Kerala liquor ban hits MICE tourism

Thiruvananthapuram: The eighth edition of Kerala Travel Mart, scheduled to be held in Kochi from September 18 to 20, could not have been held at a more inauspicious time. T

The liquor ban has struck at the very heart of KTM 2014, the theme of which is the promotion of Kerala as the ideal destination for MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) tourism.

“KTM in fact was attempting to cash in on the increasing popularity of Kerala as a MICE destination. The new liquor policy is going to sabotage the entire exercise,” said Sejoe Jose, the MD of Marvel Tours. Sejoe said that big corporates and individuals who had already booked properties mainly in Kochi and the backwaters for incentive programmes and birthday bashes have already expressed their concern.

“It is not just for a city tour that big corporates send their performers to exotic destinations.

They are here to bond, break ice, to party. A cocktail session is part of the package,” said Sejoe. Shailendra of CGH Earth, too, echoes the sentiment.

“No one comes for a full-day closed session. Such conferences inevitably culminate in a gala dinner complete with drinks,” said Shailendra.
That liquor spurs MICE tourism is borne out by one fact: Gujarat, where prohibition is in place, never gets a MICE conference while permissive Goa is the country’s topmost MICE destination.

“Liquor is inevitable for MICE tourism. Without it, Kerala will be washed out of buisness,” said Shailendra.

There are two categories of MICE tourism: domestic and inbound. The domestic includes doctor conferences sponsored by cash-rich pharmaceutical companies and other dealers’ conferences called incentive groups in tourism parlance. The inbound MICE tourism is a glorified, richer, form of dealers’ conferences that generally happens in five-star hotels.

The economic gain is the long-haul high-spending nature of MICE tourism. “The groups will be here in the state for five to seven nights and in between they will travel to other destinations. The gain will not be concentrated in one destination alone,” Sejoe said.