Valencia
Zentropy MICE - Reshaping a new concept of MICE sustainability under an urban entropy approach to enhance the legacy to Valencia citizens and optimize energy, matter and information
About the project
The MICE sector has a significant impact on urban areas, causing high greenhouse gas emissions and intensive energy consumption, but little positive social legacy. However, knowledge-based tourism can generate 30% more income in cities than leisure tourism, with better levels of non-precarious employment and longer average stays. In addition, MICE tourists are changing. New millennials and and Gen Zs tend to have greater climate change awareness, and demand more interactions with cities, integration with local life, and emotional experiences. These factors are the basis of the project approach for the achievement of disruptive change in MICE tourism.
Entropy research focuses on energy, matter, and information exchanges in balanced systems. Cities, as open systems, continuously exchange elements – and as these flows become inefficient, the whole system quickly deteriorates, increasing entropy. When exchanges are highly inefficient, higher amounts of matter and energy are needed to remain balanced. When system elements are well linked, the system is more efficient, and entropy decreases towards zero.
Having been acknowledged as European Green Capital 2024 and EU Mission City, Valencia seeks to apply an entropy approach (energy, matter and information) to the MICE sector, accomplishing low entropy congresses by designing and implementing nine sectoral programmes, such as Mobility, Food, and Social legacy in neighbourhoods. Activities include designing a MICE tourist app, and evaluating changes in entropy through an entropy calculator, in order to compare Zero Entropy (Cs1) with Business As Usual Congresses (Cs0).
Challenges
How to make MICE tourism a driver for socioeconomic development and green transition in Valencia? MICE tourism not only generates more negative impacts than other types of tourism, it is also completely disconnected from the rest of Valencia: the Conference Centre is an isolated element within the city. While MICE tourism holds a huge socioeconomic potential, the local population does not tap into positive impacts.
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MICE tourism is impacting Valencia negatively, through increased energy consumption, intensive resource and facilities use, and a sizeable ecological and carbon footprint
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Beyond economic revenues, the positive legacy of this knowledge-led tourism is limited in Valencia. How can the city promote and enhance the social legacy of MICE tourism?
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The MICE tourist remains a scarcely studied profile, despite being a key agent in ensuring a sustainable and high-value MICE sector. This knowledge needs to be built up
Proposed solutions
Valencia’s solution for integrating MICE tourism in the city involves applying an entropy approach, reordering flows, maximising positive impacts and reducing externalities. Valencia is set to develop a new congress model with minimal entropy growth, organising energy, matter, and information (E+M+I) flows between the MICE ecosystem and its host community, while enhancing the system’s complexity.
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Deploy five Sectoral Programmes to address energy and matter in the MICE sector: Mobility; Energy efficiency and renewable energy community; Integrated system for sustainable food and beverages; Nature-based Solutions; and Circularity and zero-waste
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Implement four Sectoral Programmes linked to information and legacy in the host city: Social legacy in neighbourhoods; Economic alliances; MICE’s Social Currency; and MICE links with leisure tourism
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Launch an entropy calculator to evaluate the contribution of Sectoral Programmes to low entropy MICE tourism, comparing Zero Entropy Congresses (Cs1) with Business As Usual Congresses (Cs0)
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Identify the characteristics of the city’s MICE tourists, elaborating a user portrait and journey
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Design a MICE tourist app to maximise positive legacy and assess the quality of Sectoral Programmes
Milestones
Characterisation of the Conference Centre and the city as an entropic system
Celebration of Business As Usual Congresses (Cs0) for entropy calculator design
Design of Energy, Matter and Information & Legacy Programmes to achieve low entropy congresses
Calculator ready to measure entropy in complex Cs1 Congresses
Celebration of Zero Entropy Congresses (Cs1) after implementation of Sectoral Programmes
Publication of a Zero Entropy MICE sector Handbook for low entropy congresses