The CTICC 2, the Cape Town International Convention Centre's R900m (€60.7m) expansion, was officially opened on January 25 by Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, and Cape Town Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille.
The new facility is set to strengthen Cape Town's reputation as a global business events destination and marks significant progress in the CTICC's strategy of becoming one of the top ten long-haul convention centres in the world. The facility is a collaborative project by the centre and its shareholders, including the City of Cape Town, Western Cape Government and SunWest International.
Chief Executive Officer of the CTICC, Julie-May Ellingson, said the CTICC was now a fully integrated event venue complex. “What are the benefits of this extra space? Essentially, two things: greater capacity and greater flexibility. We can now host very large events, such as the upcoming 15 000-delegate World Ophthalmology Congress, across the entire complex. Cape Town would never have won this bid if it wasn’t for the CTICC’s expansion. And we can host multiple large events across both venues simultaneously, which we couldn’t do before. Put simply, we can now welcome more events and more people in more ways.”
CTICC 2 adds an additional 31 148 sqm to the complex, including 10 000 sqm of conference and exhibition space, as well as a further 3 000 sqm of formal and informal meeting space. These numbers translate to six exhibition halls, four meeting suites, five meeting pod rooms, an executive boardroom, three open-air terraces including an impressive rooftop venue, a coffee shop, and a multi-level parking garage, according to Ellingson.
The centre is opposite the original convention centre and boasts an environmentally sustainable design, high-tech venue control systems, high-calibre IT infrastructure, free public WiFi, three production kitchens to cater for every type of event, and a service tunnel under Heerengracht Avenue connecting CTICC 2 with CTICC1. “Phase 2 of the CTICC 2 project is well under way. In the next few months, we will be able to start construction of the skybridge linking the two buildings across Heerengracht,” says Ellingson.
Executive mayor, Patricia de Lille said CTICC 2 boosted Cape Town’s reputation as a globally competitive business events destination and would enhance the socio-economic benefits the centre produced. “The CTICC generated over 16 million visitor days, by local and international delegates attending the nearly 7 000 events the centre has hosted since 2003. This is supported by an equally powerful impact on job creation. Through its operations, the centre sustained a total of 107 000 jobs directly in the Western Cape and nationally since opening. The CTICC has made a cumulative economic contribution to national GDP of R36.3bn (€2.45bn) and added R32bn (€2.1bn) to the Western Cape economy.”
De Lille said: “Cape Town is fast becoming the ideas capital of Africa. Organisations and businesses now choose Cape Town as a place from which to develop their Africa strategies. Many of the CTICC’s flagship events are a testimony to Cape Town’s ability to connect people from the tip to the top of Africa.”
The City of Cape Town which holds 71.4% of the shares in the CTICC, invested R550m (€37.1m) in the expansion project which acted as a catalyst for the continued regeneration of the inner city.
The new centre opens with exciting upcoming events in the pipeline. The CTICC has a total of 133 bookings for events, with 58 international conferences secured and 75 national events contracted until December 2023. Thirteen of these events will take place concurrently in both the buildings and 20 events have already been contracted to take place in CTICC 2.
