Business tourism gets a boost
Fri, 21 Nov 2008
Major players in South Africa's tourism industry have signed a R64-million deal aimed at boosting business tourism in the country.
The multi-million rand deal was signed at the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday between the centre, the Gauteng Tourism Authority and the Johannesburg Tourism Company.
"The project is aimed at raising the profile of South Africa as a meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions destination," Martin van Niekerk said in a statement on behalf of Meetings Africa,a business tourism exhibition that has been held at the Sandton Convention Centre for the past five years.
The deal signed on Thursday would see to the running of the exhibition over the next five years, Van Niekerk said.
Apart from the R64-million the parties injected into the project, a further R8-million was set aside for staging and marketing the exhibition.
Funds for marketing are expected to increase annually from R8-million in 2009 to R18-million in 2013.
"It is our stated and determined ambition to grow Meetings Africa to the stature of Indaba, South Africa's and one of the world's foremost leisure travel trade shows," said Nomasonto Ndlovu of South African Tourism.
In terms of the agreement, 35 percent of the Meetings Africa marketing budget would be invested in the domestic market, 30 percent in the European market, 20 percent in the USA, and 10 percent towards attracting business tourists from Asia and Australia. The remaining five percent would go into southern African markets.
Pule Malefane of the Gauteng Tourism Authority said the venture gave Gauteng province an opportunity to showcase "its numerous leisure tourism attractions and numerous business tourism facilities".
Sapa
