in the trying times of the past few years,” Hassan said.
“The recovery in Europe seems slow, I cannot recall the last time I organised a European conference,” he revealed.
In 2024, the European Union recorded a 0.9% still growth for Europe, with a projected 1.5% growth for 2025.
Referring to Sri Lanka’s largest general source market for tourism, India, he said that Sri Lanka needs to double down on its appeal for the market, as in-bound MICE destinations within India have increasingly lost their allure among locals, according to Hassan.
“We need to target more Indian conferences in Sri Lanka, and scale our average footfall of 400,000 to 500,000 Indian arrivals a year, to at least 3 million, since they are increasingly fed up with their MICE destinations like Goa.”
DPI Research, a market analysis firm in 2023 forecasted that the Indian outbound MICE tourism market size is expected to reach United States dollars ($) 13.4 billion by 2031, as India continues to expand its global business presence.
The report attributed the projected growth in the industry to larger disposable incomes of businesses and individuals, globalisation, government investment, and outbound MICE tourism increasingly becoming part of employee incentive programmes.
Commenting on the tourism arrival numbers in Sri Lanka in 2024, Hassan said that the numbers in the second and fourth quarters were underwhelming, given the sector expectations and projections made at the beginning of the year.
“The season for MICE conferences generally picks up between April and August, which we had vehemently asked the previous government to help us prepare for, for better business,” he said.

OSL take:
With Sri Lanka’s tourism industry on a steady growth path, there is a clear expansion witnessed in several tourism concepts being followed by the country. Among the key concepts in the tourism industry being promoted by Sri Lankan tourism authorities is MICE tourism. There have already been several large scale international confabs in Sri Lanka including several that were organized by Indian entities and businesses. Given the overall growth in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry with the country being identified as a must visit destination, it would be easy for local tourism authorities and stakeholders to further promote the country as a MICE destination, which is yet to reach its full potential. All these are indicative of the expanding business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. The promotion of Sri Lanka as a MICE destination would result in the expansion of business/investment opportunities in several sectors related to tourism that include the development of infrastructure and supplementary infrastructure facilities required to meet the demands of the MICE sector and the simultaneous expansions in the leisure and hospitality sectors. The overall expansion in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry while indicating the increasing business potential in the local industry presents many lucrative business/investment opportunities for foreign businesses/investors on the lookout for lucrative opportunities in the South Asian region, especially Sri Lanka.

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Article Code : VBS/AT/20250121/Z_2

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