SPECIAL FEATURE
Tourism and events The Western Cape is world class in many categories.
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en cities were nominated in 2018 for “World’s Leading Festival and Events Destination”. Listed together with Singapore, Dubai, London, Montreal, Sydney and the likes of Rio de Janeiro was Cape Town. Cape Town also won an African award for hosting the most international association meetings, based on 34 000 international delegates attending conferences in Cape Town in a calendar year. The ranking is awarded by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA). The Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau, a Wesgro unit, promotes the province as a venue and assists with bids, planning support and WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019
on-site services. Events, conferences and exhibitions help to create a year-round industry which in turn boosts employment. The Bureau helped secure 33 bids for the region in 2017/18 which had a projected impact of R453-million. The R900-million expansion of the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC2) has given the city’s biggest venue additional volume and flexibility. The new section of the centre hosted its first conference in September 2017, the 21st Annual Congress of the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) at the same time as the CTICC was hosting another major conference. The Cape Town Stadium, built to host matches
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