The major business
of South African Tourism is to bring as many tourists as possible into
the country, says Phumi Dhlomo, the Regional Director, Africa and
Domestic of the agency.
He said this during
the Meetings Africa 2011, Africa’s business tourism Lekgotla, at the
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Meetings Africa is
a business tourism marketing platform which aims to expose local and
international buyers to the range of services and products in Southern
Africa’s Meetings, Incentives, Conference,
Exhibitions (MICE)
industry. The visitor target market is anyone who travels for business
or who books business travel, as well as organisers of events,
conferences, meetings, team incentive trips, or team building
activities.
Lekgotla means a consultative process between groups pursuing a common goal.
Mr Dhlomo however,
said that South Africa is more than a destination for leisure tourism.
“We’re interested in business tourism as well, especially meetings,
conferences, exhibitions and events. We hosted a very successful World
Cup last year and we are also hosting others like golf events, music
events and other small and medium events.” Nomasonto Ndlovu, Global
Manager, Business Tourism at South African Tourism explained further
why business tourism is assuming a greater importance. “People never
travel alone for business meetings but look forward to other things
too, we must make sure that people who come for conferences have other
things to do as well.” She also added that international buyers are
keen to “buy regions” meaning that they prefer regional destinations to
just one destination “and so we are encouraging other countries to
develop as well.” “We want to see the whole continent benefit from
tourism and we believe that if we open up the African axis, it will be
wonderful. We hope South African Airways will open up more routes in
the continent,” said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the country’s minister of
tourism.
Truly, South Africa
is benefitting most from tourism as seen in the over 7.3 million
tourists it hosted between January and November last year.
Mr van Schalkwyk
further highlighted the important and growing role that business
tourism will play in the South African government’s job creation
objectives. “Tourism contributed an estimated 7.7% to South Africa’s
Gross Domestic Product in 2010. Business tourism will no doubt play a
role in getting more visitors to South Africa,” he said.
He added that in 2009, approximately 500,000 business tourists came to South Africa, about 4.7% of total tourist arrivals:
“This represents a
total economic value of about R4 billion with business tourists
spending an average of R5,300 during their stay in South Africa. The
average length of stay business tourists also increased from 4.6 nights
in 2009.” He cited statistics by the International Congress and
Convention Association (ICCA) which ranked South Africa 34th globally
and first in Africa for 2009 in terms of the number of meetings hosted.
The report shows that in 2009, almost 8,300 meetings were held
globally, of which almost 55% were held in Europe.
Africa hosted 3.8%
of the meetings or 314 meetings with 90 held in South Africa, followed
by Egypt with 32 meetings. Cape Town was the leading city in Africa
with 49 meetings; Johannesburg was ranked 5th, and Durban 10th,
compared to other African cities.
“These figures show
that South Africa and our leading business tourism cities compare very
well in terms of the rest of our continent. We believe Meetings Africa
will again be an important opportunity for the entire African meetings
and business community to interact and explore opportunities.”
A legacy of improved infrastructure
The importance of
the eight annual Meetings Africa 2011, was further attested to by
Thandiwe January-McLean, the chief executive officer of South African
Tourism.
“South African
Tourism is confident Africa’s premier business tourism exhibition will
once again be an invaluable opportunity for the entire African and
business community to interact and explore mutually beneficial
opportunities.” The country has a legacy of improved infrastructure and
world class delivery and so it was no surprise that the conference must
have achieved its objectives. The convention centre is a lesson in how
world class infrastructure can facilitate business and improve a
country’s gross domestic product. No doubt, the successful hosting of
World Cup 2010 must have boosted South Africa’s profile as she has been
invited to join the economically influential bloc of Brazil, Russia,
India, and China, with the exciting business opportunities the BRICS
partnership potentially brings.
Meetings Africa
also encouraged exhibitors and hosted buyers to interact and experience
first-hand the exciting opportunities that exist in the continent’s
meeting, exhibitions and conferencing industry. Unsurprisingly, South
Africa has secured almost 200 meetings which will attract more than 300,
000 delegates over
the next five years. Events like the United Nations Climate Change
Conference (COP 17) and a major meeting of the International Olympic
Committee.
Over 183 exhibitors
attended the exhibition with buyers from different countries. A
matchmaking programme delivered guaranteed pre-scheduled appointments
and the floor plan improvement with clear categorisation of exhibitors
made it easier for visitors to navigate the show and made the most of
the limited time. As expected, hotels, safari parks, convention
centres, and exhibition venues were the major exhibitors.
A Nigerian travel and tour operator who attended the meeting
described it as “fantastic.” Tinuke Nwakohu said she found Meetings
Africa 2011 useful as “you cannot market a destination without fully
understanding it.” Mrs Nwakohu added that the meeting also showed that
“a lot of work must be done to make Nigeria attractive like South
Africa. South Africa has shown a lot of commitment but I’m not sure we
are committed to tourism as only two people talk about tourism – the
Minister of Tourism and Lagos State Tourism commissioner, maybe when
our oil is finished, we will take tourism seriously.” She concluded.
