SA tops tourism rankings as best business events destination

South Africa remains one of the world's most popular tourist destinations and continues to top the rankings on the World Economic Forum Travel's global travel and tourism competitiveness index.

This was also confirmed at the weekend by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), which said that the country continued to excel as one of the top business events destination in Africa and the Middle East. Tourism Minister Tokozile Xasa said the country continued to give its counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa and globally a run for their money as it topped both regional rankings and the global index. South Africa still leads the pack when compared with other Brics member countries.

"We are also one of the world's top 10 long-haul destinations for hosting international meetings and conferences," Xasa said. Speaking at the annual Southern Africa Association for the Conference Industry Congress in Pretoria, Xasa said South Africa hosted about 1 million business delegates every year and that the average business traveller spent seven days in the country, with five of the days being spent attending a business event.

"Hosting more major international business conferences will help develop our intellectual capital and position us as a world-leading knowledge economy," she said. In 2016, South Africa hosted 17 more international and regional conferences than in 2015, bringing the total to 125 ICCA-recognised conferences. "These conferences generate a direct economic benefit for our country, which includes what delegates spend on hotel accommodation, food and beverages and souvenirs. "There is an indirect benefit as well. The business event delegates that we host annually return home to sell our country to others by word of mouth and many will return here on holiday and some may even consider investing in South Africa," Xasa said.

She said return visits were dependent on the country providing quality services and products to tourists. "It's clear that our position as a magnet for business events is certainly strong, but it is a position that we need to vigorously defend and improve on." Xasa said the government would like to see South Africa's smaller towns and cities bidding for smaller meetings, where it was easier to meet the hosting requirements. "Our challenge is to shift more of our national and international business events to our smaller towns so we spread the benefits geographically across all regions of our country," she said.

-KUTULLO MADISHA|kutullom@thenewage.co.za

Source: SA tops tourism rankings as best business events destination