South Africa to host 200 international conferences, earn over $195m in five years

South Africa says it will host more than 200 international conferences in the next five years, The Times has reported citing Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism speaking at a conference of the Southern African Association of the Conference Industry.

He said 300,000 delegates are expected to arrive in the country bringing into the economy more than R1.6 billion approximately $195,383,012.99.

According to the report, in 2011, South Africa received 392,000 business travellers, of which 140,000 were meetings incentive conference and events delegates.

Van Schalkwyk was quoted as saying that his department had set a target of 15 million international arrivals by 2020.

He said SA National Convention Bureau was targeting 81,500 convention delegates and 130 association meetings by 2020.

For this to be achieved, the country had to increase the business events industry by 57 percent, he said.

He also said the department wanted to grow the average number of delegates attending international conventions in South Africa from an estimated 54,000 in 2012 to 78,000 by 2017.

According to him, hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the United Nations’ COP 17 Climate Change Conference had proved the country’s credentials.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi