A bumper 2010 is ahead for Cape Town’s conference industry as companies around the world line up corporate events to tie in with the Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Dirk Elzinga, managing director of the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) is predicting a year when many businesses choose South Africa as a meeting destination.
“Our expectations for 2010 are very high, said Elzinga. “The worldwide corporate sector is influenced by trends and in the past few months more than ten big corporates from around the world have enquired about conference space for that period in Cape Town.”
“The corporate sector tends to plan ahead by only a year or so, but we are noticing significant corporate interest three years ahead. “We have noticed that the bigger organisations have been very busy looking at that period and this is an indication of things to come,” said Elzinga.
Three important NGO meetings have already selected Cape Town for their 2010 destination, none of which are soccer-related. The most prestigious is the Lausanne III International Congress on World Evangelization (October, 2010) to be attended by over 6 000 delegates including leading religious luminaries. In the engineering field, two major congresses of the Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are being held, in March and May 2010 respectively. The first will be on construction engineering and the second on software engineering.
Other confirmed bookings for 2010 include the 13th World Congress of Medical Informatics (February); the 13th International Conference of Actuaries (March), the second time the conference will be held in Cape Town. Also booked for 2010 is a conference of the International Committee for Life, Disability and Health Insurance (ICLAM), Marine Aids and Lighthouse Authorities and the International Union of Food Sciences.
However, for the time being, no further international conferences are being booked for 2010, because CTICC awaits the decision as to which city will be selected to host the FIFA International Broadcast Centre (IBC). Cape Town and Johannesburg are the remaining cities bidding for this prestigious part of The World Cup, and a decision is expected to be made soon.
“South Africa is an up and coming congress destination,” said Elzinga, and has become, to a large extent, popular thanks to its leading recreational amenities, shopping areas and cultural attractions, such as Robben Island, Table Mountain, Cape Point National Park and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. For conference planners representing international associations, a different and even more important set of criteria includes the destination’s ability to contribute to science and research with its four universities and various research centres.
Cape Town’s desirability as a multi-activity destination coupled with its moderate weather and the world-class facilities at the Cape Town International Convention Centre are proving attractive to international convention planners. The CTICC itself boasts a sophisticated design and carefully planned interior layout, on par with the best in the world.
Almost two thirds of all international meetings taking place in South Africa last year chose Cape Town as their meeting destination, and one out of every four international meetings on the African continent took place in Cape Town. The city is in eighth position on the ICCA ranking list for future scheduled international congresses over the next ten years. In the past year alone the centre hosted 461 different events, including 35 international and 40 national conferences, 25 consumer exhibitions and 13 trade fairs.
Issued by HWB Communications
Tel: +27 21 462 0416
Cell: +27 84 303 6777
Fax: +27 21 462 0427
Email: caroline@hwb.co.za
On behalf of Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC)
Contact: Audrey Matthews, Corporate Communications Officer
Tel: +27 21 410 5000
Email: audrey@ctconvention.co.za
