Govt sets up convention bureau

Business Reporter
Government is setting up a National Convention Bureau whose aim is to attract more Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) business to ensure that the country’s major conference centres are utilised, a Cabinet minister has said. Addressing delegates who attended the inaugural MICE business forum on the first day of the ongoing Sanganai/Hlanganani Expo in Harare last week, Tourism and

Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi said the bureau should be in place within a month.
“The African continent is lagging behind in terms of MICE destinations that are attractive to tourists and as Government we want to ensure that we have a functional NCB within the next month.

“We have a number of other conference facilities in Zimbabwe such as the 18 000- seater Zion Christian Church facility in Masvingo province that have the potential to attract more MICE business,” he said.

The minister also cited the Midlands conferencing venue that is situated in the outskirts of Gweru, which is currently being underutilised.

Executive director for the South African National Convention Bureau Mrs Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo said the SANCB was on the right track with regards to attracting MICE business to the country through sound marketing strategies.

“In the context of MICE tourism, Cape Town has seen a marked improvement regarding the number of visitors who now frequent the area for purposes of conferencing and to date out of the 116 conferences that the country has hosted, Cape Town accounted for about 38 and we are very happy with that development,” she said.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said that establishment of the NCB would spearhead the development of business events which are a key driver of destination development.

“NCB is meant to spearhead the development of business events and previously we have been running a department under ZTA that was responsible for MICE and we believe we must move with modern trends and emulate others like South Africa.

“South Africa has now established within the South Africa Tourism Board an NCB that is a strategic business unit, and basically that is what we must do in order to effectively achieve this chief goal of attracting MICE business,” he said.

The MICE business forum also comes at a time Government has committed to transforming the semi-permanent structure that was used as a conference venue in Victoria Falls during the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly in August into a permanent structure.

The project is expected to cost about US$6 million while US$1,5 million is expected to come from Government with the balance expected to come from the private sector.