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 Africa business 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.
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