Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) Tourism in Addis Ababa: Current Practices, Challenges and Prospects
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Date
2022-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
MICE tourism, which denotes meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibtion, has emerged as a significant sector in tourism. However, the practices and challenges of MICE tourism in Ethiopia have not been fully investigated. This study, therefore, aims to fill in this research gap by exploring the practices challenge and prospects of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism in Addis Ababa. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of study consisted of the employees of Ethiopian convention Bureau, chamber of commerce and sectorial association, Ethiopian event organizers some selected hotels and Addis Ababa Culture, Art and Tourism Bureau. The sample size of this study was 16 individuals determined using purposive sampling. From the research results, the practices of MICE tourism in Addis Ababa show that in five standard hotels however only UNECA and AU conference facilities that fit with the international standard. Still existing meeting facilities in AU and UNECA has relatively small capacities and are not business oriented. Regarding the challenges in the development of the MICE tourism industry in Addis Ababa, including absence of full understanding of the MICE sector, lack of standardization of MICE services providers, lack of MICE tourism policy ,lack of legal framework for MICE tourism, poor practice of MICE sales and bidding ,poor practice of MICE business networking, lack of MICE brand image and lack of MICE market focused research ,inadequate data for planning of MICE sector, strong international competition,COVID-19,political instability and several marketing challenges are identified. Moreover, the prospect of MICE tourism in Addis Ababa the expansion of international airports at Addis Ababa, the ongoing construction of AACEC, AAEC and the development of attraction sites in Addis Ababa and effort of Ethiopian Convention bureau on bidding international exhibition and conference is a huge step forward in increasing traffic to Addis Ababa's MICE tourism.
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Keywords
MICE Tourism, practices, challenges and prospects