Monday, November 25, 2013

MICE Tourism in India

India's impressive variety of history and culture, from the ancient Gangetic Kingdoms to the present state, harmoniously blend to form a unique atmosphere in over a million square kilometers of scenic sights. A continent-sized country, India possesses an amazing wealth of sights and sounds, tastes and textures. From a bustling cosmopolitan city to the quiet countryside, hill station or a beach resort, India has destinations, which offer a backdrop of unmatched beauty for a business meet. You will find a fascinating amalgam of tradition & culture, beauty & nature, style & splendour, warmth, feelings & courtesies, comfort & convenience virtually everything the modern conference organiser or delegate could expect. Conferences here bring fresh meaning of the concept of combining work with pleasure.




What makes India different from any other destination is the myriad of experiences that it offers. This is one land where the ancient and the modern co-exist. India has literally everything that a visitor wants to experience and offers people a complete holiday both physical and mental. This is perhaps the reason why we have so many repeat visitors. To quote Mark Twain, "India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India."

Amidst the countless ways that India can capture world attention as a tourist paradise, there also exists a dynamic business opportunity as a splendid venue for international conferences and conventions of no less than global standards. 

India is undoubtedly a unique Conference Destination as it offers cultural and heritage sites, the exotic and mystical, excellent facilities of beach and adventure holidays which can be combined as pre and post conference tours.

Enchanting India's image as a conference destination is also projected through the chains of hotels, providing international standards in facilities and services. Exclusive business hotels and exotic resorts, with meeting rooms of distinction, spacious convention facilities, modern business centers and a wide range of conference facilities, the different cities and places across the length and breadth of the country. 

India is in a continual process of upgrading its MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) facilities. There are multiple plans on the anvil for more world-class convention centers, airports that contest with the best in the world and efforts to team the famous Indian hospitality with customisation as per a visitor's requirement.
You could also offer the credit to the world class incentive programs, her ability to heal spiritually, her unmatched offering as a health destination or continually improved infrastructure facilities that over 25 million foreign tourists thronged her this year generating over US $200 billion as revenue, even as most other preferred hotspots marked a decline in their tourism graphs. 

The Infrastructure - India provides an impressive combination of accommodation and other conference support facilities to hold a successful Conference. To mention a few; Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, Centre Point, Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center in Mumbai, the BM Birla Science and Technology Centre in Jaipur, the Jaypee Hotels & International Convention Centre, Agra and the Cochin Convention Centre, Kochi etc together with facilities in the business hotels and resorts at various centers in the country. 

India is going the global way and MICE is fast becoming a major part of its travel and promotional budgets. In the Indian context, incentives is at present the largest component of MICE but in a maturing market, it's only a matter of time before the entire gamut of MICE activities are undertaken by the Indian corporate world.

With the expansion in the network of airlines operation on the domestic routes, better tourist surface transport systems including the Indian Railways, new centers of information technology, many new convention centres, hotels and meeting facilities, India is now an important MICE destination. The Indian sub-continent is emerging as one of the finest Incentive destinations in the world owing to the diverse culture and geography. From the icy Himalayas to the tropical islands and from citadels in the desert to verdant jungles it is a world in itself. With the emergence of exciting new destinations every year one has unparalleled choices for the incentive operator here. The incentive programmes are a combination of old world charm and tradition interlaced with modern cosmopolitan sophistication. Today, there are distinct travel divisions within tour companies and airlines that exclusively target MICE movement. Destinations have also begun to market MICE products to specialised agencies and the corporate world at large. The business of MICE holds enormous potential for any country. It is estimated that a person travelling to a country for a conference or convention spends anywhere four to eight times more than a normal leisure traveller. They spend more on food, more on business centre services.
India is globally connected to a network of over 50 international airlines and several domestic airlines, which provide convenient connectivity within India.


Added to this is an elaborate network of surface transportation system. There is an excellent Railway system running through the entire country. All-important cities are connected with state-of-the-art 'Shatabdi & Rajdhani' Express trains. Special trains like Palace on Wheels and Royal Orient Express, comprising of air-conditioned saloons decorated in the old Maharaja style offer guests a chance to stay on the train and visit colourful Rajasthan and fascinating Gujarat. An excellent network of roads, national and state highways, luxury coaches, Indian & foreign-make vehicles add to the convenience and comfort of surface travel.

And, to add to this, India offers an educated manpower base where fluency in English and other official international languages can be expected. A large number of Convention Centres are available in India with a seating capacity of up to 1700 persons. The important conference centres in the country are at New Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur & Kolkata. Some important hotel chains like the Taj Group, ITC-Welcomgroup, the Oberoi's, Meridien Hotels, Marriott Hotels etc. also have excellent conference facilities.

The exhibition industry has also gained fresh impetus with exhibition centres like Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, the Nehru Centre in Mumbai and the Chennai Trade Centre in Chennai amongst several other options. 

Saturday, January 19, 2013

MICE Tourism in Kerala


Kerala – God’s Own Country is a best compilation of the best conference facility in India.  Conferences can be hosted at Backwater Resorts, Beach Resorts, Hill Resorts, City Hotels etc..

Right climate round the year. Packed with a plethora of tourism opportunities. Pouring business interests and rapid economic growth. Three international airports strategically located at equidistance and an ideally suited attractive international convention center. Already established as leisure and culture tourism destination, the God’s Own Country is fast emerging as a business and meetings hot-hub, better known as Meetings Incentives Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) destination.

Convention or business tourism is no more a conventional type of tourism, which formerly meant only business and nothing else. Things have changed for better. Business combined with leisure is the take-me-all ticket to heaven. After all who wants to come and gather in an exotic place for just one purpose, spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for that matter, only to pack up and go off, after a sober and straight jacket-and-tie business conference or a soul-rousing religious convention, without experiencing the charm of the place visited.




Major Convention Centres in Kerala

1.The Taj Residency Trivandrum

The Taj Residency  has a large reception hall and boardroom for conferences and banquets.  Summit seats up to 600 people.  There are 140 rooms available and Hotel is centrally located and is just half an hour drive from Trivandrum airport


2. Le Meridien Cochin Resort & Convention Centre

The hotel offers a convention centre that has 12 halls with 52,000 square feet of air-conditioned space and theatre-style seating capacities ranging from 50 to 2,500 people. The hotel, which is spread across 25 acres, offers 95,000 square feet of lawn space adjoining the backwaters, which can accommodate up to 7,000 persons and is an ideal for open-air gala events. The hotel also offers an array of leisure facilities to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city

3. Lulu International convention Centre
  • Cochin Lulu Convention Centre is the largest in Kerala with a capacity of nearly 5000 delegates
  • Second largest in India
  • Spacious A/C Auditorium with 2000 seats
  • Open Air Auditorium with 2000 seats
  • 3 A/C Mini-Conference Halls with 250 seats each
  • Dining/Buffet with 2000 seats A/C & Non A/C
  • Lulu Garden Hotel with 40 Rooms and Multicuisine Restaurant "Clay Oven"
  • Board Room Facility for up to 15 pax with all amenities
  • Parking facility for 1800 cars
  • Exclusive Helipad facility of international standards
  • Catering Service for 500 to 5000
  • Kids Play Park


4. Hotel Leela Kempinski Kovalam

The Leela Kempinski Kovalam Beach , Kerala has a Convention Centre that can host about to a thousand delegates, making it the largest beach-side business venue in all of South India . Our other venues can handle groups of between 30 and 100 people


  • RGC - Rajiv Gandhi Convention Centre is the largest Convention Centre in Kerala. With an in-built stage, state-of-the-art audio-visuals
  • Maya - a daylit conference room overlooking the beach is ideal locations for conferences of 30-40 peoples
  • A traditional Kerala hall, perfect for wedding, is grafted in local architecture element. Pandhal , situated next to the convention centre

Upcoming Projects 
1 . Aakulam International Convention Centre

The Aakulam International Convention Centre is a massive hospitality project coming up along the shores of the Aakulam Lake . It is a PPP development by the realty major Raheja Group and the Govt. of Kerala. It will comprise an international convention centre, luxury hotel, shopping mall and more. The Rs 150 Crore project has already kicked off. Here are some pre-bid perspectives from the website of the initial architects, the Kumar Group. They sure are spectacular and I hope the final design will be close to this

2 . The Raheja Group

The country will get another international convention centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. This will be the second for South India, the first being the Hyderabad International Convention Centre

The Raheja Group has won the bid which was put forth by Government of Kerala to commence work for the convention centre. The two will have a Special Purpose Wheel (SPW), which is a legal entity between them with the state government holding a 26 per cent stake and the rest will lie with the Raheja Group. The convention centre, to be built in the technopark compound in Thiruvananthapuram, is being built with an investment of Rs 100 to Rs 140 crore. It will be promoted as Chalet Hotels and is proposed to be completed in the next two years

3 . Munnar-T&U Leisure hotel

T & U Leisure Hotel is a 3-Star category Hotel in Munnar is located 500 meters from the Munnar Town ( Kerala , India )
This is a new hotel in Munnar offering best of facilities and Services Such as:


Multi Cuisine Restaurant (With Buffets during Season)
Large and Spacious Rooms overlooking the Tea Gardens
Conference Hall-100 seater conference hall in t&u simply stately true to all modern standards 
Doctor On Call
Travel Desk
Car Parking
Internet Facilities


Beach Resorts in Kerala



1.Estuary island- Poovar
The Estuary Island Resort has excellent facilities for seminars, meetings and staging of special events. Our Conference hall can accommodate 150 people in the theatre style and 75 people in the 'u' shape arrangement, providing up-to-date audio-visual equipment and high class hospitality to ensure that all meetings are fruitful. Theme dinner parties to suit the occasion and outdoor dining facilities with a natural difference

2. Taj Garden Retreat –Varkala
One room with a capacity for 40 persons auditorium style, 27 persons classroom style, or 40 persons for cocktails/receptions. The hotel lawn can be used to host receptions for up to 100 persons

Wild life Resorts-Thekkady

1.Muthoot Cardamomcounty
The conference hall being the largest in the vicinity has a capacity of 200-300 in theatre style seating and makes an ideal setting for combining business with leisure

Houseboat - Kerala



Traditionally, the houseboat was called kettuvallom, which means a boat made by tying together pieces of wood. Incredable may sound, not a single nail is used in the making of a kettuvallom. Jack wood planks are joined together with coir rope and then coated with black resin made from boiled cashew nut shells. Today, these giant 80 foot long crafts have been adapted into luxuriously furnished houseboats. A kettuvallom usually has one or two bath attached bed rooms, an open lounge, deck, kitchenette and a crew compreising oarsmen, a cook and guide

Exclusive Features of the Houseboat :

Each houseboat is of excellent construction and luxurious furnishing, with exquisite flooring, hull and valavara (canopy). They are in top cruise worthy condition

Rainbow is provided with a sun deck, spacious living / dining area (200 sq. ft.), 2 bedrooms (100 sq. ft.), separate toilets for the crew, spacious passage and a neat, classy kitchen (75 sq. ft.).

Adequate numbers of buoys are provided and so are fire buckets

The boat has plentiful supply of purified water

Clean, good quality linen, blankets, towels etc. and high quality crockery and glassware are used on the boat

Logbooks and tourist records are updated regularly and the boat has a valid license. Uniformed experienced staff conversant in English mans the boat

Conference Houseboat



Specialty: A/c 6 Bed-room, with Upper deck A/c Conference hall (150 pax)




MICE in Tourism Industry




MICE in tourism industry generally includes a well-organized program centered on a particular theme. These themes may include a profession, a hobby, or an educational matter. With its own trade shows (IMEX) and practices, such tourism has a specialized area. MICE events follow a process of marketing and bidding. Usually bid on by expertise convention department set in particular nations, this procedure is often performed several months or even years ahead of the actual event.

MICE with Event Tourism


MICE Tourism support in Mega Events


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

What is MICE Tourism ?


The acronym MICE is applied inconsistently with the “E” sometimes referring to events and the “C” sometimes referring to conventions. MICE is used to refer to a particular type of tourism in which large groups, usually planned well in advance, are brought together for some particular purpose. Recently, there has been an industry trend towards using the term meetings industry to avoid confusion from the acronym. Other industry educators are recommending the use of "Events Industry" to be an umbrella term for the vast scope of the meeting and events profession.

Most components of MICE are well understood, perhaps with the exception of incentives. Incentive tourism is usually undertaken as a type of employee reward by a company or institution for targets met or exceeded, or a job well done. Unlike the other types of MICE tourism, incentive tourism is usually conducted purely for entertainment, rather than professional or educational purposes.

MICE tourism usually includes a well-planned agenda centered around a particular theme or topic, such as profession trade organization, a special interest group or an educational topic. Such tourism is often a specialized area with its own exhibition. (e.g.: IMEX, EIBTM, GIBTM,AIBTM,CIBTM and AIME and practices.