Eddy Khosa, CEO of Johannesburg Tourism Company and Chairman of SAMIF, says the city would continue to focus strongly on its business tourism drive to shape Destination Johannesburg as the premier African City of choice: "Johannesburg already hosts a number of high profile business trade exhibitions and conferences which complement and support our core focus. We have consulted closely with our private sector partners on the current decision but would be happy to review our position beyond 2009."
Hapiloe Sello, Marketing Manager at the Johannesburg Tourism Company, had this to add: "As you know the decision to host, or in this case, not to host, a large event like Indaba is not taken in isolation. To a large extent it is actually the private sector themselves that lead the decision making and that decision making is guided by two factors namely: their readiness to host an event of this magnitude and secondly the compatibility of the event with the overall focus of the region at the time.
"In the case of Johannesburg the primary reason for abstaining from hosting such a well established leisure tourism expo was a timing issue in terms of our present focus. As a city we have a strong bias towards developing business tourism, (however not to the exclusion of leisure tourism.) To this end the bulk of our resources and energies will continue to be channeled towards shaping the image of the destination to attract the business tourism market and position the city strongly in this market. Indaba, it should be appreciated, is a leisure tourism expo, and yes, while there is a spin for business tourism, its primary focus is leisure and this does not complement our current strategy."
Endorsing this view, Carol Weaving of the Coca Cola Dome and Thebe Exhibition Group says: "Johannesburg and Gauteng as a whole exhibits a strong business pulse so it would make sense to remain focused on developing business tourism."
Dee Mashinini, marketing manager of the Expo Centre Johannesburg, and Spencer Pillai, marketing manager of Gallagher Estate, also confirmed they would be supporting the city's decision.
