Cape Town, Western Cape Convention Bureau gets new manager

Corné Koch

The agency will benefit from Koch's extensive experience in business tourism, communication, marketing and key stakeholder engagement which she brings to bear in her new role of overseeing the promotion of Cape Town and the Western Cape as a premier business events destination.

Koch believes that success in the business events sector is fundamental to the growth of the Western Cape economy. "The business tourism sector currently adds in excess of R200 million to the province's economy. Our role as the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau is a significant one and we need to capitalise on cross selling opportunities as delegates are often also potential investors," adds Koch.

Koch first entered the business tourism industry in 2003, joining the Gauteng Tourism Authority as their Events and Conferences Manager before taking on the role of Communications Manager at the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa. She then re-joined the Gauteng Tourism Authority once again in 2010 for another three year stint as Trade Development and Partnership Manager, marketing the brand locally and internationally before joining Wesgro in her current role.

Potential partnerships

According to Koch, her biggest strength and passion is to form and maintain relations with stakeholders and identify potential partnerships. "In the destination marketing sector, organisations cannot achieve their goals without partnerships. I look forward to work with the team to strengthen the international reputation of Cape Town and Western Cape as a business events destination.

The Bureau has successfully secured a number of bids in our current fiscal with eleven bid wins thus far, realising an estimated economic impact of R178,220,000 with an estimated delegate attendance of 13,450. With the recent expansion of the CTICC, upgrades taking place at the V&A Waterfront, infrastructural development and increasing air access to our destination at the forefront of discussions, these are exciting times for our industry and we have a good platform from which to build," she says.