“LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO ADVANCE AFRICA” MINISTER TELLS DELEGATES AT OPENING CEREMONY
© Reg Caldecott (www.jpg.co.za) Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk
M
EETINGS AFRICA 2013 opened yesterday with a strong message from National Tourism Minister, Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk that there is a great, untapped potential for the regional business events industry, and that potential would best be realised through partnerships and through working together to make Africa the world’s favourite conferences, meetings, incentives and exhibitions destination. The Advancing Africa Together theme of Meetings
Contact www.meetingsafrica.com us Please recycle me
@MeetingsAfrica
Africa this year has been given substance, the Minister said, through a greater contingent of African exhibitors; in an African Association Day as a special event feature of Meetings Africa 2013; and in fresh resolve by the sector to make optimal use of the valuable business platform that Meetings Africa 2013 offers to negotiate, to partner and to do business. Global business event buyer numbers (at 350 by last headcount) have grown by about 70 percent on last year’s numbers. The business events industry, al-
#MeetingsAfrica
Meetings Africa
ready worth millions to the economy, has the potential to grow that contribution to R2.6 billion by 2017, the Minister told delegates at the Meetings Africa 2013 Opening Ceremony. Already, under the SANCB’s growth strategy, a number of events have been secured over the next few years that will attract more than 126 000 delegates to South Africa. The Minister congratulated the South African Convention Bureau on an excellent first year. When the entity was officially launched at Meetings Africa last year, he said, it announced a bold and ambitious growth strategy. Hard work and collaboration had borne fruit, he said. SANCB has laid a firm foundation for a bidding strategy that had already shown results. And the Win as One strategy that it has taken to the larger industry has united everyone to a common goal and vision for the destination. “This Meetings Africa, that extends that vision and that strategy, gives all delegates, and the entire regional industry, a valuable opportunity to push forward in our quest to make southern Africa the world’s first choice destination for conferences, events, meetings and incentives. It’s a prize that’s waiting to be claimed. And it’s up to us to go out and get it.”
South African Tourism
South African Tourism
Published by www.theevent.co.za