Nine months into the Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (Mice) initiative, the country’s private and public sectors are making commendable headways toward the realisation of the set targets, the Rwanda Development Board has said.

The initiative was launched early last year to diversify from traditional tourism with revenue targets of up to $150 million in 2015, which is 16 per cent of all national export earnings and 34 per cent of the overall tourism receipts.

According to RDB’s Mice division, the private sector is continuously understanding the initiative, its goals and aligning itself to meet the quality standards required.

Frank Murangwa, the acting head of the division, said the private sector was now warming up to the opportunities that Mice presents as well as possibilities of diversifying tourism.

"When it was a new initiative, initially it was a bit hard for everyone to understand and contribute to the initiative. It has now been taken positively and they are contributing towardsthe efforts,” Murangwa said.

He said the ongoing infrastructure development and other developments such as the airport upgrade, commercial rollout of 4G LTE was laying ground for the success of the initiative.

"Those are some of the benchmarks that testify the progress achieved. The connectivity, airport upgrade to receive guests and the entry of international hotel brands (such as Kempinski and Marriot) is a huge step in the progress,” Murangwa added.

He said improvement of quality of services was a work in progress as the initiative is expected to bring numerous guests into the country.

Plan for the year

Last year, the country managed to attract several high-level conferences among them the Africa Development Bank Annual General meetings, World Export Development Forum, East Africa Law Society conference, Innovation Africa 2014, among others.

Murangwa said, this year, the plan is to advance marketing the country as the preferred Mice destination with the context of a safe, organised, connected destination with the hope of reaching out to the international market.

On the expected completion date of Kigali Convection Centre, the acting division head said regardless of the time of completion it would not drag the initiative’s drive.

Dennis Karera, the chairperson of the Rwanda Hospitality Association (RHA), said they were all eyes open to make the most out of the initiative.

So far the country’s bed capacity stands at about 8,000.

"Our survival in this business is so much hinged on Mice, its success will put us in business. We embrace Mice a hundred per cent, we hope to see a success story and are looking to make the most of it,” Karera said.

He said the hospitality sector hopes to see the initiative facilitating an increase in the number of meetings, international conferences and events held in the country.

Among the major events scheduled to take place in the country this year include, second annual Transform Africa Conference, Interpol’s general assembly, and All Purpose Driven church leadership congress.

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