HCM CITY  A sharp pick up in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) tours is a positive recovery sign for the tourism industry this year, industry insiders say.

Several travel agencies are reporting an upsurge in MICE tours after a long hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The agencies say that they are carefully planning and preparing MICE tours to welcome greater numbers of tourists.

Last month, Vietravel in HCM City welcomed 150 groups with nearly 9,000 tourists to join MICE tours to Phu Quốc, Ba Rịa-Vũng Tau, Đa Lạt and Phan Thiết.

The company expected to welcome over 11,000 tourists to join such tours this month.

Another leading travel agency, Saigontourist, has successfully organised MICE tours of more than 13,000 people.

It is preparing to welcome more than 80 groups with tours that combine seminars, team building events and gala dinners in Ha Noi, Sa Pa, Đien Bien, Phan Thiết, Nha Trang , Quy Nhơn, and Phu Quốc.

Đoan Thị Thanh Tra, marketing and communication director of Saigontourist, said that her company will focus on developing this type of tourism in the coming time.

It will cooperate with many large enterprises and corporations to organise travel programmes and events, she said.

Tourism and travel businesses expect the number of domestic tourists to rise sharply this summer and see this as an ideal time to further promote MICE tourism.

Nguyễn Thị Ánh Hoa, director of HCM City Department of Tourism, said they were also implementing many policies to promote MICE tourism in the city.

Last week, Đa Nẵng City, a travel hub in central Viet Nam, welcomed 720 MICE tourists.

To boost tourism recovery, the city has issued a MICE policy for this year that offers support to service providers for such tours.

To ensure safety all MICE tour participants as well as the staff of firms that organise them have to be fully vaccinated, have “safe travel history” and practise the health rules.

MICE tourism in Viet Nam has developed rapidly in recent years, making the country an emerging destination of note in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, since 2020, when COVID-19 brought all face-to-face meetings to a halt, digital technology took over and changed the character of MICE products.

As the country enters the new normal period, MICE tourism is expected to be in the vanguard of tourism recovery. VNS