KZN to stake its claim as Africa's MICE and bleisure tourism destination
Tourism KZN is set to lobby for more conferences during this year's Meetings Africa, which takes place from 24-26 February 2020. "Thousands of delegates from around the world will converge at the Sandton Convention Centre to find suitable venues as destinations for their next big conference and meetings; the KwaZulu-Natal delegation will include representatives of several district municipalities to ensure the geographic spread of business events. Our ultimate aim is to ensure that the economic impact of business tourism is felt in all corners of our beautiful province," said Nomusa Dube-Ncube, MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs for KwaZulu-Natal.
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"Our province boasts exceptional business events venues, ranging from the award-winning Chief Albert Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban to venues in Zululand, South Coast, Drakensberg, Dolphin Coast Natal Midlands, Battlefields and Elephant Coast.
"There is a large market of travellers who come for business but extend their stay by a few extra days in order to explore the country once business has been taken care of, or will return later with their families on a leisure trip. We want these bleisure delegates to come to KwaZulu-Natal where we have, not only the finest business events venues and infrastructure but also culture, nature and wildlife," adds Dube-Ncube.
Dube-Ncube said KwaZulu-Natal’s growing standing on the global business events stage was evidenced by the many international events that have been hosted at the Durban ICC in recent years, as well as major events booked to take place this year; such as the 2020 Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit on 6 March and the World Football Summit Africa on 17 and 18 March.
She said the province’s unique selling points were undoubtedly the beaches along the entire coastline, the cultural diversity and the all-year summer weather. "KwaZulu-Natal is Africa’s playground where we pride ourselves with the beaches, wildlife and cultural diversity."
Through the Durban-KZN Convention Bureau, emerging tourism entrepreneurs from the province will be afforded an opportunity to participate at Meetings Africa, where they can also forge strategic relationships with international partners who can propel their businesses to a much higher level.
Dube-Ncube said the business events industry and tourist trade created thousands of jobs and thus contributed immensely to the eradication of poverty and unemployment.
