Alex Kirby, the Executive Vice President – Airport Cities was speaking at the official opening of an exhibition which is part of ACE at Emperors Palace yesterday in which he further confirmed that Ekurhuleni has also recorded one of the largest exhibition shows in the history of the ACE conference.

“We are very pleased that the 11^th Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni is a massive success with a great range of exhibition on the floor and a record of over 700 delegates,” Kirby said.

The ‘Father’ of the Aerotropolis concept, Professor John Kasarda said the success of the ACE conference will be the stimulation of economic growth and leaving  an indelible mark in terms of investment into the region long after the conference is gone.

“I have no doubt that with the Ekurhuleni mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele and the manner in which he is championing and embracing the concept of aerotropolis that this city will be amongst the top cities of the world in the near future,” stated Prof Karsada.

Meanwhile, preceding the opening of the exhibition, delegates, most of whom are real estate developers, industry suppliers, airport chief executives and government leaders were taken to view a variety of investment opportunities to attract them to inject investment into the city.

One of the notable investment opportunities is in Rhodesfied, an area in close proximity to the airport which is identified as an aerotropolis area, which has a high demand of hospitality infrastructure.