Meet in...South AfricaI 49G
Main:Hot-air
balloon safariSouth Africa is making headway as Africa’s convention
capital thanks to a growing range of bucket list
incentives and new venues.Marisa Cannon reportsetting delegates to convene in South Africa is never a hard sell,
Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, executive manager of theSouth Africa
National Convention Bureau(SANCB), tells me. After a week spent
cavorting between Johannesburg and Cape Town, sipping pinot noir
in vineyards, floating in a hot-air balloon above a game reserve and
feasting on luscious cuts from a South Africanbraai(barbecue),
I needed little convincing.
South Africa is an obvious choice as an incentive destination, but
the convention bureau is keen to position itself as Africa’s premier
location for meetings, and is bent on attracting more delegations
from Europe, the United States and Asia.
The main challenge is perception, says Kotze-Nhlapo.“Safety is
still a concern among planners. But the way we tackle this is by using
testimonials and client referrals to address the problems that planners
believe exist in South Africa.”
Despite this, business travel to South Africa remains strong, with the
World Travel and Tourism Council reporting US$5.7 billion worth of
receipts in 2014, or 34 per cent of direct travel and tourism GDP, with a
further 2.1 per cent growth projected for 2015. As for the country’s appeal
as an association destination, South Africa is gaining pace on the world
stage, rising two spots in the 2014 ICCA rankings to 32nd place, ahead of
Hong Kong, the UAE and New Zealand.
A number of new regulations are, however, causing setbacks to the rate
of leisure arrivals to South Africa, including a condition that all children
under 18 travelling to and from the country carry an unabridged birth
certificate – a move to counter child trafficking. Arrivals between February
2014 and 2015 fell 7.2 per cent, with Chinese visitor numbers dropping
a whopping 32.4 per cent after a successful few years that saw Chinese
tourism triple between 2009 and 2013.
This isn’t such a problem for large-scale conventions though, whose
delegates tend to leave the kids at home: an estimated 7,000 attendees are
expected at the Africa Health exhibition in June, along with 20,000 at the
International Aids Conference, taking place in July. Kotze-Nhlapo says that
the bureau is making an effort to woo Chinese visitors back as well with
targeted services.
“Local attractions and hotels are able to offer Chinese guides andJUNE 2016allure