The Sunday News
THE National Convention (NCB) Bureau has urged organisations in different sectors of the economy to start bidding for conferences as Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events (MICE) tourism has the potential to turn around the country’s economy.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe Business Conference during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair on Wednesday, NCB executive director Mrs Tesa Chikaponya said players from different sectors of the economy should engage her organisation for help in organising conferences in their different fields of expertise.
Mrs Chikaponya’s remarks come at a time when a MICE expert, Mr Lewis Martin from the United Kingdom noted that Zimbabwe’s tourism and hospitality industry has the potential to generate more than $100 million annually from its Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events.
“MICE tourism is a key strategy in turning around the Zimbabwean economy. Work with us in bidding for conferences. We are here to assist you. My organisation will make sure that we help you prepare the proposals and also accompany you when you go to bid for the conference,” she said.
Mrs Chikaponya said the country needed to work together to develop infrastructure like convention centres to boost MICE tourism as at the moment it is difficult to host large groups due to lack of proper facilities.
“Let us put facilities together and you will see what will happen to our economy. We need many conference facilities so that we can have large volumes of people with high disposable income and high technological advancement coming to Zimbabwe and visit many of our tourist destinations.
At the moment, when I want to organise a conference for 2 000 people, there is no place where I can accommodate them. We do not have enough conference facilities in the country.”
She noted that MICE is not for the tourism sector but cuts across different sectors of the economy.
“One of the key roles of the agriculture sector is to provide food security, therefore some of the conferences that can be targeted include livestock breeding, disease prevention, research and development as well as seed production,’ said Mrs Chikaponya.
“In the health sector, some of the conferences that can be targeted include ppharmaceuticals, disease prevention, neurology, health technologies and cancer. For the manufacturing sector, business and organisations can bid or organise conferences on new industry technologies and investment.”
Companies, she said, should start working with her organisation in identifying potential conferences from their sectors, interpreting the host country responsibilities, crafting and submission of a winning bid, conducting site inspections, identifying a local professional conference organiser and evaluating the impact of the conference to their sector.
