Johannesburg hots up for Meeting Africa 2023

South African Tourism (SA Tourism) has revealed a new look to the oncoming 17th edition of Meetings Africa, a Pan African business events trade show that contributes to the continent’s economic success and growth story.

Meetings Africa, a gathering of Africa’s various stakeholders in the Meeting Incentives Conferences/Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) sector of the burgeoning tourism industry will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, from February 27 to March 1, 2023. The event is set to feature conversations, while business deals are being clinched.

According to the organisers, this year’s Meetings Africa will also convey the African spirit through music, arts and crafts stalls; a variety of culinary offerings and will be a showcase of various cultures from all the African countries exhibiting at the trade show.

Speaking at the Meetings Africa 2023 media launch, South African Tourism Acting Chief Executive Officer, Themba Khumalo said: “The entire global tourism sector has been through a really rough time in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic but we are back with a renewed energy and we are motivated to build and grow our sector to pre-pandemic levels and beyond. Meetings Africa aims to contribute to helping African business events players restart and grow. We want to create opportunities for Africa’s business events sector so that we can all grow back more vital than ever before. Our new look represents this new injection of energy and is an emphasis on the importance that we place on connections.”

Khumalo continued: “South Africa seeks to use Meetings Africa as a tool to forge even more partnerships by offering various opportunities to meet face-to-face with the most influential buyers in the world. Meetings Africa has a global, hosted buyer programme for optimal interaction between buyers and exhibitors. In addition to this, South African Tourism has partnered with all nine provinces to host Meetings Africa familiarisation pre and post tours for hosted buyers and media to experience South Africa’s business events facilities and establishments.”

He also noted that in keeping with the spirit of renewed energy, this year’s Meetings Africa would, for the first time, host the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC) Summit. “This Africa chapter of the AIPC Summit was born out of a partnership between the South Africa National Convention Bureau (SANCB), a business unit of South African Tourism and the AIPC. The Summit is critical for the continent, to ensure that Africa’s conferencing facilities are on par with those from the rest of the world. This Summit will help African venues to benchmark themselves against the global standards, to brand and position themselves based on what people are looking for in an internationally recognised venue,” Khumalo added.

He, however, revealed that about 275 buyers representing 45 countries have been approved to participate at Meetings Africa 2023, with almost 450 applications being vetted. A total of 305 exhibitors representing 15 African countries are currently registered to showcase their wares this year. Various Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) will also be at Meetings Africa in the development zone.

“Transformation, inclusive economic growth and accelerating job creation are all central to all the work we do at South African Tourism. Providing our small businesses and entrepreneurs an opportunity to also interact and engage with hosted buyers is very important because we are serious about harnessing business opportunities both within the African continent and globally,” Khumalo said.

According to the organisers, some favourite events that have, over the years, contributed to the hallmark of this Pan African business events trade show will also return this year. Meetings Africa will be preceded by the Business Opportunity Networking Day (BONDAy) on February 27, with the official opening of the trade show, taking place on February 28. There will also be a variety of business-driven talks and discussions.

In addition to the launch of the trade show, Khumalo also announced the latest tourism performance numbers highlighting that tourism is a critical contributor to the economy. He said: “Cumulative arrivals for the January to November 2022 period increased by 151.9 per cent to reach 5.0 million of arrivals over the same period in 2021.

Arrivals in November 2022 were 565 758 arrivals. The biggest region in terms of real numbers was African Land with a 126.1 per cent increase in arrivals when compared with January to November 2021. The total number of arrivals from Europe in this period of 2022 was 778 222. Arrivals from the Americas increased by 227.0 per cent and represented 285,446 arrivals. Over these eleven months, 2022 has performed better than 2021 but it is still not at the 2019 levels.

On the domestic front, overnight trips from January to November 2022 reached 29.8 million trips, 139.4 per cent over the same period in 2021. Holiday and MICE trips increased in share whilst trips for VFR purposes fell in share. Total domestic expenditure was R84.2 billion, a 172.4 per cent increase over 2021, and was driven by holiday trips having accounted for 44.3 per cent of total expenditure. Domestic day trips recorded a 173.0 per cent increase or 160.6 million. Day trips also showed a phenomenal increase of 174.8 per cent to reach 148.6 billion. We remain optimistic for the year ahead both from a business events and leisure tourism perspective and we will continue to use our strategic platforms such as Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba in May to promote our country and in doing so contribute to business success and growth” Khumalo said.