Paul Colston visits Meetings Africa 16 and sees some of the bright stars in the South Africa international meetings firmament.
South Africa has rapidly built on its sporting event pedigree gained by hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Cricket and Rugby World Cups, by also hosting in recent times major international events such as COP17, the 5th BRICS Summit, and the World Economic Forum.
Aside from the big ticket global events, the country offers a huge variety of meeting and incentive options, including safaris to see the ‘Big Five’ and a chance to experience a multitude of cultures and traditions.
My own arrival at the venue for Meetings Africa 2016, the Sandton Convention Centre, was a 15-minute jaunt via the Gautrain from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport, straight into the centre’s own station stop. The Gautrain also serves the capital, Pretoria.
Seventy international airlines now fly to O.R. Tambo International Airport, a logistical plus point for organisers looking to fly in delegates to Southern Africa.
Meetings Africa is now in its 11th edition and in search of new management as South Africa Tourism (SAT) supervises a tender to secure a new owner by 2017. The tender is at the final shortlist stage.
SAT wheeled out the big business tourism guns this year to address the conference, including tourism minister Derek Hanekom.
The minister told the audience Africa was “advancing together”, with tourism an important part of the economic growth story of the country and the continent.
Over 250 buyers were part of the show’s biggest ever attendance.
“The meetings and events segment contributes significantly to the overall tourism sector,” the minister added, but acknowledged there was “huge potential to do more”. He indicated a historic upswing in tourism numbers, from 1994’s 4m visitors, to South Africa welcoming 9m tourists in 2015.
South African exhibitors dominated the show and, although the country may be experiencing some budgetary challenges, it is steadily climbing the ICCA country rankings (from 34 to 32 in the latest rankings) and is No.1 events country destination in Africa and the Middle East.
Meetings Afrca was preceded this year by the European Cities Marketing Academy, held in Johannesburg, with an international line up of speakers including Anne Wallin Rodven, convention director at Oslo Convention Bureau and Barbara Jamison, head of business development for Europe at London & Partners bureau.
Johannesburg is also on the up in ICCA’s city rankings, 35 places up to 101.
Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, head of the South Africa National Convention Bureau (SANCB) said at the show that if the country played its cards right, the low value of the rand could lead to significant quick wins in terms of international conferences and events.
“South Africa is an excellent value-for-money destination and we simply have to capitalise on this,” she said.
South Africa was no longer a new kid on the block in the international meetings industry, Kotze-Nhlapo added. “It is our duty to help build capacity for the rest of the continent.”
In terms of challenges, Kotze-Nhlapo identified perception as the major issue for the local industry. “South Africa has hosted some of the biggest meetings and events in the world, and still some negative perceptions exist,” she added. “Yet, when we meet first-time visitors, there perceptions are changed. When they see it, they buy it.”
New society, new impetus
One development likely to change perceptions is the formation of the African Society of Association Executives (AfSAE), announced on the eve of Meetings Africa at a VIP welcome party at the SAB World of Beer Museum.
Jeffers Miruka is the association’s first chairman and said the formation of AfSAE “comes at the right time to consolidate and leverage gains”.
SA deputy minister of tourism Tokozile Xasa and ICCA president Nina Freysen-Pretorius both attended the launch party. “We are not looking to just grow SA tourism, we also want to advance Africa,” the deputy minister said.
Miruka will also be the keynote speaker at the Africa Associations Congress, which will take place 8-9 November 2016 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Congress is being launched by Associations Network, whose executive director, Damian Hutt, told CMW he was pleased to be bringing the Associations Congress series to Africa. “The event is of strategic value to the city and Africa as a whole,” he said.
Out and about in Jo’burg & Gauteng
Post-conference in Johannesburg, many first time delegates got oriented in the city ivia an open top Red City Bus ride. For those keen to delve into recent history a visit to Constitution Hill or Liliesleaf Farm, where Mandela and other ANC leaders met in secret in the early 1960s, are to be recommended.
And you can strike out for the colourful Soweto via Soweto Outdoor Adventures in a mini bus with guide who will take you to heritage sites and maybe even a local shabeen.
The wider Gauteng province, of which Johannesburg is part, boasts a 10m population and also has many sites to see. You can visit the Origins Centre, which has the largest collection of rock area in the world and some of the first images made by humans in South Africa.
The security issue should not be overstated, but the crime rate in Johannesburg is a concern and visitors are advised to be cautious and sensible in their movements in the city.
Sun City Resort
A two-hour drive from Jo’burg is Sun City Resort, now also an oasis for meetings, as well as gaming, golf and leisure.
The Palace Hotel is the star of the show and has large meeting spaces, as well as some intimate areas for board meetings and special functions.
Sun City is undergoing a R800n refurbishment across its four hotels, as well as at a new festival area, Sun Park. There will be an Experiential Centre, borne out of the old Entertainment Centre, including a convention centre on the upper level.
While the work is being carried out, conferences are accommodated at the Sun Sky Village. All work is expected to be complete by the end of 2016.
The Pilanesburg Game Reserve is a short drive from Sun City, so delegates can either catch a big game safari or even a hot air balloon trip over the reserve.
Cape Town for conventions
Cape Town is the jewel in the crown of not only South Africa’s international convention business but the congress business of the whole of Africa, hosting around half of all major international conferences on the continent.
At the blue ribband venue in the city, Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), work is continuing full steam on the long awaited expansion, due for completion in March 2017.
The venue currently hosts 500 events a year and its new 15,000sqm of meetings space and 11,000sqm exhibition space will give a further push to the business.
CEO Julie May Ellingson tells CMW: “CTICC used to turn away business. With the expansion we can take full advantage.”
In the last three years, Ellingson says, the centre lost out on a potential R150m in enquiries that could not be met.
In recent times CTICC attracted 12,000 delegates for the World Diabetes Congress, and has seen major bookings from HerbalLife, Old Mutual and Budget.
Cape Town is also positioning itself as a world design capital and has a strong arts and culture focus, sectors that are also driving meetings business.
CTICC demonstrated its best year for small meetings during the last financial year, says Ellingson, who is overseeing the R832m extension project at what she claims is one of the most profitable convention centres in the world.
The centre supports 8,000 direct and indirect jobs and catered for 1.36m delegate days in 2014/15. Its turnover was R197m and the profit was R42m last year.
“We see ourselves as agents of economic development. We specifically go for conferences aligned with our key economic sectors,” says Ellingson, which she lists as: pharma/medical, oil and gas, agriculture, ICT, mining and tourism.
She adds that CTICC can help Africans get a platform for knowledge exchange.
Not only is the CTICC’s own footprint being expanded, but the whole precinct on the Foreshore area is being developed.There is potential for a new hotel on site and a tower is part of the broader plan.
The hope is that South Africa’s recent budget tightening, as the economy heads through some choppy waters, won’t again stall the expansion process, which includes a garden terrace on the roof and more parking levels and an underpass.
She emphasises the CTICC expansion’s social effect on the local community: “It is a community centre, after all, and community partners meetings are hosted at no cost”.
Despite budgetary anxieties and lack of capacity to meet demand, Ellingson is bullish about the future: “Cape Town is a very attractive destination. What we have turned away tends to rotate and will come round again.”
Of the new Century City conference centre and hotel project, which houses a conference centre and a linked hotel, Ellingson is sanguine: “It is competition for us and keeps us on our toes and is good for us.” Indeed, 85% of South Africa’s international conference business comes to CTICC.
