SAACI PRESENTATION TO

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• SAACI PRESENTATION TO
• PARLIAMENT
• PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TOURISM
• 7 FEBRUARY 2012

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• SAACI
• Southern African Association for the Conference
  Industry

• Formed in 1987
• Members representative of all role players and
  service providers in business tourism industry
• 4 Provincial Branches KZN, NTB, WC EC

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• Vision
• To be the one voice of thebusiness tourism
  industry
• To be a recognised partner to the public and
  private sectors
• To be the conference / meetings association of
  choice

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• Mission
• To empower people whilst continuously developing
  sustainable business tourism in Southern Africa

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SAACI MEMBERSHIP
KZN Members 192 NTB Members
540 Eastern Cape Members 69 Western Cape
Members 290 TOTAL 1091






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SAACI MEMBERSHIP (Continued)
2011/2012 fees Individual members 300 R1
360.00 per person Company A
members 277 R3 580.00 per
company Company B members 14 R10
650.00 per company Patrons 7 R27
450.00 per company






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STRUCTURE

• National Board 16 Members
• Composition/Portfolios
• National Chair
• Vice Chair
• Treasurer
• General Manager
• Secretariat
• 4 x Branch Chairs
• 7 x Forum Chairs

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SAACI ORGANOGRAM
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FORUMS

1. Conference Events Forum
2. Venues Forum
3. Exhibition Forum
4. Destination Marketing Forum
5. Technical Forum
6. Transport Forum
7. Services Forum

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Forum Objectives

• CE Accreditation Professionalism
• Venues Pricing and Standards
• Destination Educating provincial bodies and
  approach
• Technical Marketing expertise training
• Transport Contribution within conference market
  importance of relationship
• Services Small entrepreneurial possibilities
  education of market
• Exhibition Importance of Confex affect on
  congress

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Tourism Growth, Development and Transformation

• Growth and Development
• SAACI provided input into the National Tourism
  Sector Strategy (NTSS)
• SAACI provided input into the Draft Tourism Bill
• SAACI will provide input into the National Events
  Strategy draft
• SAACI is an active member of the Tourism Business
  Council of South Africa (TBCSA) the umbrella
  organisation for the travel and tourism private
  sector in South Africa

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Tourism Growth, Development and Transformation

• Quality Assurance
• Tourism Grading Council of SA (TGCSA) SAACI
  reviewed the minimum grading criteria for
  conference facilities and including universal
  accessibility
• SAACI members are encouraged to be graded by
  TGCSA

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Tourism Growth, Development and Transformation
(Continued)

• People Development
• National Tourism Careers Exhibition an
  initiative of the Department of Tourism SAACI
  participated to promote the events/meetings
  industry as a possible career path for Grade 12
  learners
• SAACI Youth Development through SAACI Branches
  annual industry student bursaries
• SAACI membership supports the employment of
  interns for practical experience
• SAACI is involved with SSETA and the development
  of certification and designations for event
  co-ordinators and event managers

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Tourism Growth, Development and Transformation
(Continued)

• Service Excellence
• SAACI hosts educational sessions alongside
  Meetings Africa topic to address Service
  Excellence in the industry - Department of
  Tourism has been invited to participate
• Responsible Tourism
• SAACI is a founding member of the Events Greening
  Forum and serves on the Board
• SAACI is a signatory to the Fair Trade in Tourism
  SA (FTTSA) Code against Child Sex Tourism and
  Trafficking in South Africa

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Tourism Growth, Development and Transformation
(Continued)

• Business and events tourism
• SAACI members continuously bid to attract
  international events / meetings
• SAACI members are encouraged to work in a
  coordinated manner to attract international
  business, eg. cities should not compete against
  one another
• Support of the newly formed National Convention
  Bureau Executive Manager serves on the SAACI
  Board
• Strengthening and encouragement of the
  accreditation of SAACI PCO members

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Tourism Growth, Development and Transformation
(Continued)

• Business and events tourism (Continued)
• Future accreditation for members of the Forums
  representing these sectors

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Tourism Development, Growth and Transformation
(Continued)

• Transformation
• SAACI promotes that all SAACI company members
  become B-BBEE compliant membership application
  form requests B-BBEE certificate
• Tourism BEE Charter SAACI participation and
  input
• Mentoring of new entrants into the industry to
  create an environment of nurturing to serve on
  SAACI structures

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CHALLENGES

• ACCURATE STATISTICS
• Lack of accurate statistics for Business Tourism
• Fragmented and quality of business tourism
  research
• International Congress and Convention Association
  (ICCA) rankings (2010)
• SA ranked 36 out of 93 countries
• Total of 345 cities
• CT ranked 46 with 41 meetings
• DBN ranked 181 with 10 meetings
• JHB ranked 206 with 9 meetings

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CHALLENGES (Continued)

• B-BBEE
• B-BBEE skills, education training
• Services Seta slow processes for funding
  applications and no feedback
• Current punitive regulatory environment is not
  conducive for small businesses

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CHALLENGES (Continued)

• B-BBEE
• Establish an education fund to be used for the
  development of identified students / graduates in
  the industry
• Associations could be effectively used as
  channels for transformation and job creation

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CHALLENGES (Continued)

• COMPETITIVENESS
• Competitiveness of tourism products services
• Bridging fund to bring international events /
  meetings to SA
• Visa waiver
• Closer working relationship with SAA for
  competitive group fares
• Impact of excessive transport costs, eg. road
  tolls
• Value of experience and in-service training not
  understood or appreciated

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CHALLENGES (Continued)

• PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR DIVIDE
• Business tourism is not fully recognised by all
  Government departments as a bona fide GDP
  contributing sector of tourism
• Draft Tourism Bill and Draft Domestic Tourism
  Growth Strategy excludes business tourism
• Public and private sector divide when bidding and
  hosting

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CHALLENGES (Continued)

• PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR DIVIDE
• Lack of collaboration within all Government
  Departments, tourism authorities and agencies and
  SAACI
• Short lead-times for meetings and feedback into
  Government documents

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• Thank You