Business tourism gets boost

Johannesburg - Major players in the tourism industry on Thursday signed a R64m deal aimed at boosting business tourism in the country.

The multi-million rand deal was signed at the Sandton Convention Centre between the centre, the Gauteng Tourism Authority and the Johannesburg Tourism Company.

"The project is aimed at raising the profile of South Africa as a meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions destination," Martin van Niekerk said in a statement on behalf of Meetings Africa - a business tourism exhibition that has been held at the Sandton Convention Centre for the past five years.

The deal signed on Thursday would see to the running of the exhibition over the next five years, Van Niekerk said.

Apart from the R64m the parties injected into the project, a further R8m was set aside for staging and marketing the exhibition.

Funds for marketing are expected to increase annually from R8m in 2009 to R18m in 2013.

Said Nomasonto Ndlovu of Tourism SA: "It is our stated and determined ambition to grow Meetings Africa to the stature of Indaba, South Africa's and one of the world's foremost leisure travel trade shows."

In terms of the agreement, 35% of the Meetings Africa marketing budget would be invested in the domestic market, 30% in the European market, 20% in the USA, 10% towards attracting business tourists from Asia and Australia. The remaining five percent would go into SADC markets.

Pule Malefane of the Gauteng Tourism Authority said the venture gave Gauteng an opportunity to showcase "its numerous leisure tourism attractions and numerous business tourism facilities".

- Sapa