Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau along with its partners in the BestCities Global Alliance (BCGA) got the thumbs up for outstanding service, after an independent survey sent to more than 100 global associations, convention planners and local organising committee, gave the alliance partners an average rating of 9/10 for amongst others, customer service.
Other categories where the BestCities members scored the same (9/10) on average was in quality of the bid materials provided, overall experience of working with the Convention Bureau and assistance with the bid documentation. Cape Town’s score in each of these categories were 9.86, 9.43 and 9.57 respectively.
BestCities is a global partnership comprising Edinburgh, Dubai, Singapore, Cape Town, Vancouver, Melbourne, San Juan and Copenhagen, who have all complied with 34 rigorous service standards, audited by Lloyd’s every year.
Current BCGA President, Ana Maria Viscasillas (CEO of the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau) says she was delighted with the results, “Members of BestCities are all committed to providing the world’s best service standards to our clients. In addition to the annual independent audit we also want to measure clients’ attitudes and feedback on their total experience with BestCities Partners.”
The survey conducted by Lynn Jones Research, a UK-based independent market research agency specialising in tourism and hospitality, measured convention planning services, delegate boosting and marketing support, on- site event service and post event support.
Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited said they were delighted that the Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau, had scored so highly, “We have been a member of BestCities since 2004 and these results prove that Cape Town is a world leader in delivering outstanding outcomes for convention clients.”
“Since 2007 Cape Town has secured a total of 50 association conferences with an estimated economic impact of R685 million, making the city the number one conference destination in Africa and the Middle East. These findings are further testament to the professionalism of the business tourism industry in Cape Town,” adds David Frandsen, Executive Manager International Marketing and the Cape Town Convention Bureau.
BestCities partner destinations have hosted some of the largest meetings in the world as well as some of the most prestigious.
