MICE,ICT and Local Economic Development

Abstract

This paper investigates how information and communication technologies (ICT), and particularly the World Wide Web (Web), can enhance the role that Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) properties play in local economic development (LED). The complex linkages between MICE, ICT and LED are explored through a literature review, a website audit, in-depth interviews, and a case study of Te Kahurangi (TK) in New Zealand (NZ). Our findings reveal that the Web has considerable (but as yet largely untapped) potential to facilitate linkages between MICE and local economies. Such potential can only be reached, however, through careful planning, and the realization on the part of managers, developers and planners, that the Web is not only simply a marketing tool but also an integral part of attempts to improve internal MICE performance and external links to local development.