The Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC) has dramatically surpassed all international conference booking expectations for its first year of operation and has confirmed over 20 events with several more provisional bookings.

The centre, which opens for business in July next year, aimed to secure 15 international conferences between opening in July 2003 and July 2004 but has already booked 22, and is holding space for several additional events.

This figure is staggering in that the centre only anticipated reaching 30 international conference bookings by it's fourth year of operation, said CTICC MD Dirk Elzinga. That ambitious target is bound to be met much sooner if the current trend persists.

"Internationally there are only a handful of convention centres that accommodate more then 30 international conferences annually and in Africa there are none. To put this into perspective, Amsterdam, which has been operating for over 40 years, holds an average of 35 international conventions a year.

The Washington DC Convention Centre which is also currently under construction and will open 3 months earlier than the CTICC has booked only 15 international conferences in their first year of operation." Dirk Elzinga predicts that deligates of international meetings taking place at the CTICC during its first year of operation will spend at least R135-million in Cape Town.

"This has enormous spin-offs for service providers, including restaurants, transport, accommodation and tour operators," Elzinga added. "The CTICC has been built to create wealth and generate economic growth for the city and the region - this is exactly what we intend to do,” said Elzinga.

“But this is not confined to the conferences alone. The economic spin-off of international delegates will be hugely significant to the local economy."