The Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) is to open the 4,000-seater hall in the Prime Minister’s residence, Temple Trees, for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE), SLCB Chairperson Dheera Hettiarachchi told The Daily Morning Business on Wednesday (23).
“We recently visited the Temple Trees, which has a seating capacity of 4,000 seats, and has not been promoted as a venue for MICE events. It has been politically kept from being open for the use of the public, and this can be used for the MICE industry events as well,” Hettiarachchi said, speaking on the sidelines of the media conference held for unveiling the Sri Lanka MICE Expo 2025.
He added that the SLCB acknowledges that the existing infrastructure within the island is not on par with globally recognised standards for MICE hosting venues, wherein larger seating capacities, accommodation and leisure are facilitated within close quarters, for the use of visiting business groups.
“You need to have specific facilities when it comes to convention centres. If you visit Dubai you get a certain number of convention centres connected with break-out rooms and other seating and exhibition areas. There is actually a lack of convention centres in Sri Lanka.”
For scale, Sri Lanka’s largest recognised standard venue, the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), has a seating capacity of 1,600 seats, with 640 located within the gallery and 960 in the balcony.
“BMICH and other places we currently promote are very conventional types of venues.”
Hettiarachchi then added that the Magam Ruhunupura International Convention Centre (MRICC), located in Hambantota, and Jaffna Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre are venues that have not been utilised enough by the industry, due to a lack of promotion.
“The MRICC is a good opportunity and it is not utilised at the moment, even the Jaffna Cultural Centre. We are in discussion with the UDA to revive the MRICC.”
Sri Lanka is expecting to receive three million tourists in 2025, and has so far seen 1.1 million tourist arrivals for the year, at the beginning of July.
Industry persons note that from the annual footfall of tourists, only a meagre 11% of those who enter the country visit for business purposes.
According to published market data, India, Sri Lanka’s largest tourism market, is to see its own outbound MICE tourism market grow to reach $ 13.4 billion by 2031, as the country continues to expand its global business presence.