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MICE TOURISM
tion. With its wide reach into overseas
markets, it should pay more attention
to MICE travellers, share more of its
capacity, knowledge, experience and
resources and cooperate better with
local tourism authorities.
Developing and promoting MICE
business in a country is a long and rath-
er complex process. It is not only a mat-
ter of tourist arrivals. It involves and has
an effect on many different stakehold-
ers from the public and private sector.
That’s why I talk about MICE business,
not MICE tourism.
Central tourism authorities need to
develop capacity to take the lead in de-
veloping and promoting Vietnam as a
MICE destination. In any case, they also
require good understanding, coopera-
tion, coordination and financial support
from the government and other minis-
tries as well.
In addition, Vietnam’s tourism au-
thorities should actively seek and devel-
op strategic partnerships with the pri-
vate sector, airlines, hotel chains,
media and others, which can
help to package, mar-
ket and promote
Vietnam as a MICE destination.
In this regard, much has been
done on paper, but the actual im-
plementation lags behind. Plans to
establish destination marketing and
convention visitor bureaus, as in other
countries, are moves in the right di-
rection. As a German citizen, I would
like to give a very concrete example
of such successful collaboration. In
Berlin over recent decades, the mu-
nicipal authorities, the convention and
visitor bureau, the tourism promotion
agency, and the private sector have
worked very hard and cooperated well
together in developing the capital
of Germany, as a ‘service sector and
knowledge-based metropolis’.
As a result, it is now a leading MICE
destination in Europe and around the
world. Berlin has established itself as a
for many science, high-tech, medicine,
art, fashion and sports related events.
The city of course benefits from Germa-
ny’s nation brand image and this brand-
ing is the first key to attracting MICE.
There are certainly macro- and
micro-economic factors in developing
MICE business.Vietnam can influence
socio-economic development, acces-
sibility, infrastructure development,
management capacity and product and
service quality.
Firstly, socio-economic develop-
ment, in this context, means the level
of a country’s development in science
and research, which often gives
birth to congresses or
similar events. Socio-economic devel-
opment also means to what extent a
destination has developed a specific
economic sector and, for that matter,
a broad knowledge base and reputa-
tion for it. Here, Vietnam obviously has
a long way to go. I recommend that
the country focuses on developing and
implementing a professional country
branding strategy and on continuing
to build MICE clusters in HCMC, Hanoi
and Danang.
Secondly, ‘accessibility’ plays a ma-
jor role in the choice of a destination.
Apart from the central or strategic loca-
tion of a country, accessibility means
the quantity and quality of international
air, land and sea routes, visa policies
and ease of travel to and from a desti-
nation. Vietnam possesses a relative ge-
ographic advantage. Regarding travel
routes, visa policies and ease of travel,
Vietnam has some work to do, but it is
on the right path.
Thirdly, infrastructure develop-
ment goes hand in hand with acces-
sibility. For the successful development
and promotion of MICE business, in-
ternational travel routes to and from
a country need to be matched by an
acceptable standard of national infra-
structure - not only domestic air routes
and national road systems, but also
major convention centers, hotel, resort