Lately, leisure has ceased to be the sole reason for tourist activity, and the competitive world of business is looking to combine business with pleasure, giving birth to the concept of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) tourism. MICE encompasses a wide spectrum of business activities like dealer conferences, business meetings, seminars, incentive trips for marketing personnel, and trade fairs and exhibitions combined with leisure activities. This article attempts to explore the opportunities for India to be recognized as a leading MICE destination in Asia. It highlights the capabilities required for a MICE destination and recommends a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Over the years, Egypt, Greece, Thailand, and many island nations, such as the Bahamas, Maldives and Seychelles, have sustained their economies by promoting tourism. Similarly, Singapore, Germany, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and China have also successfully established themselves as popular destinations for business dealings.

Tourism has always been identified as travel for recreation and leisure. Today's hectic lifestyle has made tourism one of the popular global leisure activities. Since 2007, international tourist arrivals across the globe have increased at the rate of 1.9%, generating US$944 bn receipts from tourism (UN World Tourism Organization, 2009).

According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 released by the World Economic Forum, India has improved its position by three places since the previous year. It now ranks 11^th in Asia-Pacific and 62^nd globally in the list of 133 countries ranked on the basis of creating a healthy environment for developing tourism. Moreover, India is identified as a cheaper destination as it stands 9^th in the index of relative cost for access to international air transport service. Travel and tourism was expected to contribute 6.0% to India's GDP and was also projected to make a similar contribution to exports during 2009.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was expecting over 6 million foreign tourist arrivals during 2009. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism surged by 24% during the year 2008, despite short-term setbacks. The Ministry of Tourism is the nodal body for framing policies and programs for the promotion and development of tourism in India. The Ministry is toying with the idea of developing some niche products like wellness tourism, caravan tourism, helipad tourism and MICE tourism.

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