3 EMERGING AFRICAN MICE DESTINATIONS to watch

GHANA

Meetings set out to discover new, emerging MICE destinations in Africa that are showing a lot of growth and potential. Here they are, in no particular order.

Kwakye Donkor, CEO of Africa Tourism Partners, has identified Ghana as an upand-coming African MICE destination. He says that while the nation’s marketing has largely positioned it as a destination for social events –“anchored on the successes it achieved through initiatives such as the 2019 ‘Year-of-Return’ and ‘December in Ghana’” – it has been extremely successful in growing the contribution of their MICE segment.

Ghana’s leadership is currently focused on improving the country’s infrastructure to attract larger MICE events in the future. This includes the government’s budgeting of US$2 billion (R36.7 billion) for the redevelopment of the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre into a modern mixed-use smart, green and sustainable commercial estate. This will include the development of a 12 000-seater convention centre with exhibition halls, followed by hotels, and other residential and commercial developments. The agreement was signed last year, and the project is expected to take three to five years to complete.

Ghana’s Minister for Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, anticipates that the completed Trade Fair Centre will help to employ more than 10 000 people and generate an estimated US$150 million (R2.75 billion) worth of business annually.

Accessibility

Twenty airlines service Kotoka International Airport in Accra, the majority of which are international carriers such as British Airways, United Airlines, Delta, KLM, Kenya Airways, Emirates and Qatar. Many fly directly from their home countries, while more destinations are accessible to Accra via Dubai, 8.5 hours away.

Ghana’s new national airline will soon join these carriers, when it launches in the third quarter of this year, 13 years after the country’s second state-owned carrier closed.

Ghana also has commercial airports in Kumasi, Tamale, Sekondi-Takoradi and Sunyani, and six domestic airlines that fly within the West Africa region.

Venues

The Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) is a popular multipurpose venue for business events, which was built to host the Tenth Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement. Since then, it has hosted major conferences and summits by UN organisations, including the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The AICC has six halls, which can accommodate between 50 and 6 000 people. It has a press centre and audio facilities for simultaneous translation in five languages, while being close to Kotoka Airport and several upmarket hotels.

Additionally, several hotels in Ghana also provide excellent meeting facilities, such as the five-star Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City and the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel Accra.

ACCOMMODATION

The capital city of Accra has the most accommodation options for visitors, including several four- and five-star hotels. Outside of the capital there are fewer high-end hotels – these tend to be limited to Kumasi and Takoradi, and some coastal resorts.

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia is another African nation that has set its sights on growing its share of the global MICE market. As such, the Ethiopia Convention Bureau (www.miceethiopia.org) was officially launched on 2 February 2021, and attended by President Sahlework Zewde and other key stakeholders.

At the launch event, the President shared the country’s 10-year perspective development plan to attract 7 million tourists, noting that MICE tourism development is necessary to help achieve this objective. To support this, plans are underway to build convention centres and increase investment.

One advantage to achieving this goal is that Addis Ababa already has several stateof-the-art meeting and conference facilities. This is due to it being Africa’s political capital city and serving as the headquarters for the African Union since its inception in 1963, as well as having the largest number of foreign embassies and diplomatic missions on the continent.

ACCESSIBILITY

Ethiopian Airlines has leveraged its position on the horn of Africa to become a central hub serving more than 127 international destinations and 22 domestic destinations. This includes: 68 African cities; 26 European,

North and South American cities; and 29 cities in the Gulf, Middle East and Asia.

Travelling by air is also the best way to get around this large country. Ethiopian Airlines runs a reliable network of daily flights connecting Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa to other cities and towns around the country, including Bahir Dar, Gondar, Lalibela and Aksum.

VENUES

The capital of Ethiopia has several large conferencing facilities, including the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa (UNCC-AA), which offers 36 meeting rooms, a 2 100 m² of exhibition space, and additional spaces for networking, banqueting and receptions (accommodating up to a 1 000 cocktail guests). It is 10 minutes from Bole International Airport and next door to several three-to-five-star hotels, as well as several specialised UN agencies.

The development of the Addis Africa International Convention & Exhibition Center (AAICEC) is also currently underway. The AAICEC will have conference and meeting halls, two auditoria, a multipurpose hall, an outdoor performance area, and four large exhibition pavilions providing a total exhibition floorspace of 27 300 m². If the development stays on track, it should be completed in 2024.

ACCOMMODATION

Ethiopia has a growing number of international standard hotels, such as Hilton, Sheraton, Radisson Blu, Golden Tulip, Marriott, Hyatt regency and Ramada.

BOTSWANA

Another African nation that Kwakye highlights as showing huge MICE potential is Botswana. With a thriving leisure tourism economy – which, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, accounted for 95% of tourism spend in 2018 – the country has set its sights on expanding its MICE tourism footprint.

In 2020, Gobusamang Keebine, president of Business Botswana, said, “The MICE industry is an absolutely critical sector for Botswana to help alleviate unemployment. The President has gone on record saying he wanted to make Botswana a conference destination, and the MICE sector will ensure that this objective is realised.”

As well as collaboration with various private sector stakeholders to promote the growth of the local MICE industry, Gobusamang indicated that they are exploring the development of multidestination packages within Southern African to attract more visitors, inclusive of Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana.

ACCESSIBILITY

Botswana is usually accessed via other African countries, with four key airlines servicing the country: national carrier Air Botswana, South Africa-owned and -operated Airlink, Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines. In addition, there are several private charter airline companies such as Wilderness Air and Mack Air that operate regularly in Botswana airspace – and even a new international luxury service, Fly Okavango, connecting London Stansted and Florida Palm Beach direct to the Okavango Delta.

International arrivals are possible at all three of Botswana’s main airports. Gaborone International

Airport tends to be a hub for business travellers, while Kasane International Airport and Maun International Airport deliver travellers to the doorstep of Botswana’s diversified tourist destinations. All three airports have undergone complete rebuilds over the last few years.

VENUES

Botswana’s largest business events venue is the 35-hectare Botswana Conference & Exhibition Centre. Boasting a maximum capacity of 15 000 guests for receptions and 10 000 in theatre-style seating, it also offers 5 000 m² of exhibition space (or 240 shell schemes of 9 m²).

Another popular venue is the lavish Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) at The Grand Palm Resort in Gaborone. It can accommodate up to 1 800 guests and has two adjacent hotels: the Peermont Walmont is a luxurious four-star establishment with 188 rooms, and the Peermont Metcourt provides three-star accommodation and 149 rooms.

Several hotels also offer first-world meeting facilities. Among them are Minor Hotel’s Avani Gaborone Resort & Casino, Protea Hotel Gaborone Masa Square and several Cresta Hotel properties around the country.

ACCOMMODATION

Aside from hotels across a range of gradings, the northern tourism territory of the country has several luxury lodges and safari camps. Because Botswana has strict limits on the size, number and concentration of these, they all boast a truly exclusive safari experience.