Report on MICE Conference: Literature Review and Proposal

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE), focusing on the organization of a conference for the World Association of Travel Agencies (WATA). The report begins with an introduction to the MICE industry, followed by a literature review exploring contemporary and green issues within the sector, referencing key research on sustainability, carbon footprint reduction, and waste management. The second part of the report proposes a conference, including the rationale, objectives, venue justification, operational analysis (catering, IT/AV, transport, accommodation), a proposed budget, promotion strategies, a conference schedule, and internal/external analysis. The report emphasizes the importance of sustainable practices and customer satisfaction in the MICE sector, offering recommendations for the successful organization of the WATA conference.

Meetings, Incentives
Conferences & Exhibitions

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Part 2................................................................................................................................................8
Proposal for the organization of conference....................................................................................8
a) Rationale and Background for the Conference........................................................................8
b) Conference objectives.............................................................................................................9
c) Justification for the venue and destination selection.............................................................10
d) Operational analysis- (catering, IT/AV, transport, accommodation options).......................10
e) Proposed budget....................................................................................................................12
f) Conference promotion............................................................................................................12
g) Conference Schedule.............................................................................................................13
h) Internal analysis & external analysis.....................................................................................14
i) Recommendations..................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions, this is a type of tourism in which planned
groups are brought together. This is also known as meeting industry in order to avoid any kind of
confusion. Meetings in this refers to tourism for the purpose of meeting, incentive have different
and specific meaning in which employee are offered a tour and travel after completion of the
project or meeting specific standards. Along with this it is also provided to those who excel in
their job. Unlike other type of tourism this only have a purpose of entertainment and does not
involve any professional or educational purpose. Conferencing means travel for the purpose of
conferencing in other countries. Exhibition is another word in this and this means travelling for
the purpose of exhibition where exhibition are either presented or individual take part in
exhibition. This report is based on the conference organisation which is being planned for World
Association of Travel Agencies. This conference is planned to be held in Spring 2021. This
report will involve plans for how the conference can be organised and what are the different
elements suitable for organising conference. This report also has a literature review based on
contemporary/green issues in relation with MICE sector in order to establish credibility as a
organiser for the conference.
Part 1
Literature Review
According to (Abdullah, 2017) the sector of MICE refers businesses that maintains their
operations on big scale, delivering benefits to the economy which also reflects in the sector of

tourism and look after the development of leisure all over the world. There are various and many
benefits of MICE which goes apart from conducting just the event. As it helps to create more
opportunities for tourism and generate more people to come and visit the country. In the
assessment of global GDP the contribution made by the sector of tourism is 5 per cent and in
terms of employment it is more than 8 per cent. The sector of tourism and destination marketing
and its management has complied their hands with each other so that they coordinate with each
other in a better way through which they can enhance the level of operations and improve the
service of customers. Services of destination support and influencing them is the key challenge.
It requires a lot of efforts to think for the activities that helps to attract people which remains an
factor of importance, then it comes to meeting with the organizers of the events. There is a
reason behind that after the ending of conference people want to visit the place and explore new
places for which they will also consider facilities that offer good food and a decent place for stay
which they can use for stay for the period of trip. Organizations that are smart are successful in
attracting the visitors to their facility so that they can influence their mind to sustain the
environment and take initiatives that helps to preserve the environment. The whole industry of
MICE and their organizers has done a fantastic job to increase the awareness for this issue with
the growth and development of sector of tourism. In accordance with (NZIOKA, 2019) every
operator or organizer that is dealing in the sector of MICE needs to work on collecting the data
so that they can easily understand the footprint of operational area. This must be accurate so that
changes can be made after the analysis of other competitors and how they meet the expectations
of the business plan. Organizers of MICE has one option and that is to use the tool of hotel
footprinting through which they will be able to take out the actual and the right figure of carbon
footprint in each room or meeting for a single destination. It needs to be assessed on the basis of

size and the capacity of environment footprint it is important that destination is complied with
the centre of convention and it is the duty of the organizers to make sure that the outcome taken
out by the event is triple bottom line which is positive for the society and assess the factors that
benefits the environment socially which is apart from the returns that are gained on the economy.
As per the view of (Soler Sancho, 2018) a initiative has been taken which goes by Earth
Check and it has introduced Event Check to support and show the path to the organizers of
MICE so that they can select the venue by assessing the framework effectively for the organizers
of the event, clients, suppliers so that they can measure, minimize and take out the impact of the
environment which involves the factors of environment, social and economic events. With the
help of certification of Earth Check which is the top most centre of convention and entertainment
they have committed to make plans for the sustainability that will help them to reduce the level
of impact of these activities on environment and with that it will make the communities more
better, livable and caring. It will all be done with proper planning and a focus on the
management of destination. They have been getting appraisals for the last seven years for the
contribution they have made to the environment. They have met with the standards which are
consumption of energy, emission of gases or greenhouse, savings of water, waste that is sent to
landfill. On the basis of (RUMERUNG, and et.al.,) organizers are changing their ways and
methods as conducting an event or conference takes up a lot of energy which is why they have
changed their objective to dematerialization. Organizers have decided that they will remove
taking the use of materials to build the events that are disposable. This is because now because of
the advancement in tools it has been possible that events can be hosted with more innovative
ideas and less of these unsustainable measures. Printing, posters have been reduced by apps and
LED screens. Other than this in order to reduce the energy they are reducing cost of transport by

hosting the event where most of the attendees resides so that they can save the monetary aspects
and reduce the level of carbon released in the environment. There are initiatives being taken that
for every event and affection of environment they will farm and plant a set of trees and plants
which covers for the damage and lower the level of carbon in the environment. Some of the
organizing are taking the time of event from 1 year to 2 year so that they can reduce the level of
consumption of resources. Many of the organizations that deal in this sector are aware of the
importance of this aspect and many of them has introduced their program of sustaining the forces
of environment. This way they are making progress in achieving growth and development.
As stated by Collins and Cooper, 2017 have an important responsibility that related to
contemporary/green because they are playing key role in encouraging and promoting tourism.
This is why they should ensure that they contribute in enhancing tourism activities that are
sustainable and have considered green aspects of tourism. They also play important role in
leisure development and this is why they should increase their consideration towards leisure
activities and how they can be improved in relation with their impact on environment. This is
very important that MICE sector when plan and execute tours they should ensure that all the
tourist is educated about their role in sustainable tourism. Waste management is also important
aspect of the green/contemporary activities and this is why this is important responsibility of
MICE sector that when they organize tours or events such as meetings, conferences they take
complete care of waste management in order to ensure that event being organized is sustainable
and will not have impact on the environment. This also requires that MICE sector should take
action and initiative in future water, waste and energy initiatives. Through these sustainability
activities companies in MICE can ensure a different yet rewarding experience to all its guests
and tourists. This experience can be added value by initiatives that support local cuisine, local

entertainment and art and cultural events. Now in all these activities guests and customers have
also started taking interest and they are also looking for destinations where they can avail clean
and comfortable accommodation, along with this tourist and guest also look for having explored
local food and culture and art. Guest are increasingly taking interest in activities for conservation
and community empowerment activities and in this many of the organization are encouraging
guest and customers to do so.
According to Watts and et.al., 2018 In order to reduce impact of carbon footprint on the
environment MICE should take active initiative because organizing events use considerable
amount of energy and subsequently leave a significant carbon footprint. In order to reduce the
impact of carbon industries and organizations can take several initiatives among which they can
eliminate use of disposable material and single use plastic. There are several ways in which
material and waste can be recycled and used big organizations organizing big events should
ensure that they do not leave waste and take initiatives to recycle and before that take initiatives
to reduce the waste. During their event organization companies operating within MICE
industries consider this. Hence it is important for and is a responsibility of MICE industry that
they take care of environmental impact of all their activities regardless of their nature. This
means along with managing and providing sustainable tourism it is also important that events are
also environment friendly.

Part 2
Proposal for the organization of conference
a) Rationale and Background for the Conference
The conference that has been planned to be held in Spring 2021 is a conference that is
being organized by World Association of Travel Agencies (Zhang and Lv, 2017). This is a
organisation that brings together destination management companies on the basis of one
company per country. companies that are part of WATA are required to adhere to same ethical
values as WATA and aim at bringing best of their value for customers. There are several services
that are provided by WATA that range from tailor made leisure groups to services that fits for
Incentives, Meetings, Conference and Events. This is a non-profit organisation that was
established in 1949. This conference will contribute in engagement and involvement of all the
members of WATA. This conference will also focus on improving services of the companies
considering changing orientation and taste of the customers.
This rational suggests that this conference will address issues of the customers of the
companies and how they can enhance and modify their services according to the orientation and
preference of the customers (Huang and et.al., 2017). Another rationale for this is to enhance
coordination and through this companies will be able to provide services at international level.
This conference that is being held by WATA will attract around 250 members among
which it is has been gender based ratio is 50:50. On the basis of fields the members of the
conference are from different fields including government representatives, personnel and key
stakeholders of the organisation and along with this conference will also involve leading figures

from commerce and academic research establishment. Though conference destination is not yet
decided the conference can be held at such destination which is according to the weather
conditions that all the members are able to join the conference. Some of the destinations can be
Italy, France, Spain are some of the countries where conference can be organised (Gao, and
et.al., 2018). The reason behind this is that these countries are able to fulfil all the requirements
of the conference and along with they will also be a pleasant destination that all the members can
participate in leisure activities at the conference.
b) Conference objectives
 Enhance coordination in members companies
 Increase environmental awareness and consciousness
 Improving customer satisfaction and services
 Ensuring sustainability while carrying out operations
 Increasing technology advancement in operation
Coordination among members is one of the objectives of this conference this is because
coordination among members of the WATA will enable them to work in other country. Better
coordination will provide them assistance from those who are from that country (Sielicka,
Choma and Kowalczyk, 2019). Along with this there are several other benefits of coordination
such as sharing of knowledge and better practices with other members, enabling them to enhance
their work.

Increase environmental awareness is another objective in which conference aims at
enhancing practices of members of the organisation in context of the environment. This objective
addresses that practices of all the members are environmentally safe and sustainable.
Ensuring sustainability while carrying out operations is ensuring sustainability of the
organisation in terms of financial sustainability and managing sustainability to meet long term
goals of the company.
c) Justification for the venue and destination selection
This conference can be organised at Italy, this is because Italy is suitable for the
conference on the basis of its time and season (Girgin and Tasci, 2019). Italy is also suitable for
the conference as this is a well developed country. This suggest that it will be a good option for
the conference as it has all the required and necessary assistance to provide in terms of
connectivity, infrastructure. Members will not face any kind of difficulty while they are at
conference. Alongside conference members of the conference will also be able to entertain
themselves by offerings of Italy through its tradition, art and able to provide a excellent
experience to all the members.
d) Operational analysis- (catering, IT/AV, transport, accommodation options)
Catering- This is important to consider when members of the conference are from all around the
world. Catering at the conference can be according to the theme and purpose of the conference.
This means environment friendly green food. Considering this theme of the food can be vegan.
In context of food and catering at the conference, it can be as follows-
 On the first day of conference authentic Italian food can be provided in order to ensure
that all the delegates at conference get to know about Italy’s culture and their food. This

is one of the responsibilities of the conference and its organiser that Italy where they are
organising conference gets benefit of this (Collins and Cooper, 2017). To aware delegates
and members with culture of Italy will also serve the purpose for corporate social
responsibility.
 Second of the conference the food option and menu can include food items from different
countries of the world. This will enhance knowledge of delegates about the food items of
other countries and at the same time they will also have a taste of their home country
food.
 Third day of conference food and catering can be formal dinner and a blend of traditional
and modern food.
Food is important element of the event and organisation and this is why it should be provided
due attention. This becomes more important when conference attracts members and delegates
from all over the world. This will enhance their knowledge and food also represents culture and
heritage of the country (Dawson and et.al., 2017). Conference being organised at Italy it becomes
responsibility of the conference and WATA that it is provided due importance.
Another element of operational analysis is IT/AV. This means ensuring that connectivity
is adequate where conference is being held, another element of this is AV which means audio
and video, in conference this is used for presentation. This means setting the screen and ensuring
adequacy of required tools.
Transport is another part of this conference. This includes managing arrival of delegates
from airport to hotel where their accommodation has been decided.