Cape Town tops UK events poll
24 July 2007
Cape Town has beaten New York to top the list of long-haul destinations favoured by UK-based events agencies, underscoring the Western Cape's emergence as a destination of choice for conference groups.
Cape Town jumped to the top of the list from fourth place last year in the annual M&IT Trends & Spends Survey of readers of the influential Meetings and Incentive Travel (M&IT) magazine, which is circulated to event organisers throughout the UK.
The survey polled 76 768 participants, including the 30 UK events agencies with the highest turnover. Of these, 16 327 voted on their favoured long-haul destination.
The results: Cape Town was voted number one, beating the US cities of New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando, San Diego, Boston and Las Vegas, as well as Toronto in Canada and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
South Africa came second behind the US as the favourite long-haul destination country in the Trends & Spends survey, followed by Canada, the UAE, China, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and Zambia.
Calvyn Gilfellan, acting chief executive for Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the destination marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape, said in a statment last week that the MICE market was hugely important for the province, "so our progression in these rankings is vital.
"Our mandate is to bring more visitors here, to get them to stay longer, spend more, visit more often and visit throughout the year, not just in the summer months," Gilfellan said. "The exposure that the city and province get through the MICE sector ahead of the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup plays an important role in achieving those objectives."
During the 2006/07 financial year, 15 international association bids were secured for Cape Town and the Western Cape, by Cape Town Routes Unlimited's Conventions and Events Bureau and its partners.
According to Gilfellan, these events alone will draw an estimated 32 300 business tourists and an economic impact of R342-million to the province between now and 2014.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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