Meetings Africa prepares to kick off in February
SANDTON – Meetings Africa will highlight all the South African business tourism sector has to offer.
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Meetings Africa, a conference hosted in Sandton each year to highlight Africa’s wide offering, hosted a launch in Sandton to highlight the importance of the conference in the South African tourism calendar.
The conference will be hosted from 25 to 27 February at the Sandton Convention Centre. The conference will see thousands of people travelling from around the world to exhibit and visit the conference and learn about all that South Africa has to offer.
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Sisa Ntshona, the CEO of South African Tourism, said, “Tourism is the only sector that is going to drive economic growth thereby creating jobs… my view is that no one creates jobs, jobs are the consequence of growth and I want to make the plea that there is no better sector than tourism to help us get out of this space.”
Ntshona highlighted that when people think of tourism they often think of fun and the beach but South Africa has so much more to offer than just leisure tourism. He said that business tourism, which includes meetings and conferences, is a huge industry worldwide and South Africa has a lot to offer in that space.
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“Meetings Africa is like a show and tell, it is inviting the world to see, as the African continent, that we have the capacity, the capabilities and the competence to host.”
Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, the chief convention bureau officer at the South African National Convention Bureau which is a part of South African Tourism said that their main goal is to get more people to see that South Africa is an ideal destination for not only leisure but for business events.
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Kotze-Nhlapo highlighted that South Africa has the ability to host world-class events while offering a better value for money compared to other destinations such as Australia.
“We believe that the business events sector is an inspiring industry and a great contributor to the tourism economy of this country,” concluded Kotze-Nhlapo.
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https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/198232/13th-annual-meetings-africa-hosted-at-sandton-convention-centre/