MICE is nice; incentive rulebook in the offing

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, MAR 23 -

The government is in the final stage of endorsing the guidelines for the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) incentive packages for the private sector aimed at boosting the Nepal Tourism

Year campaign, a government official said.

The government has also announced a grant of Rs 500,000 to any organiser holding meetings, seminars, workshops or interaction programmes involving at a time more than 100 foreign passport holders entering Nepal by air. The incentive will be provided within seven days of the completion of such programmes on submission of evidence and relevant documents.

According to a Finance Ministry official, a draft of the MICE guidelines has been forwarded to the cabinet for final approval. “The guidelines prepared by the Tourism Ministry have incorporated provisions for submitting a record of the programmes, invitations, visitor figures and copies of IDs and passports of participants, among other evidence, so as to be eligible to receive the incentive,” said Murari Bahadur Karki, joint secretary at the Tourism Ministry.

“The Finance Ministry forwarded the draft to the cabinet last week,” said a Finance Ministry official. The Tourism Ministry had sent the draft to the Finance Ministry a month ago. The government has announced that the incentive programme will run till the end of Nepal Tourism Year.

The government’s readiness to promote MICE tourism has encouraged tourism entrepreneurs. Hoteliers said that they had been receiving more corporate clients these days. International airlines and hotels have reported healthy bookings for the coming peak tourist season. They said that MICE programmes are also increasing compared to past years.

As of now, only Global Asia Tours and Travels has applied for the incentive. Entrepreneurs have criticized the delay in issuing the guidelines as three months have already passed since the announcement.

Mahendra Raj Poudel, managing director of Global Asia, said that it organized an international meet at the Soaltee. According to him, 163 visitors from different countries attended the programme.

Tourism entrepreneurs have said Nepal has a good chance of winning international bids for MICE, a high potential tourism segment, because of its scenic allure and improving political climate. They said that MICE tourism brings high-yield tourists and has no seasonal bottlenecks. Hoteliers said that among the events held under MICE, professional and business meetings accounted for 50 percent; product launches 35 percent, fashion shows 10 percent and other events 5 percent in the previous year. Also, workshops, trainings, interactions and cultural programmes made up most of the domestic MICE events.

In 1998, Nepal received 463,684 visitors with 24 percent of them preferring trekking, mountaineering, rafting and jungle safari as their purpose of visit while 11 percent put down business, official and conference as the purpose.

However, the conflict and deteriorating security situation took a heavy toll on tourist arrival and MICE was affected, tourism entrepreneurs said. MICE tourism was good in 2007 and 2008; it slumped in 2009 due to the global economic crisis but bounced back in 2010.