CAPTION: KICC, Kenya’s iconic premier conference facility in the region.
By Tum David
Kenya’s leading iconic conference facility, KICC was recently a venue for MICE, (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events), a stakeholders workshop in Nairobi where it was revealed that Kenya was struggling in hosting of conferences and was being overtaken by South Africa and Rwanda in that order.Experts say that Kenya’s conference business has fallen to a third place behind Rwanda and South Africa because of the lower infrastructure development tailored on the MICE sector in the country.There has also been a lack of incentives geared toward attracting international business events due to the inactive national marketing bureau.The global MICE market size is valued at $ 904.30 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow from $ 970.76 billion in 2024 to $ 1,932.73 billion by 2032.KICC almost operates as a National Convention Bureau because it handles the bidding and serves as the venue. The Kenya National Convention Bureaus ( KNCB), established in 2019 has since remained dormant despite attempts to operationalize it. KNCB is yet to become fully functional, although, in 2019, the MICE sector contributed about $1.05 billion to the economy and accounted for 8.8 percent of Kenya’s GDP.With a robust MICE sector, Kenya could significantly enhance its tourism targeta, aiming for 5 million international arrivals and generating Ksh 824 billion in revenue by 2027 The government plans to host at least 10 regional international conventions annually to leverage this potential further .Despite KICC recent role in both bidding and venue operations, stakeholders advocaded for a neutral entity dedicated primarily to promoting Kenya as a MICE destination.