Impact of Information Technology on Service Standards in Mice Tourism in Sri Lanka
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Date
2015
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
The Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) industry is an important and growing segment of the tourism industry with a great potential. Further, with its exponential growth, there is a big trend to use information technologies for the MICE industry. Therefore, many international MICE organizations are using information technologies to maintain service standards within the industry. Hence, the objectives of the study are to identify the current information technologies, to identify the current issues and barriers associated with the IT on MICE tourism industry, to identify benefits to the company when using information technology in the MICE tourism and to examine the factors to improve the information technology on service standards in MICE tourism in Sri Lanka. Under qualitative research framework primary data collected from 12 MICE event managers out of 28 from event management organizations in Sri Lanka who have the membership of Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference, Exhibition and Event Organisers. Structured interviews using the purposeful sampling technique in Colombo district is the main source of data. Qualitative data analytical method was employed and thematic analysis was used in analyzing the data. The findings of the study reveal that, technologies using before, during, after the MICE event, venue technologies, additional IT requests, measure the effectiveness of IT as the parental themes to identify the current information technologies which the companies have been used and cost, difficult to convince, tech-savvy employees, government support, online security, venue security as current issues and barriers of using information technologies to the MICE tourism in Sri Lanka. They struggled in adopting information technology for MICE tourism while maintaining the service standards. Further, technologized MICE events can be used by organizers as a tool for gaining competitive advantages and to reduce the cost of the company which are affected to service standards in the MICE tourism industry.
Key Words: MICE, IT, Tourism, Service Standards
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Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management degree programme (HTE)