Huge tourism representation at Cape conferences

NELSON Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) has had a busy week representing the city at two major conferences in Cape Town and hosting a mini-workshop for tour operators in the Mother City. The motivation? To get as many as possible conference and events tourism business into the city.

A delegation of NMBT chief executive Mandlakazi Skefile, marketing manager Titus Chuene, events coordinator Phrosne Phillips and trade coordinator Jonker Fourie visited Cape Town for a mix of conferences and meetings.

This included the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) annual conference (July 24-26), the  first Sport and Events Tourism Exchange (SETE) held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from July 27-29, and a presentation and mini-workshop on Nelson Mandela Bay attractions, routes, new offerings and suggested itineraries for tour operators on Friday July 29.

“This is a perfect opportunity for NMBT to connect with other conference organisers and hosts. We believe that conferences and events are a great part of tourism and add immense economic value to our destination,” said Titus Chuene, NMBT marketing manager.

At the 20th anniversary SAACI event there was a specific focus on education and learning under the theme: “Learn, connect, thrive.” It is estimated that in the first quarter of 2011 alone, conferences contributed more than R7-million to Nelson Mandela Bay and hosted over 9000 guests.

NMBT also took part in SETE. The major aim of the SETE event is to showcase South Africa as a sports and events destination by creating a platform for the South African events industry to market itself to event organisers from around the world. Tourism buyers from Switzerland, UK, US, India, Ireland, Russia, Canada, Australia, France, Latvia and China were all present at the exchange.

“Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism showcased the city as a premier destination with amenities adequate for big world-class events,” says NMBT Marketing Manager Titus Chuene. “We have already got on impressive CV of successful events: the FIFA World Cup, a history of seven full Ironman triathlons, cycle tours, and now the upcoming IRB World Sevens series. We are undoubtedly one of the best host cities for sporting events in the country.”

The growth of big events hosting in South Africa will mean higher numbers of tourists per year and greater economic benefit for South Africa, added Chuene. The SETE event hopes to align local event organisers with key global players in the international events scene.