3 minute read
A VAST OPPORTUNITY
Following its official launch in June this year, the African Perspectives on the MICE Industry Report 2021 aims to provide insights that enable the entirety of the business events value chain to inform their strategic decision-making. Meetings learns more about how the industry can participate.
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The African Perspectives on the MICE Industry Report was created to assist companies within the MICE industry to increase revenue by informing their decision-making. It provides insights into the readiness of each country to host local and international business events in addition to the potential opportunities for collaboration. Meetings magazine is offering its readers a 10% discount on the report if they use the code MTNGS when purchasing this. Orders can be placed here. For more information on this, contact Leana Robson, business development consultant at Niche Partners, on +27 (0)72 350 2850 or at business@nichepartners.org.
One of the key outtakes from the African Perspectives on the MICE Industry Report 2021 is that there is a clear opportunity for the continent to grow the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry value chain. Nowhere is this more evident than in the maturity indicators of the 16 African countries that were analysed, with more than two-thirds being in a nascent stage of development. This means the countries that fall in this category do not have a formalised industry, there is scattered MICE activity and while there is a government priority on tourism and the MICE industry, this may be lacking in clear structures.
A small portion of the countries in the defined category have a formalised industry with clear suppliers and client activity, as well as a government priority on the MICE sector and a communicated MICE strategy.
Only two countries attained the status of having managed MICE industries, which are formalised, prioritised by government and have had an active convention bureau for more than five years – in addition to an existing African strategy.
No countries fall in the category of ‘optimising’, which – together with having a formalised, government-prioritised MICE industry and an active convention bureau and African strategy – also hosts regularly rotated African conferences.
This highlights the pressing need for Africa to consider the impact that having a formalised MICE industry can have on their economies, while bolstering bilateral ties with other African countries.
DATA COLLECTION REMAINS A CHALLENGE
In order for Africa to realise the opportunity at hand, the continent needs to develop the means to be able to collect and collate its data in such a way that it can provide valuable insights to the industry and decisionmakers. One of the challenges of this, however, is ensuring that there is a universal data standard for bringing this information together.
“As the business events industry in Africa is largely in nascent stages, the study will be conducted annually to improve in data collection as research grows. As with most studies, the design of the current study is subject to limitations. These include a lack of previous studies conducted in the MICE industry in Africa, in-country data collection, access and comparative tools. The study results must therefore be accompanied with additional in-country data and not be generalised,” notes Niche Partners, the research house responsible for producing the report.
In the lead-up to the launch of the client and supplier surveys for its 2022 report, Niche Partners would like to encourage role players within the African MICE industry to participate in the upcoming survey and to share this with their industry colleagues and affiliates to ensure there is a broad enough scope for the team to derive holistic insights.
