The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) once again delivered an impressive economic performance for the 2013/2014 financial year, spurring economic growth and job creation in the city, province and the country.
Addressing attendees at the CTICC’s Annual Financial Results Press Conference, this morning, Chief Executive Officer, Julie-May Ellingson said the CTICC played an instrumental role in advancing the meetings and events industry and promoting business tourism in the region.
CTICC exceeded all its key performance targets for the year in review and hosted 535 events against an event target of 500.
“Cape Town is renowned for its medical and scientific fraternities, which is an appealing value proposition for international conferences. These conferences remain one of the pivotal drivers of the knowledge economy, which contributes to knowledge exchange and skills transfer in key sectors,” she added.
Thirty three international conferences across a broad spectrum of sectors related to agro processing, the green economy, ICT, property, mining and medical were hosted at the CTICC. These are sectors that are aligned to the City of Cape Town’s and Western Cape Government’s economic growth strategies. A few large scale events hosted include the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association Congress, World Green Building Council Congress, Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, Investing in African Mining Indaba and the 8th World Congress of the World Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases.
The ability of the CTICC and Cape Town to secure major international conferences is a significant component of its success. Twenty bids have been secured up until the year 2020 during the year under review.
Event highlights include the International Renewable Energy Conference in 2015 and the 17th World Congress of Psychiatry in 2016, which is expected to attract 5000 and 3000 delegates respectively. The Annual Meeting of the World Aquaculture Society in 2017 will see over 4000 delegates converge on Cape Town. In 2018 the CTICC will host the International Congress of Linguists and the World Congress of Neurorehabilitation in 2020. Combined these events will attract in excess of 3000 delegates.
“In addition to the international conferences hosted, 28 national conferences, 31 trade fairs and exhibitions, 53 banquets, 40 special events and 350 other events, which are meetings taking place mainly of a local or provincial nature and smaller than 50 delegates, were hosted by the CTICC,” said Ellingson.
“The expansion will allow the CTICC to stage more events, offer more flexibility and allow for an increase in the concurrent hosting of various sizes of meetings, conventions, exhibitions and other events,” concluded Ellingson.
