A new study highlights India’s MICE sector as a key driver of economic activity, with out-of-town visitors and large events boosting local employment and GDP, despite ongoing structural challenges.
India’s meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry is creating far more than ticket sales and venue receipts, according to a study by KPMG in India and the Event and Entertainment Management Association. The report says the sector ripples through tourism, hotels, transport, retail, logistics, media and technology, turning event-day spending into broader economic activity.
The study examined 108 events with more than 1.8 million attendees and found that direct spending generated between 1.46 times and 2.03 times total economic output across the segments it reviewed. MICE produced the strongest multiplier at 2.03 times, ahead of weddings and related spending at 1.61 times, sports at 1.52 times and live events and entertainment at 1.46 times.
That distinction matters because the report argues India’s event economy is not a single market. It instead spans different categories with different definitions and spending patterns. The benchmarks cited in the study put organised MICE activity at about $4.90 billion, organised live events at $1.43 billion, commercial sports at $1.98 billion and wedding-linked household spending at about $68.2 billion.
The strongest gains come from visitors who travel into a host city, the report says. Nearly three-quarters of the people surveyed were out-of-town attendees, and they spent more on travel and accommodation than local guests. MICE delegates, in particular, spent two to three times as much per day as leisure tourists and typically stayed longer.
The knock-on effect is also visible in live entertainment. The report cites Mastercard Economics Institute data showing restaurant spending in Mumbai rose 21% on dates when domestic artists performed, compared with 13% for concerts by international acts. It also says large-format live events can generate about 2,000 to 5,000 temporary jobs, underlining how quickly the sector can feed into local employment.
Recent industry reports suggest the opportunity is growing even as the sector faces structural constraints. EY estimated that Diljit Dosanjh’s Dil-Luminati India Tour 2024 generated more than INR 943 crore in economic impact across 14 events in 13 cities, while another EY report said Coldplay’s Ahmedabad concerts produced an estimated INR 641 crore. Fortune India has also reported that India’s latest Economic Survey has put live concerts and large entertainment events on the policy radar as part of the country’s wider “orange economy”.
Even so, the KPMG-EEMA study says the ecosystem still needs easier clearances, better protection for contract and gig workers and more event and hospitality infrastructure in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Those gaps matter because the industry’s value lies not just in what happens inside the venue, but in the spending, hiring and business activity that follows it.
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