Targeting the business niche provides for counter-cyclical support

In 2013 South Africa climbed three positions from 37th to 34th in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) global ranking of business tourism destinations. Amongst long-haul destinations, the country placed an even more impressive 11th, and topped the rankings for Africa ahead of Kenya and Morocco. Broken down by cities, South Africa claimed half of the top 10 positions within the continent, with Cape Town placing first; Johannesburg, third; Durban, fourth; Stellenbosch, seventh; and Pretoria, ninth.

Over the course of 2013 the country hosted 94,000 international delegates attending 118 ICCA-certified conferences with associated earnings of R1bn ($94.7m). These are results that the South African National Convention Bureau (SANBC) is looking to double in the next seven years, having set a target of attracting 210,000 business delegates by 2020.

The meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market is highly lucrative, as global figures reveal that on average around 40% of event delegates are accompanied by a spouse or partner, while 40% will also stay on in the country after the event or take a preconference tour. For Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, an additional enticing feature of the MICE segment is “that it can further be utilised to address seasonality issues in the industry, as business tourists arrive for events irrespective of the time of year”.

Infrastructure In Place

Having hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup and stepped in at the last minute two years later to host the African Cup of Nations in place of scheduled host Libya, South Africa has demonstrated that it can not only handle large events, but also that it can do so with very little preparation time if required. With Africa dubbed as the “last economic frontier”, interest towards the continent is greater than it has ever been, resulting in an increasing number of events focused on continental issues. South Africa accounts for over a third of all conferences held on the continent, playing host to pan-African flagship events such as the African Mining Indaba, Africom (a telecoms and IT conference), African Oil Week and the World Economic Forum on Africa, which alternates between Cape Town and another African city every other year.

Challenges

Where South Africa is perhaps at a disadvantage is that it is a long-haul destination, while conferences worldwide are getting shorter in duration. Although the associated flight times and ticket prices for reaching South Africa present a barrier, local MICE trade representatives would argue that this can be compensated for by relatively affordable room rates, catering and tour prices. IT infrastructure, in particular broadband, is an additional, though not insurmountable, challenge. While connectivity is not on par with what convention attendees can expect in Europe, Asia or Australia, it is rapidly improving and is still arguably the most reliable in sub-Saharan Africa.

Healthy Competition

Since launching in 2012, the SANCB has been successful in winning 106 major events set to take place between 2013 and 2017. Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg each boast their own international convention centres, are served by international airports, and have the facilities in place to accommodate and entertain large numbers of business visitors. In turn, the cities’ tourism promotion bodies, alongside the tourism promotion arms of their provinces, are eager to host as many large-scale events as possible. For the SANCB, this presents a conundrum over which city to take with them for international bids.

Patricia de Lille, the mayor of Cape Town, expressed to OBG her belief that South African cities should not limit themselves to competing with each other, but bid for the same scale of events that are sought by the likes of New York City or Vancouver. Although it is difficult to generalise, as each city hosts a wide variety of recurring and one-off events, some patterns have emerged in the types of conferences each tends to host. Durban shows a propensity toward international events with government backing. Cape Town has a track record of pan-African events, while Johannesburg tends to host smaller trade, education and research conferences.