City is set for tourism boom
ICC records best year in 2018, as international and local visitors increase
Bring in the Mice to solve East London’s national and international tourist paucity.
Mice (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) delegates are among the highest spending international visitors, and East London is geared to give them world-class functions.
“We can hold large conferences, accommodating up to 2,000 delegates in cinema-style seating,” said Francois van Zyl, general manager of East London Regent and International Conference Centre (ICC).
“We cater mainly for local events but are seeing a growing international interest.”
The ICC’s success, since opening in 2010, is reflected in its turnover, which has consistently improved, and 2018 was its best year to date.
The SA National Convention Bureau’s research indicates that there were nearly 900,000 business visitors in 2017, supporting 250,000 direct and indirect jobs.
An Allied Market Research (Mice Industry by Event Type: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20172023) valued the global Mice industry at $752bn (R10-trillion) in 2016, projected to reach $1,245bn (R17-trillion) in 2023.
Van Zyl said the ICC was an ideal venue for international conventions.
The venue, aside from 2,000 seated delegates, had seven large breakout rooms and an exhibition facility, which takes 90 exhibitors.
East London’s biggest challenge to harvesting the big spends was the air-flights.
In 2018, the airport handled 1,700 passengers a day.
In 2019, this dropped to 640. It means visitors for even small conferences have to stagger their arrivals and departures.
The May 8 elections will give the ICC a boost. It is booked out as the hub of the Eastern Cape local elections and the national elections.
Although the venues will be almost empty most of the time, security dictates that only accredited people are allowed in.
This includes two adjudicators each from 15 parties.
While the ICC delivers an international-class service, from rooms, food and facilities, international conference organisers are continually challenged to produce events that are both professionally run but also out of the ordinary.
Van Zyl says East London was ideally equipped to meet the demand.
“The city can outweigh most of the competing cities.
“Within 30 minutes travel from the city is East London Golf Club, inside the top 20 SA courses, the start of the Wild Coast, a game reserve and several traditional village experiences.
East London Golf Club caters for small meetings to 500 conference delegates.
“We market aggressively within East London and to the large SA cities but we are very keen to extend our reach overseas. We have the facilities and the hotels can provide the beds, with B&Bs taking up the smaller groups,” said food and beverage manager Lindy Lottering.
Exact estimates of the importance of Mice vary but according to South African Tourism, nearly 900,000 international business people visit SA annually.
At the recently held Meetings Africa symposium, arranged by the National Convention Bureau, business tourism brought in R115bn.
In addition, a third of firsttime business visitors returned to SA for a holiday, many with their families.
The city is ideally equipped to meet demand. It can outweigh most competing cities