The Sunday Mail
Charles Mavhunga
Globally, the creative MICE branding strategy is a newfangled and rejuvenated business tactic, which is stimulating competition among destinations in the tourism industry after the Covid-19 slump.
MICE refers to activities involving meetings, incentives, conventions and events, and these activities contribute to the destination image.
The adoption of the MICE strategy by the authorities in the tourism industry in Zimbabwe is, therefore, commendable, given the view that business travellers have a higher spending power than leisure travellers.
The MICE strategy in
destination branding
The MICE strategy is an engagement process involving stakeholders working together to design and brand MICE tourism. The idea is to co-create travellers and become rebranded to tourists, but the process demands collaborative thinking and stakeholder participation.
The efforts to convert travellers to become tourists should focus on producing sustainable benefits such as co-creating opportunities among stakeholders involved, and this includes cultural heritage.
The MICE strategy also demands stewardship in stakeholder collaboration and management, including economic benefits for local people, community empowerment and the enhancement of local pride while, at the same time, keeping the safety and health protocols in check.
The MICE tourism framework is centred on cultural heritage, which means organisers involved in MICE tourism should establish synergistic cooperation between destinations and cultural heritage.
The relationship between cultural heritage and destinations should be very strong to achieve MICE tourism objectives.
Co-creation involving heritage tourism and destination branding is now a popular business formula producing results in the global world. It entails the recognition of the cultural characteristics of a place and understanding the core values of the people who live in the area from the principal parts of destination branding strategy.
It is, therefore, against this background that companies in the tourism industry in Zimbabwe are encouraged to establish an understanding of the people in the country’s cultural values to co-create synergies between MICE tourism and heritage tourism to boost the popularity of destination identity branding.
Branding of tourism destinations is characterised by the establishment of unique images that capture the interests of potential customers.
The perceptual view of potential visitors should establish a positive image of the destination in terms of uniqueness. Researchers in the field of tourism have established that positive destination images are related to features such as heritage and culture, the characters of local people, famous people or city status.
When creating destination branding, a deep understanding of the cultural values of the people in the area is very important. An understanding of how people live and an appreciation of how a shared sense of place is constituted and experienced are very critical.
In the case of Zimbabwe, city fathers are found wanting in destination branding given the view that political appointees who are running the country’s major cities appear to have a conflict of interest in terms of city branding.
In my previous articles, I highlighted the fact that city fathers, who are the major stakeholders in city branding, are moving forward political interest instead of city development trajectories. As a result, the country’s major cities are in a sorry state, and, thus, violating the principal values of city branding to capture the interests of potential customers.
This also means collaborative thinking, which is a critical component of MICE tourism, is missed in the country.
This article, therefore, repeats the statement that action to align the interest of the Government with political appointees (city fathers/councillors) running the country’s major cities is now an emergency to ensure the country’s tourism industry is taken to global heights. The identity of a place or a resort centre is established by stakeholders whose mindset is collaborative and ultramodern.
This refers to an amalgamation of services with stakeholders to achieve a brand with an identity that is unique and attractive. MICE tourism is currently placing destination branding into a competitive edge in the global world, and this means stakeholders involved should be working together to exploit the lucrative opportunities available in the synergy.
One issue to appreciate is that the cultural background of the people of Zimbabwe is characterised by peacefulness, tranquillity and sociableness.
The norms and values of Zimbabweans are, therefore, fit enough in the creative MICE tourism concept. MICE tourism is viewed as having a personality, which motivates stakeholders to form a relationship that is strong to achieve the goals. The concept highlights mutual understanding of stakeholders to work together through supportive relationships.
This means effective branding in a MICE strategy is a stakeholder-backed approach to motivate the establishment of a unique destination with a unique identity. MICE tourism is linked to heritage tourism, hence the need to establish collaborative thinking among the stakeholders involved.
The MICE approach in branding of the tourism industry is confirmed by researchers today to be a unique way of branding the tourism industry after the Covid-19 pandemic slump.
The major issue to consider includes brand awareness, brand experience, brand equity and brand personality. MICE organisers are, therefore, encouraged to establish an understanding of the heritage values that are critical to establishing the synergy.
Brand awareness refers to a way of describing the unique values and benefits that customers derive from the brand.
This means stakeholders in the MICE approach are expected to identify areas of camaraderie to capture the lucrative values of the new business phenomenon.
In Zimbabwe, the MICE approach is an important strategy for adoption considering that illegal sanctions that continue to be a dent in the country’s tourism industry could be neutralised because the strategy is hands-on and focused.
MICE travellers have an opportunity to become involved and integrated into the country’s brand destination values to establish brand equity.
Brand equity refers to a match between brand values or promises with customer expectations, and the MICE strategy creates opportunities for the destination.
In conclusion, a successful MICE strategy to achieve effective branding of the tourism industry requires stakeholders to work together in harmony.
MICE organisers are, therefore, encouraged to establish sustainable relationships and collaborative thinking to enjoy the lucrative business opportunities associated with MICE tourism.
The tourism business in Zimbabwe is growing, and the development of identity through effective branding is critical, and the MICE tourism approach is a new unique way of branding destinations.
Charles Mavhunga co-authored textbooks in Business Enterprising Skills and is currently studying for a PhD in Management at Bindura University. He can be contacted at [email protected]; Cell number: +263772989816
