Mice-Based Tourism Generates Income Seven Time Larger

Jakarta, Oct 7 (Antara) - Meeting, Incentives, Conference and Events(MICE)-based tourism may generate income seven times larger than other types of special interest tourism. Director of development of special interest tourism and MICE at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy Achyaruddin said Indonesia needs to promote MICE tourism. "If wee want quality tourism, Indonesia should promote MICE tourism," Achyaruddin said here on Tuesday. MICE is a unique industry , different from other types of tourism, he said, adding MICE tourists are special as generally they are bigger spenders, he said. "Generally the number of visitors is seen as the indicator of success in developing the tourism industry, but in my opinion quality tourism that would contribute more income is no less important," he said. However, Indonesia is still lagging behind other countries in the development of MICE tourism, he said. MICE tourism is facing limitation in the availability of large convention and exhibition rooms, he said, adding convention and exhibition rooms with capacity of more than 6,000 seats are found only in Jakarta and Bali among the tourist destinations in the country. Other tourist destinations such as Surabaya, Medan, Manado, Makassar, Bandung, Solo, and Yogyakarta and emerging destinations like Balikpapan and Lombok have smaller convention and exhibition centers . Other limitations are in infrastructure, accessibility, human resources and connectivity. "Therefore, currently we are mapping out potentials in this cities to be made special in line with their respective potentials in MICE tourism," he said.