15/08/2017
Fantastic for Western Cape tourism! Wesgro, Western Cape Government, Love Cape Town
CONVENTION BUREAU SECURES 14 BIDS, 57 000 DELEGATES AND R120M FOR THE CAPE IN Q1
Wesgro is proud to announce that the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau has had a target-topping financial first quarter.
During 2017/18's first quarter the Convention Bureau secured 14 bids with an estimated delegate attendance of 57 000 and an estimated economic impact of R120.2 million.
The Convention Bureau’s role is to promote the Cape among meeting, incentive, conference and event organisers as a premier business events destination.
It offers pre- and post-bid assistance, convention planning support and on-site services to meeting planners, and has been voted the Best Convention Bureau by Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) for 2016.
Eight of the 14 bids secured will take place during the traditional shoulder season (May - October) which will help offset some of the Western Cape's seasonality challenges.
The annual International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) 2016 destination rankings were released during the quarter and the amount (62) of association conferences hosted in Cape Town increased significantly during 2016.
The destination is still ranked the top city in Africa for hosting association business events and 39th globally, 15 places higher than the previous year. Stellenbosch hosted 12 international association meetings, improving its ranking in the process.
A milestone achievement was securing Transformer- Animatronics, a travelling consumer exhibition which will spend 73 days (November 2017 – January 2018) in the Cape. The exhibition is expecting 50 000 visitors with an estimated impact of R350 per visitor per day, bringing the exhibition's total estimated economic impact to R17.5 million.
Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities, said: “This is excellent news for our tourism sector. In our mid-term update on our Project Khulisa economic strategy, we found that the value of conference bids had increased from R280 million in 2014/15 to R425 million just two years later. It’s clear we are continuing to make excellent progress in further establishing the Western Cape as a leading business tourism destination. Since 2014, jobs in the tourism sector have grown by 26 000 and business tourism is an important driver of this growth. I would like to commend the Conventions Bureau for the good work they are doing to promote the Western Cape as a premier conferencing destination.”
“Conventions play a growing and pivotal role in our tourism economy, helping us promote the province on an international stage. The steady stream of industry experts and skills exchanges they attract also contribute significantly to our growing local knowledge,” concluded Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris.
