MICE is a sophisticated tourism model that combines work and tourism. It requires a high level of organization, infrastructure, staff, and additional services. Over the past 2 years, Quang Ninh has adopted MICE to catch up with worldwide tourism trends and has hosted events that demanded elaborate preparations from upgrading transportation infrastructure to expanding tourism facilities. Quang Ninh is on its way to building its own MICE tourism brand, according to Trinh Dang Thanh, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Tourism.
"Our ambition is to boost MICE tourism from 20% to 35% of the local tourism market share. MICE is expected to become a brand of Quang Ninh and boost the GDP of the local service industry," said Mr. Thanh.
Quang Ninh has paid special attention to tourism human resource training, especially professional vocational, and foreign language skills. Thanks to natural resouces, developed infrastructure, and relatively high quality human resources, Ha Long city in particular and Quang Ninh province in general are attractive destinations for the MICE tourism. Quang Ninh now has more than 20,000 guest rooms in 1,400 registered guest accomodations, including 214 hotels. It offers visitors 32 tour routes, 78 tourism landmarks, 500 tour boats, and thousands of land transportation units for hire. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Service, Tourism, and Science Company, said: "Visitors under the MICE tourism model often have higher requirements for tourism services and standards. Not every 5-star hotel in Ha Long can satisfy the requirements of MICE guests in terms of infrastructure and staffing. For the near future, we should focus on domestic visitors for the MICE model. They are less demanding. This will also help Ha Long address problem of seasonal tourist overloads."