Growth and expansion ahead for CTICC

During the year ending June 30, 2006, the centre hosted 454 different events, including 35 international and 40 national conferences, 25 consumer exhibitions and 13 trade fairs.

Many new, successful events were launched or re-launched last year at the CTICC, such as the Cape Town Boat Show, the Cape Town Book Fair, The Natural and Organics Expo, the Whiskey Live Festival, and the Professional Beauty Trade Fair.

The centre also hosted a number of important events which in its three-year track record have become important repeat clients of the CTICC such as the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the World Economic Forum on Africa.

One of the 35 international conventions that took place during the year was the 2 500 delegate World Convention of Principals, in July 2005. It was the very first event to have been booked at the CTICC - the booking made even before the first brochure of the centre was printed five years ago.

The total number of conference delegates during the year rose 9% on the previous year. Together they spent 1 190 000 “congress delegate days” in Cape Town.

“This number is important because it directly relates to the economic spin-off of the centre,” said CTICC managing director Dirk Elzinga.

During the 2005-2006 financial year, the CTICC contributed R1.3bn to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Its contribution to the local economy becomes even more apparent once the 5 400 jobs that were created are taken into account,” said Elzinga.

Of the total, 2 343 jobs created were direct jobs within the CTICC or with its immediate suppliers and business partners in Cape Town and the Western Cape. The balance of 3 058 indirect jobs created included many in the tourism sector and in provinces other than the Western Cape.

The average occupancy level of the CTICC exhibition halls last year reached a level of 43.5%, with an exceptional occupancy of over 70% in some periods during the spring and autumn. “While such a high occupancy might be prosperous on the short term, in the long term it will discourage international events from coming to Cape Town due to facilities already being taken by regular clients,” said Elzinga.

Denis Skeate, acting chairperson of Convenco, the holding company of the CTICC in which the City of Cape Town, the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and SunWest International participate, said the high occupancy clearly indicated the need to start planning seriously for the future expansion of the centre.

“At this moment, we are in the process of adding another 1 200 square metres (12%) to our exhibition space,” said Skeate. “This extension will be situated on the ground floor of the new Convention Centre Tower office complex that Spearhead Properties is presently building on the Heerengracht side of the CTICC. This new exhibition space will soon be added to our existing Hall 4.”

The additional space will be used for the first time during the International Diabetes Congress in December but will be handed back to the construction company for final finishes in the first couple of months of 2007.

A major expansion to almost double CTICC’s present exhibition space is planned on a site presently occupied by the Customs House on the other side of the neighbouring freeway. Discussions between the Department of Public Works, the City of Cape Town, the Provincial Government and Convenco are in full swing about making this site available to Convenco for its expansion plans.

“If everything goes according to plan this expansion should become available at the end of 2009,” said Skeate.  The first user of this new facility could be FIFA, to accommodate its International Broadcasting Centre for the World cup Soccer in 2010.

The financial year 2006-2007 promises to be a bumper year for the CTICC with several record-breaking meetings taking place in Cape Town.

Elzinga anticipates reaching a number of targets set in CTICC’s original business plan, including seeing an average of 1 000 delegates attending international congresses.

“The other target was to accommodate 30 of those events per year, and it is already clear that we will end up way beyond this figure. As a result, Cape Town’s accommodation sector is experiencing one of the best years ever, with hotel occupancies, even in the traditional quiet winter period, at well over 80%.”

The accelerated further growth in the popularity of the CTICC is due to larger conventions having much longer lead times than smaller ones.

“During the past three years Cape Town benefited enormously from more than 100 international meetings that were able to book at the newly opened CTICC with relatively short notice. From now on we will be seeing more of the large international conventions, with 3 000 or more delegates, heading towards our city.”

This year these include the 3000-delegate International Conference on Blood Transfusion which took place in September, the International Society of Urologists in November and the International Diabetes Federation in early December. CTICC has been booked for a number of “mega” conventions almost every year between 2008 and 2014.

“The future indeed looks bright for Cape Town as an international convention destination,” said Elzinga.

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