If you haven’t heard of it, you are going to want to know -- what is MICE?
MICE is an acronym for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. Sometimes referred to as the meetings industry, MICE evolved from international tourism. It focuses on coordinated hosting, managing and promoting a network of tourism business with other businesses and individual or group tourists.
MICE tourism also involves providing event management services for businesses. This includes a wide range of events such as:
- trade shows
- seminars and workshop
- conventions
- exhibitions
- incentive travel such as for company executives or top-performing employees
- forums
- panels
- symposiums
- lectures
With MICE tourism, the organizers build a specific agenda around a purpose, topic or theme.
International payments and MICE tourism
MICE tourism organizers handle businesses and individuals or groups of tourists, as well as international destinations. To be able to do so, they need a convenient and cost-effective means to make international business payments. Virtual bank accounts (VBA) offer these benefits, among others.
Virtual accounts have been widely adopted in MICE tourism because they address a challenge of the international marketplace by creating a system for online international payments. VBAs allow for centralized visibility -- control and access to payments received from clients in one country or region when the payments will be used in another country where a MICE tourism event will be hosted.
How VBAs work
VBAs are dummy current accounts issued by banks to replace physical current accounts. They can be used to receive and make payments instantly via a linked master current accounts.
Every VBA has a unique number which helps to separate funds in the master account. Therefore, a MICE tourism company in the USA can receive payments from different businesses or from consumers who are in the country and send payments to a hotel or other venue in another country where an event will be held. The company can receive and disburse payments for MICE events to be held in different locations around the world.
A common myth is that VBAs cannot be used across borders. However, with most banks making international payments is easy as long as the accounts are in one currency. Another option with VBAs is to combine them with an allocated sub-account hierarchy known as virtual ledger accounts (VLAs). These populate a multi-bank reporting dashboard and can be used to deliver a complete virtual cash management solution by conducting international payments online.
VBAs can be quickly and easily set up, and they can be allocated for any purpose. Furthermore, they offer the advantages of.
- centralizing incoming and outgoing cash, which makes reconciliation easier
- reducing manual processes
- reducing the cost of operating a bank account since funds are routed directly to the master account rather than held in a VBA. The cost of staff needed to oversee transactions is lower because they are automated and always available online.
Next level cash management
Today's business environment has cut-throat competition. Make use of technology like VBAs to put you ahead and give you an edge over the competition.