34th SAACI Annual National Congress 2021
19 May 2021

MEDIA QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Question: How Has COVID-19 impacted Tourism in Johannesburg, and how has the city responded?

Answer:

· We have seen business events, scheduled to take place in 2020 being postponed to 2021 and 2022, respectively. In this regard, 69% of business events were postponed, 22% were       cancelled - with 9% converted to be hosted virtually on digital platforms.
· The impact of the pandemic on all of us has been immense. From a Johannesburg perspective alone, prior to it taking hold, our City had recorded just above 4.2 million visitor           arrivals,  while achieving fifth (5th place) in the top 10 city destinations index in the Middle East and Africa. This is according to Euromonitor International 2019. In the aforesaid     rankings, the city follows Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Mecca (Saudi Arabia), Medina (Saudi Arabia), Cairo (Egypt) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).

· During COVID-19, the City embarked on the following interventions for the tourism sector:
(i) incentivising tourism grading for accommodation establishments.
(ii) supporting both signature and emergent events to improve visitor numbers.
(iii) incentivising JOC for MICE activities with meaningful economic impact.
(iv) placement of tourism ambassadors at sites and attractions to address visitor information and safety needs. A collaboration with JMPD to focus on improved visitor safety in tourism hotspots is also underway.
(v) supporting new tourism investments and business expansion through tourism investment linkages.
(vi) implementing programmes that will create access to market in relation to tourism - business linkages are currently being conducted as we speak.
(vii) a three (3) month disaster relief rebate on Municipal Rates and Taxes (between 01 August 2020 and 30 November 2020) was extended through the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA). This was advertised on notice boards and websites.
(i) the Visitor Services Programme is in its final conceptualisation phase prior to implementation to ensure job retention and creation. This intervention is being established to support the sector to retain jobs and avoid layoffs through the City’s EPWP.
(ii) facilitated beneficiation of 360 SMMEs from the National Tourism Relief Fund.
(iii) on 14 April 2021, the City of Johannesburg approved its first independent tourism strategy. With the primary focus on both tourism demand and supply, business tourism is one of the new niche development areas.
(iv) a decision was taken on 03 September 2020 to re-establish The Johannesburg Tourism Company as a single purpose vehicle for the tourism sector in Johannesburg. This will facilitate maintaining a competitive pace and being able to respond to real time opportunities. To this end, a Board was appointed on 10 February 2021 to execute this responsibility and the entity will be operational from July 2021.
(v) the City of Johannesburg works continuously to ensure compliance with the tourism industry safety standard protocols in collaboration with the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, SAACI, FEDHASA and SATSA – this as a means of responding to the level adjusted strategy in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

Question: How significant is it for Johannesburg to be hosting the 34th Annual National SAACI Congress at this time?

Answer:
Staging this 34th Annual Congress is viewed as an integral instrument to restart business tourism in Johannesburg.
As host city, and in collaboration with our industry partners, Johannesburg is thrilled to be providing the platform for not only “Changing Gear – Inspiring Change”, in line with this year’s SAACI National Annual Congress theme – but also as a role player in building confidence in business events, along with industry learning, growth and collaborating.
· Joburg is indeed the right and ideal destination to be seeking opportunities for networking, identifying future business prospects and collaborative initiatives.
· We are proud to have been awarded this bid and to be the Host City of such a significant business gathering during this period where we are gearing towards restarting tourism.
· In line with the prioritization of achieving increased visitor arrivals in the city and contributing towards our growth targets, the City of Johannesburg’s strategic objective in relation to       tourism is to promote Johannesburg as a leading lifestyle and business destination in Africa, with a global competitive edge, thereby helping to:

•  Improve seasonality, length of stay and tourist spend during visits to the city. In 2018, Johannesburg witnessed an improved average length of stay of 10.7 days for international visitors and 2.7 days for domestic visitors. Average overall spend per Johannesburg tourist was pegged at R8 471.00, reflecting a 7.4% average annual growth and achieving R43,7 billion tourism expenditure in Johannesburg. We need to get back to this growth trajectory and together we can, in collaboration with business and the private sector.


•  Improve a diversified tourism offering in the city by means of enhancing tourism supply and catalysing demand to effect tourism multipliers.


• Build a positive image for the city amongst domestic, regional and international target markets as basis of good reputation management.


• Be an all-inclusive, job-intense, resilient, competitive and smart economy that harnesses the potential of its citizens, using tourism as an enabling key economic sector in respect of the Growth and Development Strategy 2040.

Question: Please outline the current CoJ administration’s approach to Tourism and what special milestone will be achieved today at the 34th Annual National SAACI Congress?

Answer:
· While promoting Joburg as Africa’s premier business and leisure tourist destination on all marketing platforms, locally, regionally and internationally – as the current administration we are dedicated to creating enabling environment to achieve economic growth and improve investor confidence in Johannesburg.
· The 34th Annual National SAACI Congress also marks a significant milestone for the City of Johannesburg – the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry.

· This remarkable collaborative arrangement will serve as a strategic intervention to turn around business tourism and help the city improve its economic performance in relation to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions or Events (MICE). It will be implemented over a period of three years with effect from the date of signing to achieve common goals intended by both the public and private sector of the destination to improve goodwill and competitiveness. As the Executive Mayor of the City, I am making an undertaking right here in front of all industry patrons that I am available to endorse all catalytic MICE initiatives that will result in job creation and SMME development. I am doing this as a sign of ensuring goodwill to partnerships of this nature with organised business.

Question: Please provide more details on the elements underpinning this MOU between SAACI and the CoJ.

Answer:

· As a strategic MICE intervention, the collaboration to be entered into today, will be underpinned by the following elements:
o Co-Bidding and Mutual Co-ordination – the creation of joint bidding activities for key identified conference/conventions for the City of Johannesburg. A Joint approach with SAACI members will be developed to ensure that Destination Johannesburg increases its number of hosted business events. Identification of clients where the city would be of interest, followed by the creation of joint proposals/bids highlighting or based on synergies between SAACI members and the City of Johannesburg - with legacy benefits through working together.
o Enterprise Development – the creation of a full Business Events Value Chain, which will form the framework of a dedicated Business Events incubation system or programme. This will develop entrepreneurial capacity and also grow innovation organically in-line with the future needs of the industry.
o Research, Statistics Analysis and Intelligence - analysis of studies focused on industry trends, security (risk analysis), governance (impact of policy that may influence how business events are managed in the future) and defence (terrorism). This will include identifying opportunities for both the City of Johannesburg based on current leads and existing collaborations with SAACI.
o Business Events Promotion and Sales Activity – the collaboration will identify how association buyers and industry decision makers are educated on Destination Johannesburg, with the aim of forging long-term relationship development.
o Work Opportunities – establish job creation programmes in the business events industry is a key part of the collaboration.
o Youth Learning – access and utilisation of the SAACI On-Line Academy matched through Masterclasses which will be developed within the parameters of the MoU. The unemployed graduates and youth active in the business events industry will be considered in the development of this programme.
o Joint Collaboration for MICE Strategic Initiatives – through agreements/MoU’s with partner associations, a joint implementation of high impact initiatives will be embarked on.

Question: And are you confident about the outcome of this collaboration?

Answer:
· If we embark on this journey in spirit of collaboration with positive intentions, Johannesburg will improve its MICE competiveness in Africa and globally. As a result of this partnership, we should be able to improve on our International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) annual ranking. 2019 saw us in 6th place after Cape Town (South Africa), Kigali (Rwanda), Marrakech (Morocco), Nairobi (Kenya) and Cairo Egypt). Watch the space - we are working towards becoming market leaders through partnerships like this because we need to remain globally competitive to attract MICE business.

Question: How are you ensuring that the City remains ahead of dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and the potential threat of the third wave?

Answer:

· City Clinics will be used as second phase rollout vaccination centres.
· Joburg Tourism is in partnership with TBCSA (Tourism Business Council of South Africa) and FEDHASA (Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa) in ensuring compliance with tourism safety standard protocols, as well as
. Effective implemention of City interventions in line with the National Tourism Recovery Plan as earlier stated.