2.4 Event Tourism (MICE)

Consequently, as shown above, the definitions of MICE cover many different activities with many event researchers failing to achieve consensus. In this book, the MICE industry is, for pragmatic reasons, identified as the same with event tourism, as it largely depends on the same functions and purposes, which includes meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions and events. Additionally the term ‘event tourism' is an independent definition with its own development and operation features; it cannot be viewed as a phrase that simply adds ‘tourism' after ‘event' (Getz, 1997).

The defining characteristic of MICE is their transience but it would be difficult to induce and sustain the same sense of occasion and excitement if such an event was to be held more frequently. So Getz (1997) divided event tourism into two types:

The systematic planning, development, and marketing of events as tourist attractions, catalysts for other developments, image builders, and animators of attractions and destination areas; event tourism strategies should also cover the management of news and negative events.

A market segment consisting of those people who travel to attend events, or who can be motivated to attend events while away from home.

Although ‘MICE' and ‘event tourism' cannot be interpreted from literal meanings into‘event' and ‘tourism', they truly combine the two different areas. Hall (1992, p. 4) stated‘event tourism is concerned with the roles that festivals and special events can play in destination development and the maximization of an event's attractiveness to tourists'. Getz (1997) also directly indicated that ‘event tourism' is formalised as the link between events and tourism. They are two combined elements that can encourage each other. A simple Venn diagram shows this in Figure 2.2.

Consequently ‘event tourism' cannot be treated as a fully independent industry because of its cross-industry relativity. Substantially it should be viewed like ‘event' as a motivator for tourism and ‘tourism' as a supporter or carrier for an event. The two areas are interdependent and also interact. MICE has most of the characteristics that belong to the tourism and event industries. The question is whether MICE is a sustainable industry as‘tourism', or just a transient phase. In order to delve deeper into the MICE industry, it is better to examine the tourism and event strategies of MICE.