Business tourism is growing rapidly and becoming the flagship of the Cape Town and Western Cape tourism industry in South Africa.
The province’s meetings, incentive travel, conference and exhibition industry can sustain tourism by ensuring that new hotels and recently developed or upgraded infrastructure is in use well after 2010.
This captures the sentiment expressed at Back2Business, the celebration of the beginning of the 2009 Business Tourism Year in Cape Town and the Western Cape.
The event, drawing more than 300 professional conference organisers, venue and hotel operators, destination management companies, government representatives and others in tourism, was held at NH The Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West (near Cape Town) on Tuesday, 20 January 2009.
Western Cape MEC (Member of Executive Committee) for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Garth Strachan delivered the opening address: “Business tourism is growing and has so far, shown steady growth despite the economic downturn. Corporates do not cancel their AGMs; businesses continue to award incentives; new associations are formed every day, increasing the demand for conference venues. Cape Town and the Western Cape remains a sought after, fresh, exotic and hugely competent business tourism destination.”
“Our statistics prove that business tourism is becoming the solid, supporting pillar that could sustain tourism in Cape Town and the Western Cape in 2009, in 2010 and well beyond. It could help keep the hotels and other infrastructure built and upgraded for the FIFA World Cup™ in use long after 2010,” Strachan went on to say.
This was echoed by Cape Town Routes Unlimited Board Chairperson Peter Bacon: “It’s a new year and an exciting time to be in the Western Cape business tourism industry. Business tourism is in many aspects becoming the flagship of the province’s tourism industry. It is becoming a reliable generator of tourism business for Cape Town and the Western Cape”.
For 2009, Cape Town and the Western Cape can already look forward to hosting 19 international conferences and congresses, bringing an expected 25 950 delegates and an estimated R301 million to the destination.
For 2010 and 2011, Cape Town and the Western Cape has already secured 21 international conferences and congresses, bringing an expected 31 900 delegates generating an estimated economic impact of R324.8 million to the destination.
As he declared Business Tourism Year 2009 in Cape Town and the Western Cape open, the MEC called on meetings, incentive travel, conference and exhibition role-players to combine forces. Partnership is the key, he says: “We’ve got a good thing going here. Let’s get back to business and give it our all in 2009 – together.”
The Back2Business programme featured a fun-filled colourful opening act by Zip Zap Circus and included speeches by Steen Jakobsen, Director of the Copenhagen Convention Bureau in Denmark and Member of ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) Board of Directors; Moeketsi Mosola, CEO of South African Tourism; Johann Maarman, Editorial Head of Rapport’s Cape Town Office (the largest Afrikaans Sunday paper in South Africa) and Publisher of Kaap-Rapport; and Farouk Abrahams, 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ambassador for Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Business tourism in Cape Town and the Western Cape experienced an historic year in 2008. Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, explains: “By the end of December 2008, the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau, together with its valued industry partners, secured a whopping 11 Association Meeting’s conferences for Cape Town between 2009 and 2014, with an expected 16 850 delegates and an estimated economic impact of more than R200 million.”
CTRU is the official tourism destination marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape and Gilfellan is very proud of the Bureau’s performance. In November 2008 it was announced that the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau together with the convention bureaus of Vancouver, San Juan, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Dubai, Singapore and Melbourne, were the first in the world to be officially accredited as part of a certification programme.
The eight bureaus form the BestCities Global Alliance – an alliance that epitomizes international business tourism excellence and convention bureau best practice. “This confirms the fact that the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau is an established, progressive and super-efficient convention bureau by international standards,” says Gilfellan.
Shortly after this announcement Cape Town and the Western Cape created its own destination marketing platform for its private sector partners at an international business tourism show: EIBTM in Barcelona, Spain. Leads harvested include a potential 600-strong incentive programme from Singapore; 200 confirmed delegates from the UK Corporate Group Gulliver’s; a potential 500 delegates for the VISA International Programme and 5 000 delegates for a planned European pharmaceutical conference.
In a major win at the end of last year, the destination secured one of the most significant conference bids: the 2010 International Conference of the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE). Hosting the world leaders in this multi-billion dollar industry will give Cape Town and the Western Cape an opportunity to charm them with the province’s exquisite incentive offering; inspiring them to tell the world about what can be found at the southernmost tip of Africa.
Adding to the Back2Business educational content was an exhibition by 22 business tourism role-players such as international trade show representatives, venue and tour operators, sound, media and events companies, tourism bureaus, accommodation establishments and corporate gift specialists.
For more information, visit Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau
Related Article:
