IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC TO MEETINGS, INCENTIVES, CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITIONS (MICE) TOURISM IN RWANDA
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Since the beginning of 2020 COVID-19 engulfed the world halting the daily activities. In a matter of weeks, the pandemic had threatened health and lives of millions of people worldwide. By the last quarter of the month of March 2020 several countries in the world including Rwanda had imposed travel restrictions and lockdown measures to combat COVID-19 pandemic. This led to unprecedented levels of mass commercial flight cancellations and travel restrictions, forcing millions to alter their travel plans. Both international and domestic tourists cancelled bookings in Rwanda and outbound tourism activities were also banned. Airlines had cancelled flights, while hotels were almost completely vacant. Consequently, tour operators were facing huge economic losses and employment cuts in Rwanda. According to the Minister for Trade and Industry, Soraya by July 21st 2020 Rwanda’s MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) industry had been hit by a $48 million (over Rwf45 billion) loss as a result of the global Covid-19 crisis. The purpose of this paper was to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism in Rwanda. The study covered a period of 7 months (December, 2019- July, 2020). The study adopted a descriptive survey design. 36 general managers of hotels offering MICE tourism for a period of three years from 2017-2020 in Kigali Province were targeted. A sample of 34 respondents was determined from this population using purposive sampling technique. Both primary and secondary data was collected. Primary data was collected using the questionnaire while for secondary data the study reviewed journals, historical records, newspaper articles, World Health Organization statistics, government data, and website materials on COVID-19 incidences in tourism. Data analysis was done with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21. The study findings revealed that 58.8% of the respondents strongly agreed that COVID-19 created conditions and disruptions forcing socio-behavioural changes on societies . In addition, 76.5% of the respondents strongly agreed that MICE consumers in Rwanda had been seriously curtailed by the pandemic . Moreover, 64.7% of the respondents agreed that their hotel expectations of the right to unfettered mobility across national borders has been severely challenged by government responses to COVID-19, 35.3% . Furthermore, a combination of (82.4%) of the respondents agreed that closure of attractions and tourism facilities had negatively affected the MICE tourism . Lastly, 61.8% agreed that virtual events mainly served as a good substitute for recession-prone exhibitors and attendees during COVID-19 while 32.8% strongly agreed. A half of the respondents representing 50% also strongly agreed that travel restrictions on rights to visit friends and family had negatively impacted the MICE tourism . From the review of respondents, the study noted that MICE consumers had not only been affected in Rwanda alone but globally. In general, there was no doubt that the hospitality and tourism sector was operating at a loss. The study concluded that in Rwanda, COVID-19 had adversely impacted MICE tourism. Based on the study findings the study recommended to the Government of Rwanda to continue imposing measures to combat the pandemic. Since the end of the pandemic was not predetermined there was need to continuously address both on an on-going basis as the pandemic and its effects evolved over time and place and as a retrospect once the new hospitality and tourism in Rwanda to make the sector sustainable during and after the pandemic. Future studies can be carried in other districts of the country. Also, a study on MICE tourism preparedness in responding to the crisis and recovery of their enterprises can be carried out. Keywords: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences Exhibitions, COVID-19, Tourism CITATION: Rwigema, P. C. (2020). Impact of Covid-19 pandemic to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism in Rwanda . The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 7(3), 395 – 409.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".