Angling for the big fish

The vehicle to lead the charge is the SA National Conventions Bureau, launched in 2012 and headed by Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo. "We refer to business events, not business tourism - tourism is a by-product. This is focused on the business of events, expos, conventions and so on. It is not new to market this alongside tourism. Some convention bureaus are 30 years old, but in Africa we are the first dedicated national conventions bureau, [as opposed to city bureaus]," she says.

"On a yearly basis, there are more or less 11,000 international association meetings taking place around the globe. I always say there is an association for everything, even left-handed welders. Out of these, conservatively between 6,000 and 7,000 will rotate around the world. In 2012 SA hosted only 106 business events, and the continent just over 300," she says

Major events sought

Hosting business and other major events is not new to SA but a dedicated organisation to co-ordinate the efforts of smaller independent bureaus is. And the strategy is already bearing fruit, with the country having secured 106 bids for the period up to 2017. These are expected to bring in an estimated 280,000 delegates and just under R3bn into the country.

Tourism Enterprise Partnership's (TEP) chief executive Salifou Siddo says: "Our own SMMEs are definitely benefiting from this [strategy] because a lot of them provide tour operating services. Many of them are in niche areas that tend to get business from either pre-conference or post-conference visits. The point is that we can get international visitors coming to the country for conference or leisure. That creates an opportunity to expose SMMEs to the market. But are they getting their fair share of the business?"

An important question. Siddo suggests the answer is not necessarily.

"I think we can do a lot more to support and promote tourism SMMEs to make our industry more inclusive. To do this we need to support organisations like TEP and market access programmes. If SA Tourism goes out and markets the country as a tourism destination, they need to make sure the people who end up packaging the conference - either accommodation or other services - aren't limited to the usual suspects such as Protea or Tsogo Sun. There are a whole range of guesthouses and BEE enterprises that can be brought into the proposition.

"At TEP we are advocates of SMMEs being given a fair share of the market. We are not saying don't do business with large companies. If we are serious about transformation, then the people who organise these conferences must make sure that in their procurement system they make a point of seeing SMMEs participate as service providers," Siddo adds.

Include SMMEs

Kotze-Nhlapo agrees that SMMEs must be brought into the circle in terms of business-related tourism. She, however, says that they already are, but often in unexpected or tangential ways, such as programme printing and venue decor.

Business travellers have also been shown to spend more than leisure tourists. Up to 40% bring someone with them, and pre- and post-conference tours are common. Also, research shows that in SA, business visitors return as leisure ones.

Image: Wiki Images

Destination marketer and founder of Destinate Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold believes that SA can still be more proactive in its approach to winning bids and bringing events into the country. She thinks there should be an effort to look at what events fit with brand SA.

"We have to be in the driving seat. We have to have a long-term strategy in place for the country and then we have to go and get the business. Most of the time we wait for business to come our way and then are at the mercy of the bidders," she says.

"We don't always attract the kind of events that are the best fit for our destinations. For instance, if we say we want to position SA as a creative hub for business, or an environmentally friendly or sustainable hub, those are the kinds of conferences we need to hunt for and go and get, instead of just accepting everything that comes our way.

"We have to be mindful about what is the best brand fit, what kind of delegates we need to attract. A business tourist today is a leisure tourist tomorrow. That is how the cycle works.

Too many silos

"Also, currently business tourism operates in a silo, leisure in a silo, domestic too. We have to look at the industry more holistically, and be a lot more hungry and a lot more proactive," Du Toit-Helmbold says.

One thing that all agree is holding SA back is the perception of crime. SA Tourism's chief executive Thulani Nzima says this is despite the fact that all big cities have crime and savvy tourists are accepting of this.

"I agree that the most remarkable difference between crime happening elsewhere and what's happening here in SA is that we are violent, and that makes a big difference. Mugging for your cellphone or snatching a handbag and running happens in other countries too, but here it is coupled with more violence - and that is something that worries me.

"Whether it is about service delivery or labour matters, things go wrong because of the violent nature of our people. I think something has gone wrong with the psyche of our people to the point that everything has to be dealt with very violently," Nzima adds.

Still, he is happy that gains are being made in this area and argues that "people vote with their feet".

"We have recorded growth last year. Year in and year out we continue to buck the trend. People have come to realise that the perception of crime and the reality of being here is different. The survey conducted on people who have never been in the country shows a different perception of SA. Once they have been in the country, their positivity increases by about 40%. Repeat visits to this country are very high. People are coming back again and again," he says.

Source: Financial Mail via I-Net Bridge