Back in September 2020, Akwaaba African Travel Market, the leading pan-African tourism expo, successfully hosted its 16th edition, becoming one of the few events that did not cancel or postpone in the COVID-19 era.
Akwaaba 2020 was an online affair which ran for two days with the MICE Conference taking place on the Day one. Featuring experts from the top MICE countries in Africa, the topic was: Is MICE a viable pathway for tourism recovery in Africa? Lead Speaker was Rick Taylor of Business Tourism Company and this article is an attempt to breakdown his brilliant presentation.
To tackle the topic, one needs to get a firm understanding of MICE and its origin. So, the journey goes back to the Past, because we need to “Contextualize the past to visualise the future.”
MICE, which stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions began in 1714! It all started in USA with a group of businessmen who formed the Philadelphia House Carpeters Association, and they became the first business association. Two centuries later, the American Society of Association Executives came together in 1916.
The first convention bureau in the world, Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau in Detroit, Michigan (USA) was established in 1896. The London Convention Bureau in 1980, while the first in Africa was established in 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The first MICE industry association was Destination International (DI) established in 1914 as International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (IACVB). It evolved into Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) before its present name as DI.
In 1928, the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) was formed. The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) was launched in 1963, while the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO) was established in 1968.
In 1973, the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya became the first convention centre in Africa. Others have since been established in various parts of the continent, and the include: Durban ICC (1997) and Cape Town ICC (2003), both in South Africa, and Calabar ICC in Cross River State, Nigeria established in 2015.
Following the Cape Town Convention Bureau in 1998, the South Africa National Convention Bureau (SANCB) was established in 2004. Other established convention bureaus on the continent are: Rwanda Convention Bureau (2014), Uganda Convention Bureau (2017) and Kenya Convention Bureau (2019).
Meanwhile, before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, three global crises had occurred in the past to affect globalization economies. These are: Spanish Flu (1918–20), Great Depression (1929–33) and Global Financial Crisis (2007–08).
To be continued…
