“We are a business tourism destination the world is sitting up and taking notice of” Nomasonto Ndlovu, Business Tourism Global Manager
South Africa is delighted to be at IMEX, a business tourism exhibition in Frankfurt again this year. IMEX is the biggest meetings, incentives and conferences tourism exhibition in the world with about 3,500 exhibitors from more than 150 countries attracting tens of thousands of visitors and tourism product buyers.
„Now is the perfect time to promote South Africa as a business tourism destination,“ says Nomasonto Ndlovu, Global Manager: Business Tourism at South African Tourism. „We have much to celebrate and look forward to. Next month the nation hosts the FIFA Confederations Cup and next year the greatest sporting spectacular on earth, the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ comes to South Africa. 2010 and other big global events such as the IPL, British Lions Rugby Tour, and Miss World have put our destination’s big event capacity and capability beyond dispute.“
South African Tourism, comes to IMEX fresh from its 30th annual INDABA – one of the three biggest leisure travel trade shows in the world- that has been roundly celebrated as ‘one of the best INDABAs ever’ and a triumph of destination marketing and pre-FIFA World Cup excitement.
South African Tourism will be hard at work at IMEX promoting Meetings Africa 2010. Meetings Africa takes place in Sandton, Johannesburg from 24-26 February 2010. Meetings Africa is now established as the continent’s premier business tourism trade show and is rapidly becoming an essential event for anybody and everybody interested in the business tourism offerings of this destination.
Of the approximately 4 000 buyers at IMEX this year, 2 000 hold budgets of more than US$ 500 000 for business tourism expenditure and 1 200 hold budgets of more than US$1 million. Clearly, says Ndlovu, IMEX presents an exciting and potentially lucrative opportunity for South Africa broadly, and for the business tourism industry in South Africa specifically.
Meetings Africa is a B2B tourism exhibition supported by professional educational programmes, networking and underpinned by an international hosted buyers programme.
„South Africa is a business tourism destination that the world is sitting up and taking notice of,“ Ndlovu says. „We have one of the fastest growing, most beautiful and accessible leisure destinations on earth. And our unique hybrid of cultures, ancient wisdom, modern infrastructure, world class meeting facilities that makes us a business tourism destination that many are finding very, very difficult to resist.“
South Africa’s recent bid wins include the 2009 International Near-infrared Spectroscopy Conference (with 500 delegates), the 2009 International Congress on Occupational Health (with 4000 delegates), and the 2013 International Geological Congress (with 6 000 delegates).
„There’s something about the inclusiveness of African culture; the wide, open spaces of the South African landscape; the innovation and problem-solving focus that is uniquely South African; lessons from our history; and the natural rhythms and cycles of our unspoiled wilderness areas that each add real and quantifiable benefit to meetings, conferences and exhibitions. We call this Business Unusual,“ says Ndlovu.
South Africa’s stand at IMEX 2009 is being attended by numerous representatives of the destination’s business tourism offering. Convention centres, conference organisers, travel agents, accommodation establishments, provincial representatives and airlines are among South African delegates who are on hand to help anyone wanting to find out more about the destination at IMEX this year.
