Overpriced hotel prices affect MICE tourism

Promoting local Meeting Incentive Conference and Exhibition (MICE) tourism has been a difficult task with the overpriced Colombo hotels, insufficient money allocation for the Convention Bureau for promotions and infrastructure yet to fall into place in Sri Lanka. Lanka Exhibition and Conference Services (LECS) CEO and Director and Lanka Association of Professional Conference and Exhibition Organizers President Imran Hassan said even though industry prospects are high in the coming years with the present fast growth rate in exhibitions, they find it difficult to cope with these impediments.

“Investing on MICE tourism related facilities in the Colombo City is a timely need,” he said.

However, the hosting of premier conventions is a major problem here since Colombo does not have enough hotel rooms with competitive price structures. “Hotels are overpriced as opposed to what they can offer for convention activities. Hoteliers here increase the prices of hotel rooms too fast and too soon,” he said.

Hotel rates of some countries that are engaged in MICE tourism are 30 percent lower than local hotel rates and having lower hotel rates would assist Sri Lanka to compete better when bidding to host conferences.

Hassan said it is a timely need to cut back budgetary restrictions in the Convention Bureau to aggressively promote MICE tourism and measures need to be taken to promote intra-regional MICE tourism particularly in SAARC countries. “When it comes to bidding to host international exhibitions and conventions to be held in three years, we need to know about the facilities available here and have to start the bidding prior to at least two years before the commencing date of the exhibition.

Corporates are always cost conscious and Sri Lanka has to bid with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and they are offering much lower prices than Sri Lanka to hold conventions and exhibitions. Sri Lanka is not in a position to deal with the prices offered by these countries,” Hassan said.

Source - ailynews.lk