More Convention Centres for MICE Business Tourism in Sri Lanka

25th March 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka is building more convention centres amid fears of a shortage of accommodation following a flood of tourists with the end of its war and temporary closure of a big conference hall.

Tourist industry officials said they are promoting MICE tourism, as travel abroad for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions is known, catering to the high-end business traveller.

Hosting international conferences and exhibitions draws not only delegates who help fill up hotels but other tourists as well as word about the island's attractions spreads.

"Sri Lanka is not new to MICE tourism," said Vipula Wanigasekara, general manager of the Convention Bureau, which organises events. "We have a long history to way back in 1976."

That was when Sri Lanka hosted the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, which brought in 83 leaders of Third World countries and around 600 foreign delegates.

Last year, the island hosted several international conferences and exhibitions on trade and information technology despite the surge in fighting between Tamil Tigers and government forces.

The Tigers were defeated in May, ending the 30-year ethnic conflict that had retarded economic growth and deterred tourists, resulting in an immediate flood of visitors.

Tourism officials said they are worried the country's infrastructure, neglected by war, has not developed on par with countries competing for MICE tourism like Singapore and Malaysia.

"We were hosting around 60,000 delegates a year in corporate tourism. That was the optimum level we could go with the available infrastructure," Wanigasekera said. "Now we have a situation where the prospects are very high in the coming years."

Imran Hassan, Secretary of Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference and Exhibition Organizers, said although there is a fast growth in exhibitions, holding of conventions could face problems.

"As far as conferences are concerned, we are going to be hit. We do not have enough hotels in Colombo. And we cannot deal with the rates offered in the Far Eastern countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

"The private sector has to look at building more hotels in Colombo. Otherwise our industry cannot grow although it wants to."

Colombo has two major convention venues; the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) and the Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre (SLECC).

Both venues can house around 1500 delegates each.

But the BMICH has been closed till 2011 for renovation and expansion, leading to fears of a shortage of space to accommodate conferences.

The government meanwhile has begun building more convention venues across the country.

An International Convention Centre is being built in southern Hambantota, where a deep-water port is also coming up.

Officials said that construction work on the convention centre which is being funded by the Government of Korea is going ahead of schedule and will be open to host conventions by the end of this year.

A 128-acre plot of land has been identified for a convention centre in Arali, in northern Jaffna which was affected by the war.

A conference centre is also planned for Negombo, a tourist resort on the west coast.

Drawing business travellers to a country requires offering them modern convention and conference centres and competitive hotel accommodation rates, officials said.

"Although the industry is looking at major growth, we do not have enough rooms and our rate structure is a bit on the higher side in comparison with the Far East," Hassen said.

"When comparing the rates with the Far East it's going to be difficult to compete - we always have to bid with Malaysia and Singapore, or Thailand, and we can't match their rates."

Hassan said lower hotel rates would help Sri Lanka compete better when bidding to host conferences.

This year Sri Lanka expects to host a number of local and international and exhibitions and conferences.

These include the 32nd Asia-Pacific Dental Congress, Asia Microfinance Forum and the Scientific Meeting of the International Epidemiological Association. The Jaffna Trade and Book Fair is one of the local events.