Rethinking the Valencia’s MICE sector for sustainable urban tourism by reducing urban entropy

The environmental impact of tourism – the MICE sector: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions – and its particularities with respect to leisure tourism are driving the rethinking of the MICE sector in Valencia. Our proposal focuses on reformulating externalities and maximizing the legacy of MICE tourism in the city, applying the concepts of urban entropy and redirecting and ordering flows of energy, matter and information.

THE CHALLENGE

MICE tourism in Valencia, although it is a major economic engine – representing 25% of the city’s tourism – presents challenges in terms of environmental impact and limited social legacy: a larger ecological footprint, intensive use of infrastructure and public services, unequal distribution of benefits and weak integration with the city and its priorities. The central challenge of Zentropy MICE is: How can we transform MICE tourism into a driver for Valencia’s socio-economic development and green transition?

THE SOLUTION

This question is addressed by reformulating the activity of its Conference Centre in line with the second law of thermodynamics, which explains that open systems exchange energy, matter and information to achieve a state of equilibrium or order. However, entropy, understood as disorder or degradation, naturally increases over time as some matter or energy is inevitably lost.

Khora collaborates with the City Council to co-design the Innovative Urban Action (UIA) Zentropy MICE, proposing a pilot to reorganize energy, matter and information flows in the MICE sector, minimizing urban entropy. We seek to balance the positive and negative impacts of MICE tourism in Valencia, reducing carbon emissions, ecological footprint and resource consumption while enhancing positive externalities, such as integration with the local community, knowledge exchange and inclusive economic benefits.

Khora, in collaboration with the Valencia City Council, drafted the proposal, which was selected in the second EUI-IA call in 2024. Khora is part of the execution consortium, alongside the City Council, Valencia Conference Centre, Valencia Innovation Capital-Las Naves, Universitat Politècnica de València and Visit València, from 2024 to 2028.