The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has ranked Cape Town as the number one city in Africa for business tourism, with Joburg making solid year on year improvements.
The Mother City, despite facing the drought challenges of severe water restrictions ranks in the top 40 destinations for business tourism in the world. This is the tenth consecutive year Cape Town has achieved this accolade, hosting a total of 53 meetings to date.
Cape Town’s ranking is followed by Johannesburg with 23 meetings, and Kigali with 21 meetings; Stellenbosch was also ranked after hosting eight international meetings last year, placing them in twelfth position.
Barcelona has claimed the first place in the ICCA city rankings by number of meetings in 2017 for the first time since 2004 - hosting a total of 195 meetings, says ICCA, followed by Paris and Vienna with 190 events each.
Jozi sets its sights on being 'African destination of choice'
Jozi is rapidly gaining a growing popularity it seems. The City of Gold has made TripAdvisor's top ten list in the .
Rendani Khorommbi, Deputy Director of Joburg Tourism Convention Bureau, said that the recently released ICCA rankings of 2017 show that Jozi has improved on its 2016 results.
The theory as to why is due to the fact that they had hosted 23 ICCA qualifying meetings as opposed to the 14 meetings held in 2016, says Khorommbi.
"We have moved from position 186 to 113 globally, while also improving our ranking in Africa from position 5 to 2. Now our team is aiming for a position in the top 100 globally in 2018, while retaining same spot (2) in Africa - there’s no going backwards!" says Khorommbi.
The ICCA Rankings are announced annually by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and is based on the number of rotating international association meetings hosted in a specific destination. Therefore, the more meetings that occur, the better a place's chances are of climbing the ICCA ranks.
How the association meetings work are that they must follow the ICCA criteria. This means that they must rotate between at least three countries, attract at least 50 participants and be held with a certain frequency - ad hoc meetings are not registered.
"Joburg's improvement in its ICCA rankings is thanks to a collaborative effort with our industry partners, peers and stakeholders and confirms the City's status as a strongly competitive , global business events destination," says Khorommbi.
Hosting key invests not only boosts job creation but also helps the city allay negative perceptions. Attracting between 500 and 1 000 international registrants who often extend their stay for between 3 and 6 days - the benefits to the tourism value chain regarding accommodation facilities, restaurants, tourist attractions and transport services are clear.
'Big ticket events'
Joburg Tourism's operations are guided by the City's 10 Priority Implementation Plans (PIPs). The Tourism department contributes significantly to two of them, namely: 5% Economic Growth and Job Creation - reducing unemployment to under 20% by 2021.
The Department of Economic Development’s strategic objective is to promote Johannesburg to be the number one African destination of choice for both business and leisure in an effort to
- Improve seasonality, length of stay and tourist spend during visits to Joburg.
- Improve the diversity of the tourism offering in Joburg.
- Build a positive image / perception for the city among local, national and international audiences.
Visitors to big-ticket events also benefit from the local tourism scene, which has boomed over the past decades and has seen an impressive increase in the number of visitor attractions, precincts, museums and sites highlighting Johannesburg’s complex and fascinating story.
These include the Origins Centre, Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, Museum Africa, Montecasino and the SAB World of Beer.