Cape Correspondent

WESTERN Cape's and Cape Town's reputations as "hot" destinations for conventions and exhibitions are soaring, and business prospects for next year are looking bright.

Leading the charge is the Cape Town International Convention Centre, which opened its doors in August, and has since blown the top off its budgeted predictions by hosting more than 200000 visitors at more than 200 events.

MD Dirk Elzinga describes the performance as "a good start", and the figures budgeted for its contribution to the province's gross domestic product in the first year of R705m, expected to grow by year 10 of operation to R18,4bn, will have to be revisited because they have already proven to be on the conservative side.

Rick Taylor, CEO of Cape Town's Convention Bureau, which actively seeks business in the niche meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions industry, says research by the bureau showed that the province's "robust" strategy in the sector of destination tourism marketing is paying dividends.

He says the convention centre was the "missing part" in the province's conventions package.

Four years ago, when the bureau began marketing Cape Town as a meetings destination, the city ranked 98th in the world. At the end of 2002 it stood at number 35 and, working closely with the convention centre, it is aiming to meet the "ambitious goal" of being in the top 10 by 2010.

The quirk about the conventions business is that it needs reasonable lead time before the "real" business, particularly in international bookings, kicks in.

Elzinga says the convention centre's intention is to target international conventions. It has already hosted 15 such conferences since opening, and has booked 28 international conventions up to 2005, when it had budgeted for 30 international conventions a year, with three years to reach the target.

A surprise for the centre, says Elzinga, was South African national conferences, where it budgeted for 15 in the first year, but already 24 were booked.

"When we started, people believed the centre was for rich overseas convention goers. But these figures show that it has been embraced by the local industry as well," says Elzinga.

He estimates that so far about 1000 jobs have been created . Of these 100 are permanent jobs at the centre, 400 people are employed by contractors and 400 casual jobs were created through labour bureaus.

There are also additional spinoffs and opportunities in the transport and retail sectors .

"This does not take into consideration the about 500 jobs created by the Arabella Sheraton Hotel, which forms part of the convention complex," says Elzinga.

On the international front, 2004 will be busy.

Already the centre will host the International Ferro-Alloys Conference (with 1200 delegates); the International Federation of Orthopaedics (1000); the International Zeolite Conference (1000); and the World Blind Union, a special challenge for the centre, with 600 delegates.

With estimates of an economic boost of R1450 spent per delegate each day, the combined economic effect of these conferences run into tens of millions of rands. These will be followed in succeeding years by a number of international conferences including: the International Society of Blood Transfusion, set for 2006, (with 6000 delegates); the International Urology Conference (3000); and the African Dental Conference (2000).

Other "big" conferences include the International AIDS Impact Conference in April 2005. It will attract about 800 delegates from more than 50 countries and has the potential of adding R5,8m to Cape Town's economy.

Then there is the Diabetic Federation World Congress in 2009, expected to have an economic benefit of more than R50m, with 7000 delegates; and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, with 10000 delegates expected result in an economic boost of R130m.

Taylor says once the building blocks are in place, recognising the Cape as an all-year destination with a sustainable infrastructure, "the floodgates will open, specifically for job creation".

One of the challenges for next year, though, will be to find sufficient numbers of airplane seats for business people wanting to travel to Cape Town. " We are looking for additional seats from airlines to airlift and meet the demand, not only for now, but for 2010 and 2011, and we are talking to airlines to meet this demand."