5 minute read
COVER STORY: OPEN DOORS
OPEN DOORS
Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, chief convention bureau officer at the SANCB
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Meetings spoke with the South Africa National Convention Bureau’s very own Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, who unpacks the Bureau’s strategy that paves the way for the recovery of the business events sector.
Business events play a critical role in the economy. According to figures from the Events Industry Council, cited by South African Tourism, in 2016, the global MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) and business events industry generated around US$1.5 trillion (R23.5 trillion today) in direct spend. The Covid-19 pandemic may have resulted in a slew of cancellations but before 2017, the industry contributed $7.7 billion (R120.9 billion today) to South Africa’s GDP – a third of the total amount generated by tourism, of which business events is a subsector. These figures highlight the value of business events as well as why the subsector should receive the right level of attention to realise its full economic potential.
Attracting and supporting bids for locally hosted business events forms part of the mandate of the South Africa National Convention Bureau (SANCB) – the business events arm of South African Tourism – with the recovery of the industry in the wake of the pandemic being a key objective. With the pandemic still ongoing, the total economic impact on business events is yet to be calculated; however, figures from a survey conducted by the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) in March 2020, which involved 167 respondents across all nine provinces in South Africa and included the spectrum of events-related organisations, indicated that $49.8 million (R782 million) in revenue was lost due to cancellations between March and June 2020 alone. The recovery of the industry, highlights Amanda, chief convention bureau officer at the SANCB, will first be felt domestically.
“Looking at the recovery of face-to-face meetings, you will immediately attract your local partners, then affiliates from outside the region and, lastly, international travellers. We are seeing this all over the world, but the first step is building the confidence among ourselves,” she says.
WORKING AROUND THE CHALLENGES
A major hurdle in the face of adjusted lockdown restrictions is ensuring MICE experiences can successfully go ahead and do so safely.
“The lead time for us to plan events has been challenging. Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit
It is clear the Covid-19 pandemic will permanently alter the business events landscape. To counter the adverse economic effects of the pandemic, the SANCB has designed an innovative programme that takes into account its existing and long-term objectives, and marries these with a strategy that will assist the business events sector in its recovery. One initiative intended to support these objectives is the SANCB’s National Association Project, which aims to stimulate demand for national conferences and secure a pipeline of future business for the country. This is in line with South African Tourism’s recovery plans for the entirety of the tourism industry value chain.
National associations have been identified as critical stakeholders in the bidding process to secure international conferences within South Africa, and the National Association Project is intended to capacitate and stimulate the local association sector in order to start hosting regular national meetings again, while creating bidding opportunities for international conferences in the future. Specific objectives of the National Association Project include: • Creating a regional spread: This will see the SANCB assisting national associations in hosting their meetings and conferences in villages, towns and small dorpies (VTSDs) across South Africa. • Bidding capacity-building: The SANCB has created bidding support programmes and processes specifically for national association meetings and conferences. • Infrastructure development: The SANCB is assisting VTSDs across the country to develop their meeting and conferencing infrastructure so they can bid to host national association meetings and conferences. • Pre- and post-event tours: This strategy is receiving particular emphasis as it seeks to promote tourism experiences, specifically pre- and post-tour packages for delegates and any accompanying people in VTSDs. These can then be marketed to delegates by local SMMEs, thus contributing to domestic tourism. • Procurement: The SANCB is incentivising the procurement of goods and services by local service providers in VTSDs. • Association capacity-building: This will result in the creation of opportunities for VTSD communities to participate in and experience national association meetings and conferences as delegates.
(ATTS) is a good example of this. We had to work with a maximum in-person attendance of 50 people, which, thankfully, changed but also shows how we have had to learn to adapt,” explains Amanda.
ATTS was co-hosted by the National Department of Tourism and South African Tourism. On 12 September 2021, days before the summit kicked off, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would move to Alert Level 2 restrictions of its lockdown, in place to manage and mitigate the risks of the Covid-19 pandemic. Weeks later, an announcement was made that the number of people permitted at social gatherings would be increased to 750 people for indoor and 2 000 people for outdoor events – the largest capacities allowed since lockdown began on 26 March 2020.
In addition to safeguarding existing event opportunities, the SANCB has a broader strategy in play to promote the growth and development of an inclusive and thus sustainable business events sector (see box above).
IT ALL STARTS WITH A MEETING
While the recovery of the industry may still be under way, the future of the industry in South Africa is looking promising.
Most recently, it was announced that – following the cancellation of two of its most prominent trade shows as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic – both Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba will be going ahead in 2022.
Meetings Africa will take place from 28 February to 2 March 2022 at the Sandton Convention Centre, in central Gauteng, while Africa’s Travel Indaba will be hosted from 2 to 5 May 2022 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Both will be hybrid events with limited capacities. Together, the two events will serve as a showcase to exhibitors, hosted buyers, as well as local, African and international delegates that South Africa is open for business.
Giving a message to all venues, suppliers and role players who form part of the business events value chain, Amanda has this to say: “Embrace the change. More than ever, we need to make sure that we work together. Our projections for 2030 have not changed, and how we come together will define the way forward.”
