With the cooperation of the newly-formed African Tourism Board and as part of the push to grow business tourism and MICE across Africa, industry professionals and public-sector tourism officials will be attending a three-day Africa Business Tourism and MICE Masterclass in Johannesburg, South Africa, from June 13-15, 2018. This is an innovative Continuing Professional Development (CPD) initiative being convened by key Africa Tourism Partners (ATP) with the support of key industry stakeholders including Grant Thornton, SAACI, SITE, Voyage Afriq, and the African Tourism Board.
This gathering is a blueprint designed to help move African tourism economies’ focus away from over-reliance on leisure to business tourism and MICE. “Hosting business events has to be one of the focal points of transformation in the tourism sector across Africa,” said Kwakye Donkor, CEO of Africa Tourism Partners. “It means direct tourism contribution to our economies through optimization of the entire tourism value chain. Therefore, tourism leaders and policy-makers in Africa have to start paying attention to this sub sector, if we are serious about increasing tourism’s contribution to Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in our respective countries,” Donkor stressed.
The partnership between conveners and supporting partners aims to educate and inspire the meetings and event industry in Africa, and to further the missions of African countries, particularly in relation to driving innovation and creativity in growing tourist arrival. Chistelle Grohmann, Director at Grant Thornton, notes that the Masterclass offers attendees from private and public sector the opportunity to upskill themselves, while learning more about global trends and best practices from experts associated with ICCA, SACCI and SITE. “We’re really enthused by this initiative as it will help all stakeholders to share fresh perspectives on Business Tourism and MICE across Africa,” said Grohmann.
Speakers include industry experts Rudi van der Vyver – CEO of SAACI; Esmare Steinhofel – Regional Director, Africa ICCA Africa Office; Jeffers Mariku – President of Society of Association of Executives (AfSAE), Kenya; Prof, Adesoji Adesugba – Vice President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Nigeria; Nomasonto Ndlovu – CEO, Limpopo Tourism Agency; Miller Matola, CEO of Millvest and Former CEO of Brand South Africa; Tes Proos – Crystal Events, Africa and immediate Past President of SITE, Southern Africa; and Emeritus Professor, Ernie Heath, University of Pretoria. More expert faculty members will be unveiled in due course.
To register to attend, kindly contact: Ms. Thembi Mthembu: [email protected] or +28 82 806 6251 or visit their website.
Africa Tourism Partners (ATP) is a solution-driven Pan-African strategic marketing, brand management, MICE business development and advisory services company. As a company specializing in strategic marketing in the travel, tourism, hospitality, aviation and golf sub-industries, Africa Tourism Partners’ core areas of expertise are Strategic Marketing, Brand Management, Sales and Marketing Representations, Staff Training, Capacity Building, Investment Facilitation services and MICE-E (Meetings, Incentive, Conferences, Exhibitions and Events).
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, ATP has country offices and key partners in Angola, Botswana, China, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Singapore, Scotland, Tanzania, UK, USA and Zimbabwe.
