SOUTH African Tourism (SAT) has signed a multimillion rand deal with bid partners, the Gauteng Tourism Authority, the Johannesburg Tourism Company and the Sandton Convention Centre, to raise the profile of South Africa as a meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions destination.
In terms of the agreement, all parties are committing resources to grow Meetings Africa, the continent's premier business tourism exhibition, with a view to growing South Africa's business tourism industry over the next five years.
“We are delighted to welcome our bid partners to Meetings Africa,” says Nomasonto Ndlovu, global manager of business tourism at SAT. “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. These partnerships and the financial commitment they represent gear us up to meet this ambition and to ensure South Africa assumes its place as one of the most attractive and best supported business tourism destinations in the world.”
While the Sandton Convention Centre will host the exhibition at a considerable discount over the contract period, the other bid partners have committed substantial funding towards Meetings Africa. Joint funding for the staging and marketing of the exhibition will increase annually from R8m in 2009 to R18m in 2013.
In terms of the agreement, 35% of the Meetings Africa marketing budget will be invested in the domestic market; 30% in the European market; 20% in the USA; 10% towards attracting business tourists from Asia and Australia and 5% will be invested in the SADC markets.
Photo: Signing the bid party agreement in Johannesburg today are Matifadza Nyazema of Sandton Convention Centre, Nomasonto Ndlovu of South African Tourism, Pule Malefane of Gauteng Tourism Authority, and Sharon Peetz of Johannesburg Tourism Company.
