Boost for Durban as city secures Aids conference again

DURBAN has won the right to host the 2016 International Aids Congress – and will make global history by becoming the first city to stage it twice.

The announcement was made yesterday by mayor James Nxumalo and the bid partners.

The city first staged the congress in 2000.

“It is a massive coup,” said James Seymour, the chief executive officer of the Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau, which co-ordinated the successful bid. “And to host it twice is an amazing achievement.”

Durban beat London and Istanbul to host the event, which will attract an estimated 20 000 international delegates, making it the biggest conference ever to be staged in the city. The 2000 congress brought 15 000 delegates to Durban.

The Aids congress will be worth a conservative R700 million to the region. And about 2 400 jobs would be generated or sustained as a result, Seymour said in an interview earlier this week.

The prevalence of HIV/Aids in South Africa and the fact that Durban was a leading centre of HIV/Aids research was definitely a contributing factor to the city clinching the congress, he said.

Not only would there be a significant economic benefit from hosting the global event, but the congress would also touch at the very heart of a health challenge facing the world.

The bid had the full support of the national Department of Health, the national convention bureau,

1st… The International Aids Congress to be held in Durban in 2016 will be the first time that the conference has been held twice in the same city.

15 000… The number of delegates who attended the first International Aids Congress in Durban in 2000.

20 000… The number expected to descend on Durban for the 2016 congress.

R700m… That is a conservative estimate of the economic benefit to the region. Nxumalo, city manager S’bu Sithole and the provincial government.

Key players in the South African business, tourism and convention business are ecstatic about winning the bid, including Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Thulani Nzima, the chief executive officer of South African Tourism, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Michael Mabuyakhulu, and Nxumalo.

Sithole said the prevention of HIV and Aids was one of the country’s most important challenges.

“This unfortunate disease is significantly stifling the economic development potential of South Africa, the province of KZN and the city of Durban,” he said.

“The International Aids congress will be a key tool to assist us to deal with and continue to raise awareness of this key pandemic, which is so prevalent in our city and the immediate rural surrounds.”

Julie-May Ellingson, chief executive officer of the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, praised the team effort that had gone into securing the conference and said winning the bid underscored the reasons why the venue had been rated as one of the top convention centres in the world and as the best meetings and conventions venue in Africa for the past 11 years.

Sadha Naidoo, chairman of the Tourism KZN Board, pointed out that 20-40 percent of the 20 000 delegates were likely to return as leisure tourists.

Business event tourists were often converted into much-needed “word-of-mouth” ambassadors for tourists considering a destination, he said.