Bid partners secured for Meetings Africa

South African Tourism announced today that the Gauteng Tourism Authority, the Johannesburg Tourism Company and the Sandton Convention Centre had come on board as Meetings Africa's bid partners with joint funding of R64-million 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 South African Tourism. “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.”

Signing the bid party agreement in Johannesburg yesterday, 20 November 2008, the partners committed to Meetings Africa from 2009 to 2013 in a joint effort to grow the exhibition and business tourism in South Africa in the long term.

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 R8 million in 2009 to R18 million in 2013.

In terms of the agreement, 35 percent of the Meetings Africa marketing budget will be invested in the domestic market; 30 percent in the European market; 20 percent in the USA; ten percent towards attracting business tourists from Asia and Australia and five percent will be invested in the SADC markets.

“We are thrilled to have secured the bid partners for Meetings Africa. The partnership enables us to join forces to drive business tourism in the region. It quantifiably grows our resources to help us make the most of this lucrative global industry for our destination,” Ndlovu says.

Pule Malefane, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Gauteng Tourism Authority says the partnership with Meetings Africa is a natural one. “Gauteng is the commercial, industrial and business capital of our continent,” he says. “Meetings Africa gives evidence of this. It gives evidence of Sandton Convention Centre's status as a premier, globally equipped meeting venue. It gives Gauteng an opportunity to show both its numerous leisure tourism attractions and its numerous business tourism facilities. We are delighted to be associated with Meetings Africa.”

Ndlovu: “We are investing time and energy in promoting Meetings Africa and in driving business tourism arrivals to South Africa. Early next month, for example, we showcase Meetings Africa at the EIBTM exhibition in Barcelona. This is the world's leading exhibition for the conference, incentives, events, business travel and meetings industry and we are confident of finding a receptive and potentially lucrative audience there.”

Meetings Africa attracted some 3 000 visitors in 2008 and a 20 percent increase is expected next year. It will take place from 25 to 27 February 2009.