Business Tourism promotes Sandton

The centre, the first of its kind to be awarded five star status for Meetings, Exhibitions, Special Events (MESE) by the South African Tourism Grading Council, continues to play a pivotal role in boosting the country's economy through business tourism.

According to South African Tourism, Business Tourism has a current return on investment of 35:1 and is at present worth some R20 billion to the South African economy. It sustains nearly 260 000 jobs and provides over R6 billion annually to salaries and contributes R4 billion to the central fiscal in the form of taxes.

"Last year, we hosted 677 events, attracting 285 000 visitors to the Sandton Convention Centre. The economic spin off is that we generated 8 500 room nights for the two hotels flanking the venue alone," says Sandton Convention Centre Executive Director Nomaxabiso Majokweni.

While the concept of convention centres is still fairly new in Africa, Majokweni says the venue compares favourably with its established international counterparts and features prominently on the database of world class conference associations.

In a report from the 2004 survey edition of the International Association of Congress Centres the Sandton Convention Centre was rated among the top convention centres in the world. In six of the eight category sections the SCC achieved a statistical mean mostly far above the average of all finalists, expressing a high customer satisfaction level.

"Johannesburg is a gateway destination, offering the largest exhibition space in the whole country,'' says Majokweni. "We have grown basically from almost nothing two years ago, to claiming 51% of the exhibition market share in Gauteng."

SCC has also grown its exhibition hall occupancy rate to an average of 63% per year, and Majokweni is quick to point out that the current internationally accepted benchmark for occupancy rate is 70%.

"Even though the number of international conferences is still relatively marginal, we are beginning to see growth in this segment, with 41 in 2004 as against 9 in 2003. The majority of these events are from the rest of Africa, a trend and characteristic very much in line with the rest of the tourism trends as well as trade & industry," says Majokweni.