Meetings Africa 2013 projects the continent as a premier business event host destination

ETW STAFF – Mumbai

As Meetings Africa 2013 drew to a close at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg recently, organisers, hosts and delegates were unanimous that this time the continent came together to collaborate and to advance Africa together as the world’s premier business event host destination.

By the end of the event, 2884 delegates had come through the Meetings Africa 2013 turnstiles. There were 300 international, regional and local buyers in attendance, 30 percent more than attended last year. “It was really exciting to welcome these buyers to Meetings Africa 2013,” said Thulani Nzima, CEO, South African Tourism. “It’s very encouraging that so many buyers –78 percent of them – were in attendance for the first time this year. It shows that interest in our region is really growing.”

An international standard buyers qualification process was implemented for the first time this year to ensure that only buyers who were serious about doing business were invited, and hosted, at Meetings Africa 2013. Nzima said, “The high number of first time attendance of hosted buyers represents a potential of almost 62 000 delegates that could attend business events held in South Africa in the next 18 to 24 months.”

India was the market best represented by buyers with more than 30 buyers in attendance. There were 20 buyers from the USA and Canada; 13 from China, nine from Brazil and eight each from Germany and Russia. Buyers were also in attendance from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Spain Sweden, the UAE, the UK and the Ukraine.